Pearls of Wisdom - Year 1968 Inspired in Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet ****** Contents ****** 1 El Morya - January 7, 1968 2 Lanto - January 14, 1968 3 Paul the Venetian - January 21, 1968 4 Serapis Bey - January 28, 1968 5 Hilarion - February 4, 1968 6 Nada - February 11, 1968 7 Saint Germain - February 18, 1968 8 Lord Maitreya - February 25, 1968 9 Mother Mary - March 3, 1968 10 Jesus Christ - March 10, 1968 11 Jesus Christ - March 17, 1968 12 Jesus Christ - March 24, 1968 13 Jesus Christ - March 31, 1968 14 Jesus Christ - April 7, 1968 15 Jesus Christ - April 14, 1968 16 Jesus Christ - April 21, 1968 17 Kuthumi - April 28, 1968 18 Kuthumi - May 5, 1968 19 Kuthumi - May 12, 1968 20 Kuthumi - May 19, 1968 21 Kuthumi - May 26, 1968 22 Kuthumi - June 2, 1968 23 Kuthumi - June 9, 1968 24 Saint Germain - June 16, 1968 25 Sanat Kumara - June 23, 1968 26 The Goddess of Liberty - June 30, 1968 27 Saint Germain - July 7, 1968 28 Meta - July 14, 1968 29 Rose of Light - July 21, 1968 30 Chananda - July 28, 1968 31 Godfre - August 4, 1968 32 Prince Oromasis - August 11, 1968 33 Mighty Victory - August 18, 1968 34 Jesus Christ - August 25, 1968 35 Gautama Buddha - September 1, 1968 36 The Great Divine Director - September 8, 1968 37 Nada - September 15, 1968 38 El Morya - September 22, 1968 39 Mother Mary - September 29, 1968 40 Lord Ling - October 6, 1968 41 Goddess Meru - October 13, 1968 42 God Meru - October 20, 1968 43 El Morya - October 27, 1968 44 Kuthumi - November 3, 1968 45 The Great Divine Director - November 10, 1968 46 The Great Divine Director - November 17, 1968 47 Archangel Michael - November 24, 1968 48 Archangel Chamuel - December 1, 1968 49 Archangel Raphael - December 8, 1968 50 Archangel Uriel - December 15, 1968 51 Jesus Christ - December 22, 1968 52 Saint Germain - December 29, 1968 ****** Chapter 1 El Morya - January 7, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 1 - El Morya - January 7, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS I A Fifteen-Point Program of Assistance to Mankind To Chelas of the Chohans - Greetings! Swiftly fly the sands through the glass of the hour. Hierarchy ponders valiant assistance to mankind. Confused humanity raises hands of hope. A new year begins, and short is man's allotted span in which to rectify centuries-old errors. Now come the chohans of the seven rays: (1) power and faith, (2) wisdom and illumination, (3) love and beauty, (4) ascendancy and purity, (5) healing and supply, (6) ministration and service, (7) transmutation and diplomacy.{1} The first seven weeks of the year, dedicated then to messages from each of the chohans of the rays, will set the tempo of hopeful progress for the coming days. I begin. In the name of Almighty God and by his loving hopes for each of his children, let us deal with general and specific matters of import in order that we together may accomplish great things in this year of transcendent service. In the world of men who, it must be acknowledged, are all at varying degrees of attainment, one finds various motivations lying behind the desire to serve. The divine thought must be examined in order that motives may be purified and then tied to divine sources of greatness and strength. Thus the acts of many among men will move as God directs to form a union of cosmic effort that will prevent the energies of the children of God from being dissipated in many contradicting avenues of religious expression thereby - through error, personal idiosyncrasies and ambitions - minimizing the effectiveness of the power of God upon the planetary body. Without a doubt, a great deal of good work that is done in the world is motivated in self-righteousness. Because the self is the motivator, it is extremely difficult for the individual to separate himself from the desire or the need for the return of gratitude to himself for his service to life or to individuals. Such expectancy, save when it is the expectancy of courtesy, is a hindrance in the accrual of good karma by the individual; for verily those who expect a reward from mankind have their reward, whereas those who do all things for the glory of God and without expectation of return deem it an act of divine grace that they may serve holy causes.{2} These, then, trust that the return of virtue which they have sent out will be to the Godhead and for the magnification of good throughout the world and toward all humanity. The phrase "Peace on earth, good will to men"{3} is a fragment of infinite law which renders its own assurance to the disciple that in universal expression universal love is best served. It is not that the hierarchy has aught against individual expressions of love to one's own closest associates or families. This is to be expected and not to be denied. We are speaking now of world service and of cooperation with the cosmic hierarchy. Who can deny the needs of this hour or of humanity? Who should? It is our earnest desire to render the following assistance to mankind individually and collectively as they are able to respond to the ministrations of the heavenly hosts: 1. To step up the level of individual service in order to provide for greater clarity of understanding to men of lesser comprehension; 2. To set forth in a most desirable manner the higher teachings of cosmic law for those who are able to grasp them; 3. To create more stable ties with the hierarchy through our cosmic outposts in the world of men; 4. To introduce new levels of integrity, justice, and faith in government and business and in religious, scientific, and artistic endeavors; 5. To assist those who have seen or experienced little of the heavenly kingdom by amplifying the power of Godly vision among men; 6. To develop the spiritual nature of all peoples in order that they may experience greater joy in carrying out the will of God wherever and whenever they are called upon to serve; 7. To sustain faith in those who yet must walk by it; 8. To meet the spiritual needs of mankind at all levels of consciousness; 9. To promote peace and understanding in order to accelerate the manifestation of cosmic purpose; 10. To utilize renewed interest in extrasensory perception and matters of the Spirit in order to direct the seeker toward the unfolding of his latent divinity rather than involvement in a search for the phenomenal; 11. To elucidate further to mankind upon the great story of the cosmic hierarchy; 12. To build mighty pools of reserve energies as reservoirs of spiritual power which can be used by the disciples of the ascended masters in their service to mankind and for the blessing of all life directly from the retreats of the ascended masters; 13. To secure new dispensations from the Karmic Board that will feed these energy pools and embodied individuals connected with the hierarchy with sufficient power and cosmic know-how to externalize the plan for the year; 14. To encourage all, even the downtrodden, to keep high their faith in the ultimate outpicturing of the glory of God right while perceiving the absolute necessity to counteract the ignorant manifestations of mankind involved in their excessive materialism, the use of psychedelic drugs, dissonant music and art forms, and vain pleasure-seeking to their own hurt; and 15. To integrate the whole man in accordance with the original divine plan. My key recommendations then, which as chohan of the first ray I give to everyone in this new year of 1968, are (1) to cease absolutely from protruding the personal self as the acting power in spiritual service and (2) to surrender the personal self to the Holy Christ Presence and the mighty individualized I AM Presence, the divine image which God made for each man to be the only acting presence in the life of the individual. Then, when individuals can understand that it is not themselves who act but God who acts through them, there will be less inclination or desire to seek for a reward or for recognition by mankind. Thus the shadow of the self will not opaque the light that God desires to have shine as a city upon a hill{4} from every individual upon the planet who has the capacity for this understanding. Man, then, will walk in the crowded places of life and the Spirit of Almighty God will shine through him. His eyes will not be full of condemnation for himself or for his fellowman, but they will be centered upon the perfection of the almighty Presence of God in his life. His eyes will perceive God and emanate his light unto all whom he meets because he will have developed through spiritual attunement that renewed sense of the immanence of Almighty God in his flesh form. The form is only the vehicle through which the light of the Presence does shine, overflowing its precious essence into the world of men. The abundance of the manifestation of the Presence can be stepped up as easily as one steps on the accelerator of an automobile, causing an increase in the speed of the motor; but each individual who uses this law must be careful to see to it that there is no sense whatsoever of the personal self as the doer. When God alone is called into action by the disciple as the power of invisible (and therefore invincible) service to one's fellowmen, wherever he walks, the roses - in a spiritual sense - burst `round his feet and release their perfume into the atmosphere. This is the perfume of infinite harmony - this is the spirit of cosmic tranquility and victory. This is the immaculate concept in action. And I tell you, there is no more valiant power that can be externalized in the world of form. It is greater by far than the power of the atom, for it is the power behind the atom that as divine love in action flows from the Central Sun magnet into the chalice and forcefield of the individual and then out into the whole universe as the return current of that love which God foreknew from the beginning. This is my message for the freedom and accomplishment of the divine will in self and among friends. I AM your advocate of good will, El Morya ****** Chapter 2 Lanto - January 14, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 2 - Lanto - January 14, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS II The Duty of the Practical Man of God Blessed Lovers of Truth, Wisdom focuses. Expansion of consciousness is benign when it is accompanied by an expansion of the nature of God from within. As the flower of reality unfolds in space, it is well that the divine nature should expand coequally with man's grasp of natural principles. Unless these keep pace with one another, there is always danger to the ego that it will wreak havoc not only with itself but also with others. Man was not created to be a serf. Yet, to serve the needs of others and to feel that completely harmonious humility which is so much a part of the divine ideal is also to feel the great silent, throbbing flow of power that is given to every dedicated son of heaven in order that he may carry out the aims of the Father among mankind. There is a wide gap between men's desires for achievement and the externalization of their desires in manifest action. One of the greatest deterrents to effective action is the desire for recognition. Therefore, wise is the man who will dampen his enthusiasm for self-acknowledgment, seeking rather to enhance his qualifications in service. Excellence is naturally admired, and when one concentrates upon the manifestation of excellence rather than upon getting attention from mankind one frees his receptor mechanisms in order that divine principles can be grasped and then put into action as the duty of the practical man of God. There is something about the word duty that incites rebellion. Men and women should learn to govern such tendencies that so upset their little worlds. It is never wrong, when running in a race, to fall short of the mark; it is wrong to lose hope. For races are run every day, and what one fails to accomplish on one day may be won on another. Remember, one's wind is strengthened in striving for the victory even when he finishes at the tail of the lists. The Brotherhood, in their magnificent outreach for world service, concur that if all of mankind's beautiful energies of aspiration together with their noble aims and good intentions were to be harnessed and put to use as cosmic investment, the Lords of Karma could no doubt be prevailed upon to secure from the great regents in the Central Sun a grant of cosmic energy to this planet which would literally heave the evolutions thereof into a new niche of achievement. This action would mean the temporary setting aside of a portion of mankind's karma whereas the immediate and long-term balancing of this debt will necessitate the burdens of travail and much painful growth. Jesus' statement "Except the days [of tribulation] should be shortened, there should be no flesh saved"{5} and his promise "But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened"must be understood in the context of current world crisis, world karma, and world attitudes toward deliverance. Bear in mind that all of the negation in manifestation among men and upon the planetary body is the result of human creation, human propensities, and human inertia or misdirected momentums. At the same time it cannot be denied that the sinister forces and the dark ones - by reason of their very parasitic, vampire natures - will attempt to rob mankind of his heritage of good wherever they can and to divert for their own use the flow of God's precious energy released to man each moment. Both of these trends must be reversed ere mankind's salvation can draw nigh. And it is the responsibility of all who call this planet home to see that these conditions are reversed. The play of negative radiation upon mankind directed from the astral belt gains entrance to his world through his untutored mind, his uneducated habits, and his carelessness in the allocation of his natural, heavenly resources. Without necessarily attempting to examine these forces, they can be scattered if not completely nullified. Many times individuals feel it necessary to engage in a bout with negation whereby they draw forth a countermanifestation of spiritual strength to resist the forces of negativity which attempt to unseat them. There are times, it is true, when this is necessary and the only effective means of relief; but for the most part a great waste of effort and energy can be avoided by simply affirming the presence of God in one's life and refusing to entertain an imperfect concept, an aggressive suggestion, or even the sense of struggle. In most cases it is true that the student can sense the play of negative forces that seek to disturb him. The warning of early detection can often avert the rending of one's spiritual garment of protection (the tube of light, which may be shattered through the introduction of discord into one's world). The act of expanding the God flame from within in the ultimate gesture of absolute rejection need take only a moment but it can accomplish great protection for one's lifestream. Now, as we draw the curtain upon the night side of life, let us turn to the glorious aspects of cosmic adoration and gratitude. It is an absolute cosmic truth that when the students learn to fill their minds and beings with gratitude to God for just being and with adoration of the benign nature in spiritual octaves in natural manifestation and in the hearts of people, that a literal shower of blessings will descend upon those who thus adore and express God-gratitude. The principle of exchange whereby man rises in his consciousness to say to the Father, "I will assume my place upon your throne [three-in-one] of manifestation and bestowal as you assume my place in flesh form," can produce an attitude of consciousness which will make him aware of what may be called the peculiar situation of the Divine. Truly, the unity of the Divine is unique, and it is a lofty position of giving rather than getting. Man - accustomed to receiving - unless he consciously enter into the heart of God, can seldom realize what it means actually to enjoy the great blessings of bestowing and giving to the universe the best that is in him. As the year advances, it is the hope of the chohans that Wisdom will perfectly teach her children how to employ all of the wonders that nature and science have provided them in order that the tides of negation may be reversed in the world order by a more correct use of the artifacts of contemporary civilization. Television, visual aids, new techniques of sound and musical instrumentation can and should be employed for the highest good. The gradual and steadfast application of cosmic principles in the social order as well as in individual lives can assure not only contemporary man but also his posterity the greatest blessings possible. The bane of Communism, of crime, and of horror in the world can be minimized and eventually put out of existence as men gradually fulfill the purposes of their Creator. Devotees of these principles must not only experience higher and transcendent good, but also they must practice it in faith, honor, and charity whether or not they actually sense its ever-present reality. The chohans are making a very determined effort to assist mankind in these first seven weeks of direction. We submit that acquisition and use must be balanced insofar as knowledge goes. The students who for many years now have had great outpourings of knowledge from the ascended hosts must see to the building up of the Brotherhood's activities upon the planet, enabling our work to be put forth in magnificent art forms, visual aids, and cosmic light shows, seizing the torch from those despotic thieves who have sought to preempt the plans of the Brotherhood and assisting the light-bearers of the age to send forth rays of hope to those who sit in darkness everywhere. All religion should be an attempt to push back the darkness of the night and to extend the bonds of brotherhood and humanity to a waiting world. Condemnation and struggle should cease. Goodwill and fellowship should increase. Yet, we cannot permit the entrenched solidity of dogmatism, in condemnation of our followers' supposed heresy, to deter them from accomplishing all Christ-good in the world community. Forward we march in God's name. Lanto ****** Chapter 3 Paul the Venetian - January 21, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 3 - Paul the Venetian - January 21, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS III The Development of the Spiritual Senses Gracious Lovers of Beauty and Perfection, The spectacle of art attracts relatively few people because the soul of the artist must enter into the beholder and only the few are capable of making this attunement. Unless this occur, quite naturally men's interpretations often belie the universal message which true art is intended to portray and the real meaning of the work is not appreciated; consequently, it cannot hold the attention of the viewer. Now the need arises for all men who devote themselves to cosmic principle, who desire to see the salvation of the age rather than its destruction, to consider how they may best serve the Brotherhood. If we are to be honest we will have to admit that the works of most artists in the fields of painting, sculpture, and music are clumsy and coarse by divine standards. Far too many of their creations are framed out of lower astral horror rather than in the joy of the Magnificat.{6} We can understand the value of realism to depict the depths of degradation to which civilization has fallen in order to spur noble countermeasures, but we deem many of the outer forms in contemporary vogue to be nothing more than a surrealism of horror and distortion. Yet our critique is not destructive. We warn that we may teach. The school of reality is the school of cosmic apprehension where one seeks to define the divine rather than merely to mold substance or to control sound. Harmony within the components of a work of art is as important as the harmony of the total work. Sculpture can be frozen harmony and architecture a crescendo of the mind of God. We seek through cosmic impact of pure art forms to rupture mankind's regrettable resistance to spiritual things. The fact that Christianity has failed to exercise the fullness of its mission and, in its detours and circuitous routes, presents the face of deviousness to mankind is no reason for spurning it. Yet, untutored minds and hearts - in the frenzy of rejection and the desire to replace their broken idols - turn unwittingly toward the sordid and the bizarre. When men are unable to enthrone the Most High within themselves, they enthrone themselves within their concepts of the Most High. Making no pretense at hypocrisy, they surround themselves with it. Call the Divine Creator by any other name than God, he is still the same - the summum bonum of all good manifesting from "the beginning" and shedding light upon his own purposes as well as upon the purposes of mankind. The consciousness of man was originally endowed with the plasticity of harmonic acceptance of each divine matrix or thoughtform. The response was the eclectic magnification of the peaks of joy. When men lost hope in unseen glories and turned outwardly rather than within to affirm the real, they felt the prick of foreign objects upon the matrix of consciousness. At first this distortion was uncomfortable, but as devious patterns became implanted in consciousness the dutiful faculties of nature quickly molded themselves around them as easily as they had embraced the pristine elements of their divine origin. Thus, through habit, mankind found comfort in the familiar albeit the imperfect world he had superimposed upon his true inheritance. The rebellion of the spirit, then, must be understood as the rejection of the distortions of past-age concepts, the heaving of the soul to shatter the clay mold that encases its identity. Men should reexamine the fabric of the eternal garment and mend the broken threads, weaving into the robe of life the energy of light wherever darkness doth appear. While the flaws of loomed textiles are not easily mended, men and women working with spiritual substance and cosmic ideas find the natural flow of light able to perfect the seamless garment and to heal all disturbances in the psyche of man. Men must, of course, recover their faith and refine it in order to draw forth the omnipotent stream that will render their solar bodies{7} flawless under the scrutiny of the all-knowing eye of God. But what magnificent potential exists in the consciousness of the individual who considers for the first time that the renovation of his person is a most practical possibility. Unfortunately, orthodox religion has implanted in mankind's consciousness concepts of vileness and sin to replace the beauty of the lily of his immaculate conception in the mind of God. As miserable sinners, men can only lament their lot, having scarcely any room in their hearts to let the divine appear within. We do not deny the gross errors that have been committed on a world scale or the personal errors that individuals have perpetrated in their own worlds, often ignorantly and many times with only half knowledge of the consequences of their acts. But no continuing good can come to the advancing soul who seeks to hold the hand of Christ, of light, of creative energy by drawing in past participles of an old grammar. The ever-new Word must impart to man the hope that marches over the obstacles of the past to a new sense of the beautiful. One of the problems of contemporary men is that they are seldom willing to consider the abandonment of their whole forte of knowledge. They have created a leaning tower of Pisa and they cannot contemplate its ruin. Better far to destruct all of man's wrong matrices at once and to rebuild from the ruins upward than to continue to deal with an unwieldy structure. We do not favor the destruction of individuals or of opportunities but rather the destruction of that which was builded in error.{8} Thus we sound a note of warning. The many benign qualities that were placed with good intention in the construction of the leaning tower can be kept intact and used in the new structure after their purification by cosmic light energy. Fear not, then, to seek to understand the ethereal, to develop a sense of the pastel colors,{9} of the gentle colors, of the swirling radiance of a swaddling garment of light. Know, however, that this light that is the light of God that never fails holds within its nature a crystal clarity and spiritual purity that is without alloy. Aught that depresses, smothers, suppresses, or draws man downward into conflict may well be the psychic dominance of others. In this connection it should be understood that art wrongly used can become a key to Pandora's realm. The opening of that box - that rectangle (in this case "wreck tangle") of distorted consciousness - can never be enlivening toward good. The new sense of cosmic joy, like the sun's radiance upon sparkling waters, speaks of the nature of fluidity in motion, of flow, of regeneration, of vast-domed bubbles shimmering upon a splendid moment with all of the colors of the rainbow. The age has been dark and heavy, the lives of the saints have been stilted and stultified with mortal concepts, and the shoddy facade of the social world that outwardly seeks to portray great class ever lacks the nature of true grace. As the chohans ponder what impetus can do more for each of our chelas, we seek to portray in this seven weeks of our cosmic effort the thoughts that we feel will most marvelously advance man's consciousness and his adventure in living. What tremendous import there is in the development of the spiritual senses. The old senses must pass away to give place to the new. Transmutation, transcendence, and transfer all speak of translucence, even of transparency; for the idea of seeing through a glass darkly but then face to face{10} is always the miracle of a moment when opacity yields to translucency and translucency to transparency. The thinning of the veil and the clarification of nebulous concepts together with their reduction to orderly simile will provide mankind a golden rule by which he may measure his doings - his goings and his comings - and his progress in a universal sense. May I say, then, in closing that the media of this age provide new and beautiful avenues for the sensitive artist to externalize - whether in his life or upon canvas - products of new hope as charity to a waiting world where the starry eyes of children beam in the promise of a future that in God's name we must make nobler than the past. Raise the world to Christ's glory, Enfold the world with Christ's story, Reveal the hidden that is within, Forget the sordid sense of sin, Forsake the shadow and unreal, By light's perfection mankind heal, In cosmic beauty's rainbow seal The children of good hope. Lovingly in the beauty of creation, I AM Paul the Venetian ****** Chapter 4 Serapis Bey - January 28, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 4 - Serapis Bey - January 28, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS IV The New Order of the Ages Begins Blessed Pure in Heart, The old order changeth. The new order of the ages begins. But, like the brilliance of the Holy Grail, the cup of purity and oneness changeth not. Individuals in their search for values dare not gaze on the specter of the contemporary, but rather should their gaze be fixed upon the face of the Ancient of Days.{11} Side by side did enter by the gateways to the centuries shadow and flame; and the twain in the world, set before young and old alike, seemed to present a conflict of choices whereas, in reality, to the pure in heart who shall indeed see God{12} there is never a question of choices. Too frequently mankind behold the passing cinema of world events in blacks and whites. Therefore when I speak of the gray tones, it is to illustrate the need for balance in assessing the world of contemporary man where the silt and the white sand of men's accomplishments mingle midstream in the onrushing tide of human endeavor. The white sand, like sparkling diamonds in the brilliance of the noonday sun, must be separated from the grains of error and that misqualification which, while it has seemed real, has always been illusion. What is the miracle promise in fairy tale and folklore that has gladdened the eyes of children? It is but a well-done counterfeit of the real - a painting, partially descriptive, whose splendor brings delight to those whose vision has not yet widened to behold the ranges of a higher perspective. The senses must be perceived as chaliced instruments fresh from heaven's realm. Ever-new delights await them: the eye to be gladdened by pure color tones, pastel rainbow hues, and purest light; the ear by sound crescendos, mingled solemnity and joy crashing mid universes in the Macrocosm as pebbles in the universal sea harmonically fulfill each movement. As above so below. Now the sense of time and modernity seems to dangle the world at the pinnacle of achievement where new values must replace the old. Yet I say unto you in the name of the Spirit of the entire Great White Brotherhood, the dearest values, the most tender stories of hearts entwined by love and purity, rest in the misty vales of time. And well might the men of this age learn of courage and valor, of externalized hope, of selfless devotion to a cause, and of that purity of heart which sent many a knight in days of old in search of the purity of the Grail most holy. The dividing of the way is also the togetherness of the way. For the spiritually elite are those who, in praying "Thy kingdom come,"{13} perceive the coming moment of spiritual victory as their own. The awful sense of individualism apart from divine origins and purpose, like the sadness of a death that could be real, penalizes the seeker for individuality by dividing him from the glowing whole of life through his own untutored acts. There is no moment so beautiful, so pure, so lovely as that in which the individual, as a shining dewdrop, slips into the sea of divine oneness. The ingenuity of heaven has prepared the miracle of individual consciousness to receive within its own cup the infinite ocean, and there is no time nor space nor value that is placed out of the reach of the valiant spirit who is dedicated to the reunion of the spirits of just men made perfect.{14} The ivy-covered halls of the world, its myriad universities and ancient alumni, hold but finite promise of a shining moment that is soon lost in the halls of memory. But the achievement of the Son of God, who passes through the veil of mortal illusion and stands face to face with the great blazing reality of Self, leads to that entering into association with the immortals which is incomparable. Because of the shallowness of man's consciousness in this age and the lack of preparedness stemming from the awful brainwashing which false religious conceptions have afforded him, we cannot overstress the need for a new grasp of purity as it is seen through the eyes of God. The statement "Mine eyes are too pure to behold iniquity"{15} clearly reveals to the perceptive that God refuses to look upon man's imperfect creation - not as an ostrich with head in the sand, but as a fire phoenix of divine reality whose blazing consciousness has always rejected the incomplete. His bruising of the serpent's head by the heel of the Divine Manchild, the Christ, was effected in order to stamp once and for all upon secular knowledge the seal of cosmic wisdom as the supreme ingredient which the aspirant must have in order to walk the pathway and to avoid the pitfalls that captivate the unwary. The capacity of the Holy Christ Self, then, to be able to hold consort with the highest perfection of God while simultaneously mediating with the imperfect nature of man is proof that the light possesses the capacity of foreknowing the actions of men's vanity and yet that it averts the gaze and holds its conception of man ever high in that purity of heart which is the heart of God. The fact that men may aspire to do likewise shows that there is a means of reproducing the fires of perfection in the old crucible of man's mortally appointed rounds. The saddest story ever told by the stains of history lies in the perversions of a defrauding dogma, an egoistic madness, and that ignorance which, gazing everywhere in creation, beholds the handiwork of God and yet strives by mortal wizardry to deny him. But there is hope in the young in heart at any age who can gather out of a just perception of the world order enough sense of miracle and wonder to desire purity of heart above all other conditions. Thus, through the magnetization of this lodestone of everlasting life, they do grasp eternal principles that, living in the now, live also in the future as they have in the past. The earth was made to rise, and man was also made to rise. Evolution could never take place on the physical plane without also taking place at spiritual levels. The seesaw of mortal vacillation - dipping the mass consciousness into impurity, delusion, witchcraft, variance, idolatry, and pessimism - must be shed as a serpent's skin and the consciousness - slithering no more in the sinuous carnal nature - must cry, "Halt, in the name of purity!" to the belief that the world of appearances cannot be overcome. "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world"{16} must ring true in the bell tone of man's adoration. The search for purity, as for snow-crowned peaks, must go on because God's will is joined by men below and the rainbow cycle is complete. The heart of man that is the biding place for the threefold flame of God is a spiritual heart positioned in the etheric form. Its electronic pulsations command obedience in the four lower vehicles and, by the resonance of unity, hold rhythm with the very heart of God.{17} "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," is the command of this year. Fear not those who seem to have power for a day over outer conditions but rather build your lives out of the substance which has framed the realm of God-achievement (that self-luminous, intelligent energy of light's perfection which is obedient to the will of God as you invoke its manifestation within you). The ascended masters are real. They walked as you do Upon this globe terrestrial. They stand for your freedom In realms celestial. As mother-of-pearl, The swirl of pure light Wends its way to a brighter day. The dust of the road, by Spirit holy, From your abode where meek and lowly Stirs the fire of purity's desire, Flashes forth the arc of victory! Heaven bears you faith as you daily pledge your hearts anew. In the grandeur of the heavenly view of purity, I AM Serapis ****** Chapter 5 Hilarion - February 4, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 5 - Hilarion - February 4, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS V Accumulations of Age-Old Errors Challenged Lovers of Good Health and Divine Abundance, The trenchant accumulations of age-old errors in diet, in medicine, and in man's understanding of his right to God's abundance continue to exert a full measure of hindering pressure upon the manifestation of greater abundance, peace, harmony, joy, and love for all of the children of men. Having allowed this state of affairs to go unchallenged, men remain, as they have often called themselves, their own worst enemies. Dare we hope that the student body will exert a united effort and, with the backing of the entire Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood, sweep away some of these imperfect concepts without further delay? Do you know, precious ones, that there are many who fear to enjoy the beauties of life, who refuse to be happy simply because - through feelings of guilt, self-condemnation, or littleness of mind - they do not deem themselves worthy to receive the abundant gifts of the kingdom which it is the Father's good pleasure to give to all?{18} Do you realize that, with all of the miracles of medical science and its tremendous scope of proven achievement, psychological and sociological pressures involving remuneration continue to result in unethical practices both in medical science and in the drug industry? Do you realize that hospitals have steadily escalated their fees, having less and less regard for the well-being and healing of the patient and placing greater and greater emphasis on mechanical efficiency? Do you realize that the entrenched system of organized medicine continues to suppress the natural healing methods even in those areas where the common denominator of public opinion has overwhelmingly forced the issue and produced a relative state of freedom to those who practice the healing arts according to more natural methods? Can you understand that the ecological factors of noise in the homes, streets, and byways of life create a tremendous impact on the nervous systems of mankind, causing neurosis and at times an overwhelming sense of fear which may be recognized in many as the first stages of insanity? Men and women rush to and fro as scurrying mice, seeking the haven of home only to be deprived of the quiet their beings crave. Those young souls who have come lately into the world - having no comparison in this life with better days, no memory of a higher frame of reference - are unable to summon from within the necessary defenses against the overpowering social pressure to accept the material world as real. It is therefore absolutely necessary in the name of a just science that a divinely oriented humanism proscribe{19} standards of moral conduct that uphold the integrity of the soul of man which is being polluted by the evils of a wayward generation.{20} Those who are qualified to lead the youth by reason of superior education and experience must continue to strive to make the world a better place in which to live by applying golden-age teachings by the golden-rule standard. Those in the religious community whose tune has been "This world is not my home" should realize that their reason for living is to find their spiritual freedom as well as their economic freedom right here on earth by making the necessary cosmic adjustments that, through the miracle of true Christ-love, will teach mankind that they are indeed their brothers' keepers. The challenge to overcome is flung not to the present moment alone but to the future - to children yet unborn and to generations whose hopes stem from their strong tie to the practical considerations of life and from their link to the present as well as to the future. Contemporary men should consider the products of their own acts, then, and make necessary provision for the future in science, in government, in economics, in international fellowship, in philosophy, and above all in spiritual understanding, the threads of which do come full circle to embrace all of the humanities. Heaven has sought by the power of divine law to inspire mortal bards with immortal inspiration. The concept of durability and everlastingness is the Creator's answer to man's gnawing sense of frustration about his inabilities to overcome sickness, a sense of sin, disease, unhappiness, and his involvement with the scum of human creation. All experience is intended to teach mankind the supreme worth of the golden rule to draw the lines of human conduct and to raise mankind up the ladder of life to the place where the science of the Spirit stands beaming its promise of a more glorious hereafter. This promise includes the world all around you; it exists right within it while pointing to the haven of light beyond with its unseen glories and transcendent future. And thus through simple reasoning the natural glory of God can be pondered as inherent within the many facets of living. The symbol of our science is the golden orb of wisdom applied. Unless men of the Spirit shall be heeded, the course of the world will continue to run downhill; for the untransmuted nature of men fosters the expansion of old fears of loss and the reviving of fears of the future which manifest in the present as greed. All that pits men and women against one another and causes them to feel enmity with their brethren is contrary to Christ principles. Yet today, adherents of the world's religions, displaying their fruits by their actions, far too frequently demonstrate a blatant hostility toward those whom they think do not follow the same threads of doctrine as they do. As we set the tempo for the year ahead, then, it is to encourage those students of the light who will follow the avant-garde pathway of the ascended masters and hold out their light to shine before mankind to be fearless and to recognize that to move with the law of God - whether or not that law is contrary to human opinion - is to prepare for the coming kingdom which is hindered only because of entrenched error dwelling in the folds of man's consciousness and concepts about life. Secured by the door of a sturdy ego, men deny themselves the harmony of true cosmic love. This must be changed, and the science of the Spirit must be given voice. The miracles of material science have far less meaning to men and women who are caught in the tangle of the social jungle than they would to citizens of an ideal society where those who pursue the pathway of the Spirit were found worthy of the badge of courage, honor, and integrity. The disciples of the masters must prepare themselves this year to thwart the denizens of the darkness and to make a marvelous beginning that will never fail to appreciate all of the hopes of the sons and daughters of heaven. As hands of light, these hopes, extending down the corridors of the centuries, proclaim anew the old meanings of life and preserve those masterful qualities of cosmic science that shall reveal, as was brought forth in your recent conference at La Tourelle,{21} the full meaning of life as "Destiny not dust." Men must see the dual patterns of the Supreme One: (1) Christ's criterion for all men, the line upon which every master has walked, the plumb, tried and true, and (2) the line of action and accomplishment that results in the mortal harnessing of the immortal bestowing. What a beautiful thing true brotherhood is where there is no ulterior motive but only the purest, radiant desire for the expression of divine hope for all humanity made in the image of God. The agnostics cry out today against the trivia of this age, and quite frequently they take a stand for principles of the light. The atheists deny while the agnostics struggle to see. In our temple at Crete, we have determined to bring new meaning to life through the avenues of science and to stop the perpetual harassment of those forward-moving individuals who seek to assuage some measure of human grief. The abundance of God - the rich flow of the cosmic harvest into the granaries of karma as the accrual of kindness, love, and service - continue to pour good health, good cheer, good hope, and the abundant sense to all. God made no son or expression of life imperfectly framed and, therefore, all deserve the treasures of the divine heart. His peace and his light are the dawn of continuing opportunity for all. There is no reality in darkness, in frustration, or in a doctrine of final ends and hopelessness. There are no dead ends in God. Life is abundant. It courses through your veins, through the veins of the earth, through the cosmos, expanding cosmic rays. Life on earth, on Terra, still holds its developing challenges, and none dare ignore the responsibility of assisting their fellowmen in meeting them; for the fact remains that the time for this generation is short. We utter this not to incite fear, which has torment,{22} but as a spur to make men realize the great and glorious opportunities that exist in America, in India, and in the world community wherever there is a heart to receive a ray of hope and the will to translate that hope into a new-spun reality. While the stillness of winter lingers over the world, the warm golden hues of the sun are locked in the heart of bursting cells, of new seeds, of cosmic fires, and of the reality of that which men call "Thine is the glory." Come with me in thought into the abundant world, into the abundant life, and unlock the barriers whose foundations have been laid in unworthy tradition. I AM your exponent of cosmic abundance forever dwelling in you, Hilarion The Apostle Paul ****** Chapter 6 Nada - February 11, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 6 - Nada - February 11, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS VI The World Need to Be Loved and to Love in Return Beloved Servants of God, Just what is it, blessed ones, that ties your consciousness down to the heaviness of the world and the feeling of density that conceals the airy lightness of life? Is it your body, your environment, or your mind? Whatever it is, it ought not to be, for joy is the progenitor of service. Those who can develop a surging sense of joy that blooms in the heart and flows out into the world - commingling with nature, trees, shrubs, skyey vistas, waving grass, flowers, spans of water, and towering mountains - need nothing else than the magic carpet of the mind and spirit to feel a part of the world. Each of the chohans has pondered the fact that the stultification of man's desires for progress and harmony and of his longing for beauty occurs because of his lack of perspective and his unwillingness to admit that this lack exists. When new vision is vouchsafed to the mind and being, the pillars of hope begin to rise and in rising they buoy up the entire nature. And I think this to be one of the glories of childhood, that the child mind is less involved in the sense of the pressures of life and, therefore, it accepts more readily the beauties of the kingdom. I find no fault with the utterances of the other blessed chohans nor with their sense which accurately depicts the times in which you live. But as they have told me, I must contribute the pressure of my spiritual service as an offering, as a bouquet to the consciousness of those who await our releases into their worlds each week. How beautiful is the pause of rest when that rest is the rest of faith and confidence - the serene knowing that what now is lacking in manifestation, in life, in consciousness, will one day certainly be bestowed until the cup of life runneth over with it. Yet service itself is the means of entering into your reward, blessed ones, even while you live in the domain of mortal consciousness. There is no need for men and women to fear the world of the ascended masters or the so-called heaven world. Does the incoming babe, the little child - whose starry eye and cheery gurgle tug at each mother's heart - speak of regret for the journey into manifestation? The return to that cloud-capped realm where dwell the good and the beautiful made perfect in love,{23} when it occurs at God's appointed time, should never be feared; for did not Jesus say, "I go to prepare a place for you ... that where I am, there ye may be also."{24} And is there anyone who loveth the Father who does not relish the opportunity to be "with him in paradise"{25} even as the privilege of overcoming in the world of form is in itself an ennobling experience - fraught with danger, yet crowned with victory? My surety to you all, then, is that the love of the heavenly Father, as we know it, is a passion of indescribable wonder, and the divine romance a more transcendent love than anyone could ever know in any other sphere in which he might dwell. The world of form is a place of testing and trial where principles are put to work and brought to life, where souls are developed and fashioned in their Creator's design. Here the kingdom that God saw in heart and mind for the people of each inhabited globe is developed by the children of the sun as they toil with the bonds of purest love to effect their release from all density. By the cosmic principle of transmutative love, these act as handmaids and servants of the Lord to enfold the world in the swaddling garments of its heavenly infancy as it prepares to shed the blessing of progress upon the cornucopia of a future where God is, where man is, where life, triumphant life, is the passion of the free. Every angel, every cosmic being, every spark from the sun of infinity strives to express the best that he can at a given moment. Men and women in their ministrations must learn to be gentle with the unfolding flowers that God has entrusted to their care. They must recognize the tumbling burrs driven by the wind, with their sharp and piercing thorns, for what they are - abortions of the Father's love that will one day cease to express thus and will, perchance, become instead a thornless rose, a lily of the valley, a calla lily, or even a forget-me-not. The splendor of heavenly manifestation shining behind the dense structuring of the physical octave can be invoked all around you and most especially in the very being of man. As you teach the children of mankind to know more of heaven's offering, let your instruction have as its primary goal the freeing of the mind from its feelings of involvement with the densities of man's individual nature. When that nature called for individuality and God filled the cup of self, the cup of clay, with the water of life, it seemed as though the ocean had parted the cup and as though the little clay vessel could no longer experience the dancing of the sun upon the whole ocean of being. Consciousness was confused by boundaries it had not previously known, and these boundaries in turn took shape with the ebb and flow of the tides of individual selfhood. It is really so simple a thing to learn to fling the consciousness out into the world. But, blessed ones, you must also learn to hold the tethers of retainment to self lest you become a dancing, whimsical bit of fluff that tumbles without meaning over the rolling terrain of the world. All that you do must be for service, for purpose, for the expression of the divine nature within. And therefore, the safety of cosmic expansion must afford you the opportunity of understanding the need to go and the need to come - the need to go into the world that you may understand the world, to mingle that you may serve, and then to return that you may garner strength for another pouring forth of self in service. The mission of my predecessor as chohan of this ray (the sixth ray of ministration and service), your own beloved Jesus, remains unto the present hour. He is responsive to calls for assistance from the children of men, and his ear is attuned to their cries, as it always has been. When I was offered this post as he assumed that of World Teacher jointly with your beloved Kuthumi (Saint Francis) [1956], it was a beautiful, overwhelming opportunity. In our realm, although we may flinch momentarily from new cosmic offerings, we dare not refuse the opportunity to serve. When you need me, therefore, and you need the understanding of my love, as it is the expression of God's love in its great outreach to foster a sense of universal development, call upon me; for I am devoted to the world need to be loved and to love in return. This is not an empty love but an active love that participates in the unfolding of every flower of immortal opportunity to the sons of men. It is a passion that cuts the cords of ignorance that bind men and women to the round of the senses while throwing around their necks leis of infinite love that will bind them tighter than ever to real purposes, to cosmic friendships, to contacts that live eternally, to acts that endure, and to purity that enshrines. What more can I say than what I have already said, for greater by far than words in printed or spoken form are the active motions of my being as the God within me reaches out to contact the God within you, to tell you of the wonderful, miraculous, clarifying presence of the Holy Spirit that lives right where you are, to teach you the way to go, to encourage you to accept the righteous promptings of your conscience, and to develop the expansion of your consciousness. Truly, "as a rose unfolding fair wafts her fragrance on the air,"{26} you can pour forth devotion to God - everywhere, one with the cosmic ocean. In all whom you meet the spark lives. And when in you it lives to give more of itself, life illustriously expands its golden-age consciousness of the immortal rose that the soul of God is. Lovingly, I AM Nada ****** Chapter 7 Saint Germain - February 18, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 7 - Saint Germain - February 18, 1968 MESSAGES FROM THE SEVEN CHOHANS OF THE RAYS VII The Sense of Permanence within the Framework of Impermanence To All Who Would Preserve Freedom, Greetings! There is so much devotion and fervor being expressed on behalf of freedom in the world that it is most regrettable that the forces of opposition should be allowed to exercise such control - as they seek continuously for more - over the affairs of the people of this blessed planet. Yet, when we are invited by unascended men to assist the evolutions of earth in preserving their freedom, there is no power in heaven or in earth that can stay our hand. For every ascended being joins your beloved Jesus in his statement "All power in heaven and earth is given unto me."{27} But in the domain of the individual, personal prerogatives exert a tremendous influence upon trends of action. You will not mind, I am sure, if I smile just a bit as I say that many people consider themselves to be far wiser than they are. This complicates matters for those of us who are eager to bring to mankind, whom we dearly love, the fullness of that Christ-love and wisdom which will remake the world in the similitude of the kingdom of God. One of the major issues confronting the hierarchy today involves the fact that men, in their attitudes to life, are divided more or less into two camps: (1) those who live as though they had no stake in what happens here and were merely marking time, awaiting their entrance into a higher realm; and (2) those who behave as though they would live forever in exactly the same manner as they do today. The latter seek above all to maintain the status quo which, in truth, breeds stultification and inertia. We who are sincerely interested in the welfare of all human life, striving as we do to unfold the great latent God-identity of all peoples in all walks of life, readily admit that these two attitudes are much to blame for many of the untoward conditions existing in the world today. Those who would make the "other world" their home can scarcely wait to make their exit from the contemporary scene. In many cases, these are little concerned with improving their lot in this world or with leaving behind a noble example or worthy service to society. Those who wish to make this world their permanent home - and, in truth, if they could would live forever just as they are - are not at all concerned with their spiritual progress or a life hereafter. Each attitude has its drawback. With a view to correcting these mistaken concepts, I would bring a modicum of balance to the subject. I would emphasize that the freedom to choose is not always freedom as men conceive it. For only when men choose correctly according to the will of God and make those decisions which will enhance their opportunities to serve and to assist the progress of the race are they in fact free, and only then can we anticipate a joyous expansion of good for all. The chohans who have preceded me in their sixfold release of which this composes the seventh have had in their hearts, I am certain, the deepest desire to see the brotherhood of man become the brotherhood of God. In this I support them with the full momentum of my devotion to the freedom of all men under the Father's aegis and the reign of the Christ. The desire to be noticed by one's contemporaries is seldom as great as the desire to be noticed by historians. For the popularity of the times passeth away whereas mortal opinion is greatly concerned with the postmortem examinations of moldering events in the stream of time. There are many who are kind enough to render praise for my service in the writing of the Shakespearean plays.{28} However, there is a tendency in some quarters to place too much emphasis upon present cultural values without taking into account the need to examine the magnificent works of previous centuries which were written when the minds of men were less involved with communications media and more devoted to the content of material than to its distribution. I advocate, then, that the youth of the world should be taught some of the dashing cultural exploits of past literary genius and examine hero and heroine not as crumbling historical figures but as " living flesh and blood" which seems to surround them so happily today. In those bygone days the quaint homes, the family life, the salutations of the times, and the struggles for happiness were just as meaningful as any that go on today, and noble causes were espoused because individuals held a beautiful balance of the sense of permanence within the framework of impermanence. I would like those who are devoted to freedom to grasp this principle; for although all things are changing here and the changeless values of God remain fixed forever, the ark of the future enshrines the Shekinah{29} glory of a descending flame of freedom, a tangible vestment of hope which has come to free all people from bondage. The edicts of freedom live within the heart and being of man, and the chivalry that is the love code of heaven is tenderly placed in the hands of all who will reverently receive it and outpicture it. No knight or lady of old need have possessed a greater fervor or met a more dire challenge than do the men and women of this age. The fruit of science preserves all around it the relics of past ages including the full potential of its own destruction. The hearts of the careless and inconsiderate jar upon the beautiful hopes of the Lords of Opportunity, yet to man was given the dearest communications that the heart of God could frame. By night the stars flash forth their luminous torches to light the heavens and the earth beneath; by day the golden warmth of that blessed sun, Helios, mellows the atmosphere and raises the heads of tiny crocus and daffodil. The silkworm spinneth his thread, and soft raiment clothes the bodies of men. A torrent of words pour forth from the mouths of the intellectual supremists whose pride is wedded to their memory even as Freedom hides his head in shame for their conceit. For God, by the simplicity of the master Manchild, the eternal Cosmic Christ, has framed a banner-example for all ages to stem the tide of avarice, to exalt the pulsations of resurrection's hopes, to speak of destiny that holdeth dust in ordered consonance. Dear liberty, Wouldst thou, canst thou, The chastening of this wayward generation undertake? Perchance, a new colossus of direction Will give freedom limb and voice to make. The speed of lightning imprisoned give mankind While dimming hope flicks out some sputter With her gasping breath. 'Tis not too late if freedom's sons will rally, Raise the banner with determination To go forth and tread upon the serpent's head! O Christ, thou livest And each matron's son does share The hope of thy return Flaming through the air As freedom then reborn. Oh, come to every heart and knock. This is an hour, gracious ones, of deepest summoning when each one should ponder as to just what he can do for the cause of the light, taking stock of those precious assets which life has vouchsafed to him and placed within his very hands and power. We have seen instances where individuals whose physical lives were endangered (sometimes by the threat of the onward march of war, sometimes by water and then again by fire) would discard one by one all of their most treasured possessions - accumulations of a lifetime - in the hope that somehow they might sustain their physical lives. Today, the planet is in the throes of a death struggle which is not always apparent to the unobserving or the unalert but it cannot be denied by those observers of the political and religious scene who have the capacity to analyze the widespread degradations that go on among nations and governments, peoples and organizations. The promised newness of life that was captured so magnificently in the Christian concept of the Holy Family has been lost in a melange of Middle-Age darkness, Renaissance skepticism, and revolutionary class struggle. The dialectical materialism of the age that has spawned the wind - the careless wind, unleashed by thoughtless and selfish men - descends soon and often as a whirlwind to sweep away from their moorings those unanchored values which, because they have not been employed as divine talents, are taken away from those who have not used them.{30} Opportunity,{31} then, speaks this year to mothers and fathers, to grandparents, and to children who see for the first time the challenges of these times - to youth and age alike - to look well and to learn that the freedom you now enjoy is not taken from this generation and lost for many a one to come. Smart argument and wit Have often made a line of it, A smacking impact out of fact That seems so smug And yet does lack The balance of the cosmic law - Perfectioned mind without a flaw, Where love does balance wisdom's flame And power glows by God's own name. As the challenge of this day stands before you, remember well my words and inscribe them upon your heart, for I am the exponent of freedom for this planet for two thousand years and I desire with the greatest joy of desiring to say from the depths of my heart, Lord God of hosts, Lord God of hosts, Thou who hath strung out the Pleiades And gladdened eyes of little child, The wise and foolish all are thine - The cruel and the mild. There is no greater urge or goal Than holding freedom in the soul Of all the world and every man. Let us do, then, what we can And daily make an effort greater. By God's great love, let all walk straighter On the Path as freedom's friends - Beauteous hearts - who will defend Value line and worthy mission By the power of Christ-decision. Christ before me, light my way. Christ behind me all the day. Christ above me as I pray. Christ within me lives today. Freedom flame where'er he goes, Holy Spirit, like a rose, Opening its tiny bud - Its scent releases all thy love And hallows mind and being all By love's great service For which I call. In the bonds of freedom's love and valor, I remain Affectionately and obediently yours, Saint Germain ****** Chapter 8 Lord Maitreya - February 25, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 8 - Lord Maitreya - February 25, 1968 The Subject of Initiation Friends on the Summit Road, Thoughtless acceptance of the best gifts of life does not enable the student of divine mystery to take proper spiritual advantage of his God-given opportunities. Consciousness is an ever-flowing stream of energy which should be examined for its content and volume with a view to improving one's use of this greatest blessing to the aspirant. The subject of initiation seems to hold a great deal of mystery for the uninitiated. This awe of the unknown is compounded when his search for higher truth is hindered by unclear concepts. It is the will of heaven to bring to the mind of each aspirant the beauty of the divine nature. Those who would tear the veil from the face of nature may carelessly destroy the very beauty they seek to wrest from the sacred mysteries. A childlike trust, a deep-rooted faith, and a steadfast devotion should not be disregarded as the best means of developing the divine consciousness and a sense of the nearness of God. He who seems remote to those who are caught in a mesh of problems is in reality so close, so concerned, and so loving that his very closeness to the self makes it difficult for the self to acknowledge him. The greatest initiations and the greatest revelations of the sacred mysteries can be invoked through simple faith in the imminent possibility of deliverance from those conditions which seem so deeply entrenched that one could very easily consider them to be hopeless. Not so with God. As was spoken to Abraham of old by the angel visitant, "Is any thing too hard for the Lord?"{32} Yet men will acknowledge that they sometimes try to bargain with God, "You give me this, and I will give you that." This, by cosmic law, they cannot do. For when men tempt the law by making promises that they may intend to keep but then do not, they are the losers; for those who dispense the quality of mercy that is inherent within the law are bound by cosmic rules to search the akashic records and to observe the conduct of each applicant for mercy. Then, after examination of the personal history, the decision is made as to whether the best interests of the individual are served by the merciful act of withholding descending karma or by letting fall the arc of the law. Wise, then, are all who, in their erstwhile cosmic bargaining to enhance their positions, recognize the need to appreciate the blessings which life has already afforded them and not to be overly prone to complaint even when circumstances seem for a time to go against their best interests or what they think are their best interests. After all, who can say better than the Lords of Karma (who have at their disposal the complete file of the life records of every man, woman, and child on the planet) as to just how the soul is best served? Those who really understand the purposes of initiation are aware that in this day and age many of the initiations of the disciples are taken in the world outside of the temples of the Brotherhood. This means that those undergoing various tests may not openly see the hand of God or of the Karmic Board in the manipulated flow of their contact with various individuals and situations in which they find themselves, which may or may not be to their liking. If they could see what takes place behind the scenes they would be less inclined to react, as they sometimes do, to circumstances which are intended to create the opportunity for a flow of healing love to pour through them, blessing one or more lifestreams with whom they may formerly have been involved. Nevertheless, there are always those individuals who are reactors. Blinded by their own uncontrolled passions, they allow themselves to become upset over the unimportant or matters which they could not change in any case, thereby creating a springboard for the manifestation of recurring hatred or dislike. The opportunities of life that afford man the means to overcome in little things are intended to fortify him for those greater struggles that come at the apex of events to produce opportunity for what we may call the `giant leap' into the arms of divine identity.{33} The tendency of mankind to anthropomorphize various aspects of the Deity from time to time qualifies his consciousness with concepts which must be transmuted. While God, by the great wheel of his law, is able to make contact with man at any point in the individual life cycle and to intercede on his behalf and render magnificent assistance, man, by reason of his misconceptions of the Deity, frequently interferes with that assistance and prevents its descent as drops of mercy from on high. Wise, then, is the soul who learns to retain that natural plasticity of mind and consciousness which will keep open the door to his highest good. The ways of God are so much higher than the ways of men{34} that in expressing understanding they, too, frequently employ the old familiar idioms, neglecting to consider that in assessing the mystery of the Divine they must use the building blocks of a new language of the Spirit and a set of transcendental values. This language and these values must be inculcated into consciousness. They must be builded into character, and they must precede the manifestation of greater understanding. As we deal with the expansion of the consciousness of God (of man's awareness of God) in the manifest body of God on earth, we look to every religious activity and to every spiritual endeavor to further our aims and we gently lead by the hand those who are ready and willing to be God taught. But, alas, there is that quality of human pride in men which sometimes causes them to reject the highest truth simply because it does not come to them in a form or through a medium with which they are familiar and which they have already accepted. This attitude does not always promote the greatest progress. God, who works in strange and mysterious ways wondrous to perform, exhibits his love in both high places and low. To impute to a manifestation of his love any degree of negativity is an error, for the heavenly manna that falls upon the desert of self to make it to blossom as a rose cometh to delight the earth below in answer to a call and, although the vessel be lowly as the sandy floor of the desert, the manna is not. It is soul-nourishing, divine food upon which the fledgling strengthens his wings to soar to the greatest heights of attainment. Receive, then, the manna of the divine mystery as the beautifully contrived blessing from the high watch of the spiritual overseers who gaze out hopefully on the fields of man's experience, helping him to extract from those fields a harvest of qualitative grace. Such grace becomes sufficient for each day. For the hierarchy in these days of trouble upon the planet continues to show that now more than ever the nutritional value of the manna from above, of the word of divine delight, gives the courage to take one's stand with the hierarchy. This is increasingly important to each seeker for strength and illumination. The process of illumination, of initiation, of expansion of consciousness is never ending. It acts to convey each man, even as by the Spirit of the Lord, to that place in cosmic progress where his profit is indeed recognized by him as the obtaining of that greatness of soul which God seeks to convey - the best gift of himself, the pattern of that manifestation he so dearly loves. Our Brotherhood awaits the investiture of each aspirant with those white robes of divine righteousness, the beautiful symbol of true initiation. In His grace, I remain your humble servant, Lord Maitreya The Great Initiator ****** Chapter 9 Mother Mary - March 3, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 9 - Mother Mary - March 3, 1968 Shaping the Hard Wood To All Who Love Peace and Are Willing to Pay the Price, I urge upon every praying mother and upon every woman in whose heart there is a sustaining momentum of God's love to intercede to me during the coming weeks for a cessation of world conflict. Some do not know that, born of the necessity of mankind's own karma, the hierarchy has been forced to withdraw from interference in some of the war-connected activities. This has resulted in a temporary worsening of conditions calculated by heaven to dramatize, through the horror of war, the necessity to produce its permanent end. Surely the prognosis of peace can be seen in the need to wage peace rather than to wage war. This my son sought to convey to those around him and they in turn, in fulfilling the divine beatitude "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God,"{35} throughout all ages have obeyed his commandment based on karmic law "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart ... and thy neighbor as thyself."{36} It is an absence of love, then, an absence of respect, of consideration, and of faith in others - and a great lack of faith in one's self - that permits the attitude of war to enter the consciousness of mankind. Yet Saint Germain, your beloved friend of light, has said that soldiers who are forced into battle, who kill in the heat of battle without hatred in their hearts but out of a sense of duty and responsibility to comrade and country, are partially exonerated of the karma of war. This knowledge should give some hope to those whose sons are forced into these strange and uncompromising situations. The world situation as it is today is a breeding ground for violence. And it is to elucidate the law of cause and effect that we would point out to all that the effect of war cannot be mitigated in the realm of effects but only in the realm of causes. There are many agencies in the world as well as many individuals who are devoted to the cause of peace. These do not always understand that much of the preparation for launching warfare on a world scale is carried on every day as people continue to feed the stream of world thought with feelings of dislike, hatred, disgust, and misunderstanding of others. The accumulation of these loathsome errors is causative in the outbreaks of violence that stir the planetary aura. Now then, as solution to it all the magnification of ancient intents of becoming a son of God - a ray of the eternal sun, a fragment of the coals of the altars of heaven, a manifestation of the law in mortal form, an indissoluble link with the eternal nature - is the only means of establishing permanent ties between the domain of the world and the domain of God. The tranquility of heaven is the peaceful coolness of the Garden of Eden, a place in consciousness where thought can stand still and see the salvation of God, a place where thought can reproduce in the mind the creative energies that originally brought it forth.{37} Thus out of the creative fires of perfect love, which is that peace that passeth all understanding,{38} can changes be wrought in the person, and these changes can be as the changes that manifest within my son, the Lord Christ Jesus. Each and every person upon the planet who will attune with me can receive my ministration as a cosmic mother, my watchful care over their energies (which are indeed the energies of God), and my guidance on behalf of the Divine Manchild; for God longs to produce many sons and to bring them into captivity to his holy will. "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." Do you not see that peace must be forged by action? This does not mean the cessation of activity but rather a stepping up of the tempo of life's purposes and the exhibition of courage and grace in all that you do. It is never wise to attempt to stamp out violence by violence, as some say, "to fight fire with fire"; rather, quench the hot coals of hotheadedness by pouring the cool, refreshing water of life upon the burning, seething emotional vortex of man's devious energies. For the patterns of hate creation always issue out of the void where there is no love or understanding. I do not intend here to examine the entire fabric of world ethic as it represents or misrepresents the divine ethic, especially in regard to the complexities of war; for certainly, there are those who would agree with what I would say and others who would disagree partially or even in toto. Rather than explore the intricacies of the law with you in this release I say to all, this is an area in which you must find your own way. For if heaven sought to dominate your thoughts completely, you would, perhaps, reject the healing ministrations of our band and in your rejection hinder the progress of the entire planet; for it is by the acceptance and magnification of love, by the acceptance and magnification of peace, and by the acceptance and magnification of every Godly quality that individuals finally come to the place where they know that their treasure dwells within their hearts.{39} And it is in the heart of consciousness, in the heart of recognition, and in the heart of realization that the conceptions about life become fertile and expand. I recall one morning when beloved Jesus was yet a small lad that he came to me with a very hard piece of wood that he was trying to whittle. He desired that I should persuade Joseph to exchange it for a softer piece, one that would lend itself more easily to molding. I sat him on my knee, and I proceeded to explain to him that there was an ingrained quality that of old had been placed within the tree making one to possess a harder quality and another a softer quality. I told him that the soft wood would easily mar and that, were he to use it, the little image that he sought to whittle would not endure the knocks and tumbles that might later come to it whereas a carving made of hard wood would endure more substantially. I also told him that the wood enjoyed being shapened by his hands and that the only difference between the soft and the hard wood would be that of a greater use of patience on his part. He brushed back his hair which had fallen across his eyes and, with great and quick gentleness, planted a kiss upon both of my cheeks. I noticed a trace of a tear in one eye as he dashed away to continue his work of shaping the hard wood. Thus, "in your patience possess ye your souls";{40} for God works with people of diverse origins and perverse thoughts, seeking to restore all to their God-estate. Lovingly in Christ's name, I remain Your Mother of Light, Mary ****** Chapter 10 Jesus Christ - March 10, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 10 - Jesus Christ - March 10, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION I Unbroken Communion 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?"{41} 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.{42} 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.{43} 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 11 Jesus Christ - March 17, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 11 - Jesus Christ - March 17, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION II Unceasing Prayer Beloved Seekers for Wisdom, Think on my words, "He who seeks to save his life shall lose it."{44} 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.{45} 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{46} 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.{47} 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."{48} 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."{49} 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.{50} 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 12 Jesus Christ - March 24, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 12 - Jesus Christ - March 24, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION III Holy Prayer To All Who Seek the Resurrection: "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."{51} 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;{52} 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?"{53} 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.{54} 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."{55} 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;{56} 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,{57} 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. {58} 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 13 Jesus Christ - March 31, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 13 - Jesus Christ - March 31, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION IV The Light of Prayer 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. {59} 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. {60} 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."){61} 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 14 Jesus Christ - April 7, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 14 - Jesus Christ - April 7, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION V Prayer as Communication with Purpose 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.{62} "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.{63} 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!" {64} 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!"{65} For the radiant purposes of God's will in all, I remain and I AM Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 15 Jesus Christ - April 14, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 15 - Jesus Christ - April 14, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION VI Universal Prayer 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.{66} 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.{67} 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.{68} 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.{69} 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 16 Jesus Christ - April 21, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 16 - Jesus Christ - April 21, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION VII Continual Prayer 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.{70} 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.{71} 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.{72} Unless this be done, you cannot drink of the cup of which I drink or partake of the baptism with which I am baptized;{73} for there is but one Holy Spirit, and he manifests to all the knowledge of the Father. You are baptized into one body.{74} 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 ****** Chapter 17 Kuthumi - April 28, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 17 - Kuthumi - April 28, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION VIII Meditation upon the Rainbow of Light's Perfection 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.{75} 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."{76} 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.{77} For of a truth, just as the seamless garment{78} 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.{79} 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 18 Kuthumi - May 5, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 18 - Kuthumi - May 5, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION IX Plunging into the Ocean of God 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{80} 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 19 Kuthumi - May 12, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 19 - Kuthumi - May 12, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION X A Journey into the Temple Most Holy 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 crèche. 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.{81} 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.{82} 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.{83} 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 20 Kuthumi - May 19, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 20 - Kuthumi - May 19, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION XI The White-Hot Heat of Meditation 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{84} 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"?{85} 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.{86} 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."{87} 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.{88} 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 21 Kuthumi - May 26, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 21 - Kuthumi - May 26, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION XII Merging with the Impenetrable Light of the Atom Lovers of Universal Calm: Be still, O my soul, and know that I AM God!{89} 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."{90} 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 22 Kuthumi - June 2, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 22 - Kuthumi - June 2, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION XIII Universal Light Carries Man to the Altar of Transmutation To All Who Seek Him: The old phrase "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill"{91} 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."{92} 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.{93} 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.{94} 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.{95} 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."{96} 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.{97} 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;{98} 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 23 Kuthumi - June 9, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 23 - Kuthumi - June 9, 1968 PRAYER AND MEDITATION XIV "How Much of God Can You Draw Down into the Chalice of Self?" 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.{99} 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."{100} 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."{101} 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.{102} 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.{103} 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.{104} These are not worthy to unloose your shoe latchet.{105} 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."{106} 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.{107} 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.{108} 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.{109} 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!{110} 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 ****** Chapter 24 Saint Germain - June 16, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 24 - Saint Germain - June 16, 1968 The Power of the Spoken Word Gracious Friends of Freedom, When we contemplate methods of God realization, we dare not exclude the power of the spoken Word. For many years the so-called orthodox religions have used ritual and form, together with spoken mantras.{111} In the West these have been called responsive readings, for they require the response of the congregation, or audience participation. In some instances the prayers of mankind have become vainly repetitious and devoid of meaning; but I for one would rather see individuals involved in rote than enmeshed in the wrong kinds of vocalized expression. It is fitting that men should comprehend the proper use of decrees. Jesus once said: "Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."{112} Decrees are not careless words; they are careful words. And the patterns which we recommend are invocative of the highest good for man. Decrees are generally composed of three parts, and they should be thought of as letters to God: (1) The salutation of the decree is invocative. It is addressed to the individualized God Presence of every son and daughter of God and to those servants of God who comprise the spiritual hierarchy. This salutation (the preamble to the decree), when reverently given, is a call that compels the answer from the ascended ones. We could no more refuse to answer this summons in our octave than could your firemen refuse to answer a call for help in yours. The purpose of the salutation, then, is to engage immediately the energies of the ascended masters in answering the body of your letter to God which you so lovingly vocalize individually or in unison. (2) The body of your letter is composed of statements phrasing your desires, the qualifications you would invoke for self or others, and the supplications that would be involved even in ordinary prayer. Having released the power of the spoken Word through your outer consciousness, your subconscious mind, and your superconscious, or Higher Self, you can rest assured that the supreme consciousness of the ascended masters whom you have invoked is also concerned with the manifestation of that which you have called forth. (3) Now you come to the close of your decree, the acceptance, the sealing of the letter in the heart of God, released with a sense of commitment into the realm of the Spirit whence manifestation must return to the world of material form according to the unerring laws of alchemy (the all-chemistry of God) and precipitation.{113} Those who understand the power of the square in mathematics will realize that when groups of individuals are engaged in invoking the energies of God, they are not merely adding power by the number of people in the group on a one-plus-one basis, but they are entering into a very old covenant of the square which squares the release of power to accomplish the spoken Word by the number of individuals who are decreeing and by the number of times that each decree is given. We heartily recommend individual decrees to accomplish untold blessings in the lives of those who will discipline themselves in this ritual of invoking light to a darkened world. But group decreeing, when accompanied by an intense visualization of the good desired, is more efficacious on a world scale than individual decreeing and will result in a speedy response to those engaged in it, not only to themselves but also on behalf of all mankind. It should be borne in mind that whenever Good (God) is invoked in the world of form, surrounded as the world is today by a great accumulation of mortal effluvia, the Good (the light) that is released from on high in answer to the call (because of the high frequency of the vibrations of the light) is automatically opposed by the negative vibrations already existing in the atmosphere of the earth (because of the low frequency of these vibrations). Rhythm is also important in decrees. Proper rhythm creates a most penetrating projection of spiritual vibrations that will magnetize all over the planet the qualities of God that are being invoked through the decrees. The momentum of these waves that form undulating circles over the planetary body creates an intensification of light wherever devotees come together to participate in a like endeavor. The laws governing the manifestation and distribution of physical light also apply to the flow of the currents of spiritual light. Spiritual qualities are distributed around the planetary body from every radiating focus of ascended master love. Let no one feel, then, a sense of separation in his service to hierarchy; for by the power of decrees issued forth at any point upon the earth's surface, the currents of light, life, and love from the heart of God can be unleashed as electrical, radiating waves to make their impact in the world and bring back to the invoker the God-ordained response. The statement "Thou shalt decree a thing and it shall be established unto thee"{114} is an ancient maxim that sets forth the law governing decrees. For man, created in the image of God, has the selfsame power to actuate which was used by God "in the beginning" when he said, "Let there be light!" and there was light.{115} We know full well that individuals who come into our meetings and encounter these decrees for the first time without understanding the laws governing them or the beautiful results that can be obtained through their use can well come under the influence of certain negative forces and entities in the world that quite naturally are diametrically opposed to the use of dynamic decrees. Too frequently individuals who stress their desire for quiet meditation fail to take into account that there is a time and a place for quiet meditation, a time and a place for prayer, and a time and a place for decrees. All three can be used in religious service. All three can be used in the home, individually, or in groups, as one desires. But one form of worship is not a substitute for the other. We release this information in this Pearl of Wisdom because of the world need for the ascended masters' teachings on the subject. After all, consciousness is one. The individual who dwells in God can pour out his heart to God in prayer, in song, in decrees, or sit silently meditating upon an aspect of Deity. Thought precedes worded expression, or at least it should. Therefore, to meditate or to think upon God is one way of expressing him. Decreeing is another. When the children of Israel brought down the walls of Jericho, it was by a great shout,{116} a great use of the consummate power of divine energy. The sinister force has perverted this knowledge, which has been a part of the forte of the teachings of the Great White Brotherhood for thousands of years. The black power movement and some communist groups have taken to training young people in the wrong use of this law involving the power of the spoken Word. Their followers chant in unison and in rhythm, thereby summoning or magnetizing power and projecting it forth upon a vibratory wavelength that is charged with personal and group hatred. The effect of these momentums of mass misqualification can be disastrous upon those who encounter them; for when correctly used, this power did bring down the walls of Jericho. Because decrees are of such great benefit to mankind, we urge that those who in the past may have failed to appreciate fully the significance of decrees, those who may have taken a position against them, shall reconsider their stand in the light of the cosmic knowledge which I have herein released. Also, we recommend that the members of our sanctuaries and all who are connected with us through the Pearls of Wisdom shall make a very real effort to understand the facts concerning the subject of decrees. Decrees are synthesized manifestations of the heart flame of each one who decrees. Decrees draw together and focalize the power of the spoken Word, the visualization of the Christ mind, and the rhythm of the divine pulse. When you decree, you are releasing into space divinely qualified energy charged by your invocation with the power of the ascended masters which goes forth to do its perfect work for the amplification of the power of light upon the entire planet. I can say little more than that which was spoken of old: "Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."{117} The proper use of decrees takes practice. Individuals should not expect that the first time they make a call, the very perfection of the universe will sweep away all of the accumulated debris of their lives. Proper decreeing is an art; and as one gains greater proficiency, he will find it possible to speed up his decrees - that is, he will be able to speed up the rate at which they are given. He will also be able to understand what is taking place as he speeds them up; for this acceleration, by raising the rate of his own electronic pattern, throws off and transmutes negative thoughts and feelings in his world. Oh, what delight and peace you can bring to your family, to your friends, and to yourself through the proper use of decrees! What a boon to freedom! How gloriously the world can be changed for the better! After all, blessed ones, Nature herself is not always silent. God speaks in thunder, in lightning, and in the wind;{118} and the chattering of the many birds through the world, like the crickets in the swamp, certainly raises the decibels. By the power of the Word the earth was framed,{119} and by the power of the Word the freedom of man shall be dominantly asserted in God's name. Use your decrees! Fear not the opinions of men, for the hierarchy has spoken and those who heed will profit. For your valiant freedom in the light, I AM Saint Germain ****** Chapter 25 Sanat Kumara - June 23, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 25 - Sanat Kumara - June 23, 1968 The Space Within To the Children of Our Dear Sister Planet, Terra, The lovely Lady Venus and the spiritual hierarchy of our planet Venus are mindful of the love and devotion of the eternal Father which permeates the space between the many mansions{120} of God. These luminous homes of light, planetary orbs, housing the destinies of progressive evolutions, move onward through the grand halls of the galaxies as the diurnal movements of the spheres record the inherent cosmic impetus of the Father of all. We would direct a ray of light's perfection to the hearts of men. You seek to probe outer space. Your technology reaches for the stars. But I say to you with a solemn warning, neglect not the space that is within thee - the realm of self that requires the perfection of the eternal plan. You were fearfully and wonderfully made.{121} And I, as the Ancient of Days,{122} did long hold for men the immortal concept. Today - two thousand years after the birth of the great master, Jesus - the world, lingering still in the beautiful concepts he released concerning the fatherhood of God, does not recognize the androgynous nature of God. They do not consider that as Adam had Eve, so the heavenly Father in the eternal Virgin manifests a heavenly Mother - Isis unveiled, the Queen of Heaven, Mary the Mother of God. Every womb-man to whom is given the opportunity of bearing the eternal Manchild receives grace from the divinely feminine aspect of God, the Mother of the World. We include mention of the feminine principle in connection with the space within, for many are interested in reaching out into the material universe - the world of Matter and form - without understanding that the Spirit that interpenetrates all form and substance is the web of reason (the skeletal framework) that communicates and holds together the cosmos. Those who would explore the far reaches of space, both inner and outer, should understand that the Divine Feminine is the womb of creation which is impregnated with life by the Spirit of God. The material universe is the negative polarity whereas the spiritual universe is the positive polarity of the Godhead. Matter, meaning Mater, is the chalice which receives the invigorating, life-giving essence of the sacred fire. Thus the Father principle completes the cycle of manifestation in the world of form through the Mother aspect, and child-man is nourished by the balancing, sustaining action of life whose twofold nature is epitomized in the Christ. If a man tear himself from the luminosity of his own heart by outward seeking, he can become enmeshed in externals until the internal fiery world can no longer sound forth its reality. All things come, then, into position within the framework of the individual's chalice of manifest perspective. His temple is his universe which God infuses with life. God is the temple, and God is the fire that blazes on the altar within. The power to expand the chalice is the power inherent within a mustard seed. It does not matter that a man's faith is no greater than a mustard seed.{123} If he has the smallest fragment of God within, he can expand it, and because the potential expansion is limitless, there is no limit to where a man can go, to what he can become, when he has harnessed for himself the divine radiance that God has implanted within the seed of his heart. We reference not the physical heart, but the center of sovereign being, the seat of universal consciousness, the powerhouse of individuality. In order to live, to cognize, and to draw upon experience, man must possess consciousness rather than be possessed by fragments of the consciousness of others or by dream episodes and vain imaginings. There are places in the universe where the broken fragments of men's dreams are recorded, psychic happenings and unfamiliar glyphs stemming from broken lives and mortal failures. Some of these are all that remain of the grandiose schemes of men who held up the torch of knowledge for a time and then attempted to use the physical as well as the divine sciences to probe the universe by violence and to effect dominant control over self and others. The pall of their descending karma wreaked havoc with their worlds and many of them, as Saint Paul once said, made shipwreck of their lives.{124} Unfortunately, those who probe the nether worlds of the astral are often involved in dangerous states of consciousness that are equally dangerous to those materialists and pragmatists who see in Matter and the use of the intellect the only worthwhile ambition. The tenure of men's lives - the short span of threescore and ten - the brief period of efficient manifestation (for man is long a child and only shortly a man) should certainly prove the need for men to effect a transfer from the sense of mortality, of flesh and blood, of passing identity. God created the universe as a place of joy. In order to create natives to his own joy, he framed men in his own image. This image he implanted within them; it is recorded in the fire of the soul that it might never be lost no matter how far man might wander from his source. Through this image, the connecting cords of universal love reach out as the spokes from a hub - from center to periphery - and all things are brought into focus within the soul who seethes with good. Without grace it is impossible to please God. Without faith men cannot please him.{125} The space within needs development. The earth needs to be conquered not by superior might or by power but by the spirit of good.{126} Myriad religions formed for personal salvation have engaged men in a search for personal reality. But all who by karma yoga, the yoga of good works, have dedicated their lives to the enlightenment of men - teaching them that the kingdom of God is within them,{127} that the Christ lives in all - these have received not only personal salvation but also the joy of tending the Father's flock. The final admonishment of Jesus to Peter, "Feed my sheep,"{128} shows the importance that he placed on the work of the Good Shepherd. As the planetary flocks fill the heavens, so the cycles of evolution of the many planets in far-flung worlds are separated in time and space. The exploration of these many mansions of the Father is of little practical consequence to the man who seeks to expend his life wisely. We do not say that science will not in your time offer many new discoveries in space or that he who has prevented togetherness among the planets, having dispersed the sheep of his pasture throughout the universes, will not permit man to pass some of the bounds because his hand has sought to take heaven by force.{129} We recommend - rather than let the consciousness fly with it saucers, its imaginings, its extraterrestrial probes - that men will see (as we of Venus do) the need to perfect the world in beauty and in love, the need to put an end to turmoil and war, the need to educate properly the young and tender, the need to extend courtesy and grace to all peoples, the need to reveal the true religious aspects of universal law, karma, and reembodiment which have been removed from the Church by deliberate design. The teachings of the Christ must be correctly taught to the people of the world, for individuals will understand thereby that as they sow, so shall they reap.{130} The current teachings on forgiveness of sins do no homage to Christ. They press a crown of thorns into the body of the world and crucify mankind whom God would liberate. True forgiveness of sins requires the balancing of one's debts to life not only to restore, in the old order, the boundaries of the law that men have violated, but also to liberate God's energies which have been imprisoned by sin and to produce in his world now, here today, that spiritual grace that dares not allow the soul to fall into folly and delusion. The laws of God are clear, and the ascended masters have held their focus for this planet for centuries. Yet the knowledge of his laws and their service has been disseminated but to the few. Those who seek to dominate the world and the thoughts of men have long held unwilling prisoners among men. In ignorance they have perpetuated the ignorance of others. The blind have led the blind. All are in the ditch.{131} Now there comes a ray of intense beauty to the earth, focused from beloved Lady Venus and myself, sent forth with the thought of the Christ-matrix of every man - the universal Son of God. For he must appear in human affairs. Christ must be enthroned in every heart and in every home. He must blaze upon every altar as the sacred fire. We must restore the earth to her golden-age estate. Technocracy must embrace a divine theocracy. Atheism - spawned of the serpent's sinuous materialistic concepts, invading and pervading the universities of the world - must be shed that the dove of order with the olive branch in his bill may appear. Then shall the universal Spirit of the Lord God unite the universe that is within with the universe that is without. For safety, for sanity, and for prevailing order, I AM Sanat Kumara Lord of the Flame Hierarch of Venus ****** Chapter 26 The Goddess of Liberty - June 30, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 26 - The Goddess of Liberty - June 30, 1968 Man's Desire for Liberty Beloved Children of the Flame of Liberty, The thrust of man's desire for liberty has its origin in the very sun center of the universe. Man was conceived in the expansive flame of liberty from God's own heart. This reality, dimmed now by intruding factors, remains the goal of the wise and the sincere. The billions who call the planet Earth home are broken fragments of a universal oneness. The liberty of oneness has been lost to the multifaceted sense of separation and thus, beneath his own fig tree and attached to his own vine, man goes his separate and several ways.{132} No specific good would occur in the community of being by forcing the separated segments of the Universal into an unwilling alliance; for there the liberty of oneness would be ignored and the pull of the senses, like snorting wild steeds, would create its tides of restless energy to pull man away from the balance of true being. Only the pull of the sun center of universal reality, only the recognition by mankind en masse of the great laws governing cosmos and the spread of understanding about cosmos can develop within the unfolding identity of the individual a sense of the harmony of universal liberty. The masters of wisdom in their great outreach in every age and at the beginning of this century have not neglected to inform mankind about the reality of the Brotherhood. The cloak of religion, which has smothered rather than swaddled mankind's beginnings in truth, has masked the face of creative expansion, set brother against brother, absorbed mankind's energies in fruitless struggle, and weakened the plan of the Brotherhood for the unity of this age. As we inspired the leadership of Abraham, Noah, Moses, and other great patriarchs, as we spoke through Zarathustra, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus, as we released holy wisdom to Socrates, Plato, and Emerson, so did we come through Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. We have also released our instruction through other adherents of divine truth, both metaphysical and occult, until the occult law was set aside and the pure passion of the flames of liberty and truth was unleashed in the early 1930s. Man - caught in the miasma of his separatist dream, deigning to be fooled - has created a thousand foolish splinters that have taken him from the truth center of his being. It is not that the germ of reality and truth is not active within the many spiritual organizations upon earth; it is simply that individuals do not grasp truth when they find it but prefer instead to form their own anthropomorphic God (a god made in their own image) and to embrace concepts that are foreign to reality. How now shall we draw every man to the truth center of his being and thus unite the wanton children of this age? Beloved ones, in reality the hearts of men are hungry; their hands reach out and their minds soak up information of all kinds. It is up to us to call to God that they might be filled with his holy wisdom and to trust his higher wisdom to reach those who cannot be persuaded by outer means. Your beloved Hilarion, Chohan of the Fifth Ray, when embodied as the Apostle Paul said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."{133} Thus do those who are wise as serpents but harmless as doves{134} understand that liberty is often self-denied by those who have great spiritual attainment. The meaning of the phrase "spiritual wickedness in high places" is high spiritual development without assimilation of the divine character. This brittleness of the spirit is a disease which threatens the most advanced disciples; its cure is that humility of heart which retains its hunger for the Spirit of the Lord which is the Spirit of Liberty. The Spirit of the Lord that is the Spirit of Liberty is also the Spirit of Cosmic Unity that places the cosmic good of all above the aggrandizement of self. It is a strange thing, blessed ones, but from time to time even some of our advanced chelas are caught in delusion's net, singing their own praises and accomplishments whereas the law clearly states that the Lord is the rewarder of them who diligently seek him.{135} If men would only grasp this principle and rest in the blessed assurance that God does reward well doing even as his laws bring full circle the reward for iniquity they would not feel the need to "blow the trumpet," as you say, in honor of themselves and they would be more hesitant before speaking the sharp word of criticism of another. If the Spirit of Liberty is to be honored, it must be honored not only by the man of low degree who rejoices in the hope of his exaltation, but also by those older sheep of the Lord's flock whose hoary heads of wisdom are crowned not in order to bring personal adulation but to focalize spiritual offices of great responsibility. The time has come when we shall muster in all who would make their calling and election sure{136} on behalf of the Brotherhood the determination to give their all to the cause of liberty. The world welters in turmoil, confusion is apparent; yet we dwell not in the sense of this unrighteousness, for we hold up the crown of understanding and the Spirit of Liberty to the eyes of men. More precious than rubies and diamonds or the treasures of the world is the Spirit of Liberty. By this Spirit great nations have arisen, monumental scientific discoveries have been made, and prophetic revelations have been released.{137} The miracles of Christ regeneration have brought new masters to heaven's fold and sons of victory out of the density of mortal delusions. Graduates are these from the schoolrooms of earth - men and women tried and true, tested in the fiery furnace of devotion to universal principle.{138} Shall those who would follow in their footsteps "trailing clouds of glory" scatter their birthright by the whirlwinds of their own nostrils as they seek to gather for themselves objects of personal gain or shall they commit themselves into the keeping of the justice of universal law and thus release into the world the blessings of their purified hearts? All religion that has had its origin in the Spirit of Truth ought (1) to bring to mankind a greater awareness of his divine potential, (2) to serve as a bond of union 'twixt the Brotherhood of light and unascended man, and (3) to illumine mankind as to the pitfalls of worldly living. These pitfalls are not absent from the spiritual path, not by any means. No immunity has been guaranteed the advancing chela. Indeed, those who consider themselves wise in the teaching are expected to be more alert than those sweet young disciples whose laughing hearts first come to the newness of divine understanding. The business of living is a serious business, but it can be indulged with a steadied merriment and a bubbling joy. The mists that have clouded the minds of men must be dispersed. The sun of hope must rise as many hands unite to pluck the harmonic strings of genuine brotherhood. The sons of liberty will rally and the world will know the mounting passion of hearts who love freedom. These love Freedom enough to hold high her torch, to look 'round about them and to pick up the debris that the flame will gladly transmute. No service is too lowly for these, for they follow in the wake of angelic vows offering eternal service to God. Does a humble heart need assistance? They serve. Must a thankless task be done? They do. Shall a seemingly archaic matter require study? They apply their minds. Is organization needed? They organize. Whatever the exigency, they reach up to the abundance of God, magnetize it, and offer it in the service of the light. The gods of Baal and Moloch have their adherents today; as Antichrists, they have their servers.{139} We uphold liberty and universal purpose. This year of decision, sons of liberty, hearken and live and let live. For the peaceful advancement of the golden-rule order and all mankind, I AM The Goddess of Liberty ****** Chapter 27 Saint Germain - July 7, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 27 - Saint Germain - July 7, 1968 The Violet Transmuting Flame Is God's Gift to Man To All Who Love Freedom and Would Preserve It, Now, all will admit that tensions are generated on earth. What is the source of tension? Surely not your mighty I AM God Presence. Human miscreation and the neglect of spiritual study have propelled men into a decisionless valley. There they are becalmed in a state of vacillation between two evils without even the thought of deliverance in their hearts. Millions live in this manner. Selfishness is rampant. The world wallows in deceit. The children of the light have a most awesome responsibility. Theirs is to portray the universal divine life. They are expected to provide the power of a better example. The crafty world often sees the students of the light as though they, too, were crafty. Hence there is a tendency on the part of the world to suspect everyone who is engaged in spiritual deliverance. I think it well that the chelas of the light understand that they cannot please the world nor can they prevent the world from false judgment. It should be borne in mind that albeit men have left the field of divinity and denied their reality, they are still utilizing divine power to perform their darkened work. When they pass false judgment upon the sons of the light, the white-fire core of the energy which they use obediently follows the pattern that has been imposed upon it (in this case false judgment), thereby creating arrows of outrageous fortune which are slung{140} at the children of the light. In addition, this activity of criticism, even when unspoken, depletes the supply of light of the ones so engaged; for the flow of the mind is also the flow of God's energy which is thus channeled through the attention into a dangerous and unworthy matrix for which they must one day give account.{141} The protection of your tube of light, vigilance in consciousness, adherence to the laws of true being, and faithfulness in all things will help you to expand the flame of freedom in your being and to obtain your victory over human deceit and misjudgment. The children of the light must not fear the children of the dark. The energy which they use is of this world. The great Master Jesus came up against this very thing in his discourse with Pilate. When Pilate reminded him that he had the power to release him or to retain him, the Christ said unto him, "Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above."{142} The children of the light should rejoice in their own great God Presence and in the freedom which this Presence brings to them. They must not dissipate the energies of their freedom in overconcern with the antics of the disparaging ones. Neither should the true follower of God allow himself to be cast aside from the spiritual path by a wayward brother who may appear to be a child of light but whose actions may be questionable.{143} Remember, blessed ones, until you are ascended and free it is still possible for you in an unguarded moment to make mistakes in your human self. While the Presence of God who lives in every son of heaven always knows the correct and perfect thing to do, unfortunately many of the chelas of the light neglect to make their application and to hold that attunement with their Presence which would give them their freedom. The flame of freedom is always attained by right action. Oh, if only the students would understand that each time they make the mistake of not calling first to the Presence before they decide on a certain course of action (because they think that they can make a go of life on their own), they reap the consequences of untutored acts. If only the students would recognize in time that right action, God-directed action, is always the course of freedom. If only the students would keep the faith during the times of their greatest tests, they would soon be winning their victory over the baneful "junta" of negative karma and human miscreation. Temptations and desires that rise from subconscious levels create a net of delusions which is thrown over the conscious mind of the student. Old failures, frustrations, and fears regurgitated from within present their appearances upon the Path with stones of stumbling. The violet transmuting flame, which is both beautiful and powerful, can give you advanced deliverance from these conditions. Yet some individuals feel that it is childish and ridiculous to sit for hours or even for a half hour invoking the violet transmuting flame. They do not understand that cosmic law functions within its own framework, and very soundly indeed. The violet transmuting flame is God's gift to man, but it must be invoked by each individual. If you would have your freedom, you must put your attention upon the laws that will give it to you. Down through the centuries we have observed that human opinion and a sense of personal righteousness have deterred individuals from the spiritual path. What difference does it make, blessed ones, if individuals think that you are funny or just a little bit foolish? Suppose they consider that you have been duped by erroneous concepts? Does it really matter what they think, seeing that most of them are changing their minds all of the time and are themselves scarcely free from some form of error? The fact of the matter is that most of the beginning students on the Path have a far greater measure of freedom than do those who have never used the blessed flame of freedom or submitted themselves to ascended master instruction. You are indeed a most fortunate people, and nothing can prevent the realization of your freedom if you will only make your application. Some students have come to the quarterly classes over a period of many years. They sit at our feet and receive our instruction, but they go right out into the world and, in their hours of bitterness and darkness when their own karma encloses them as a shroud, they immediately think in terms of assistance from the outer world. When they have exhausted themselves in the search and have not found an answer, then they are willing to try the ascended masters' way. If it works immediately, fine; if it doesn't work for them immediately, then it is not so fine and they are quick to say that the masters do not exist or that the teachings do not work. Well, seeing we have obtained our own freedom by using the selfsame instruction which we are giving to you, it is hardly possible that we can be swayed in our opinion of cosmic law. For cosmic law is far more than opinion having, as it does, the solid manifestation of an already recognized grace. We urge everyone - beginner as well as advanced student on the Path - to reexamine our first instructions from time to time, to take them to heart, and to try to understand that it is the human mind with its penchant for sudden boredom or doubt that deprives the individual of his ascension. Don't you see, blessed ones, that the sinister force is always broadcasting into the ethers the concept that the laws of God do not work or that they are not rooted in reality? If individuals are going to be so quick to pick up these negative vibrations and to accept them as truth, they will be a long time in passing over the Red Sea. For the walls of water may close in upon them, as they did upon the Egyptians, and they will be inundated by human emotion. Others will go on to their freedom and they will utilize the power of God to illumine their minds, to inspire their hearts, and to supply their bodies with every necessity including energy and strength. God is not mocked. Whatsoever you sow, that you shall reap.{144} In the case of the blessed violet fire, the benefits of the fire are permanent; for when application is made by the student to the heart of his divine Presence for the protection of his great tube of light and the assistance of the violet transmuting flame, with each application there are removed layers of misqualified substance from his world. It is difficult for individuals to see how these layers are built up; therefore, they cannot always expect that they are going to see how they are stripped away. But one by one they will be and, after a few months of practice in the correct use of decrees, it is amazing how much spiritual development takes place in the individual. This is brought about because by the process of transmutation - which is happening right while he decrees - he is effectively removing the densities in his world that have formed the 'Great Wall' between himself and God.{145} As this wall is removed, the inner light can shine forth and make contact with all that is beautiful and good in the universe. Just as the sinister force broadcasts its negations into the world which so many of the students have picked up (and sometimes amplified), the students must always bear in mind that the ascended masters and the angelic hosts are constantly broadcasting their vibrations into the higher realms of light and thus the students can receive the benefit of this outflow on behalf of freedom (and amplify it). Each individual, destined by God to attain the heights of God realization and God manifestation, should be constantly alert to attune his consciousness with these inspiring feelings that uplift the soul. Likewise should he be alert to detect the nature of the negative manifestations before they can act in his world or intrude themselves upon his consciousness. If the students would quickly identify these ideas for what they are - negative releases - they would not be nearly so apt to accept them. Long ago Saint Paul said that men should believe a lie and be damned.{146} The meaning of the word damned is condemned; therefore, the end result of individuals believing a lie about others or themselves is ultimate condemnation all the way around. For whatever is held in consciousness about life - any part of it - or one's associates is eventually outpictured in one's own world. This is the law, blessed ones. It functions unerringly and no one is excluded, for the law is impersonal. God is no respecter of persons.{147} Your freedom comes not by criticism, condemnation, or judgment nor does it come by exalting yourselves above your fellowmen by your own personal opinions. Your freedom comes by humble recognition of the Magnificat - "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree."{148} For your freedom and victory, I remain your brother on the spiritual path, Saint Germain ****** Chapter 28 Meta - July 14, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 28 - Meta - July 14, 1968 The Reseeding of This Age with Seeds of Righteousness To Each Child of Creation, At a time in the history of man when there is less and less concern for the well-being of others, we would like to speak on matters of diet. Now the subject of diet, precious ones of earth, concerns not only food for the physical body but also food for the soul, the mind, and the spirit of man. And so we turn our attention to the nourishing of the whole man that he may be made whole. The so-called powers of darkness, the hierarchy of the princes of this world, whenever and wherever they think they can get away with it use the profit motive as the basis for their judgments. If a scheme, a commodity, or a service makes money for an organization, it is good. If it does not, it is discarded. According to this attitude of business (which has become a busy-ness rather than an opportunity to serve the commonweal) restaurants, hotels, motels, and many other profit-making enterprises have acted with great disservice to humanity. Food has been prepared and preserved in a manner that betrays the best interests of the customer, and service has often been performed perfunctorily and sometimes even grudgingly. Improved health techniques have brought about greater longevity and a reduced infant mortality, flooding many areas of the planet with a superabundance of people per square mile. This has given the commercial interests such a flow of traffic that it has reached the point where the individual has become another mouth to feed, another number to pass through a line. Upon our planetary home, Venus, we are able to show our people the records of the evolutions of other planets as well as advanced studies concerning the science of administering the needs of humanity as a whole, and we can see by comparison that the people of Earth have much to learn concerning the use of the ingredient of love. Love is not only the fulfilling of the law,{149} blessed ones. Love is the law. In matters of the mind and spirit, with all of man's getting he has failed to achieve even a basic understanding{150} of the rudiments of cosmic law. The youth of today, untrained in the home and untutored in the schools in the simple elements of courtesy, are sorely lacking in grace and in the virtues of the Holy Spirit. Man's tendency to exalt freedom as license rather than freedom as responsibility has paved the way for the competitive ego and brought about an increase of violence. With the advent of new scientific miracles which were intended to provide a very marvelous life for mankind relatively free from drudgery so that he might pursue the things of the Spirit, the world has been caught instead in a net of delusory violence and ceaseless class struggle. Communism vies with capitalism, and the worst elements of both engage large masses of humanity and vast energy fields in the competitive struggle. The churches, which were intended to be instruments of deliverance for mankind, are more engaged in the struggle with one another than they are in the training of mankind for the business of life. The Lord Christ who taught long ago in the tradition of Melchizedek, Priest of Salem, brought forth a reiteration of golden-age law. "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."{151} Modern man has inverted this law making it to read, "Outsmart your brother before he outsmarts you." The awesome responsibility of the spiritual devotee is to do the good that he would have done unto him unto all, even to those who despitefully use him.{152} The power of each Godly example, of each man who will take his stand for love pure and undefiled, is thereby set into motion in society and this is the little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump.{153} The healing elements of golden acts not only purify the individual mind and being, unfolding clearly a wonderful life for those who so dedicate themselves, but also they uphold the power of good example for all men to follow. Men have excused the foul conduct of this generation on the grounds of ignorance. But what kind of ignorance is acting, blessed ones? Indeed, what kind of ignorance at a time when education proclaims itself to be the most advanced in the history of man? I do not think it is ignorance but an ignoring of social responsibility. I think that it is a failure on the part of those who should know better to stress the ethics and morality of cosmic law. I think that it is involvement by great minds in the trivia of dogma, sophistry, intellectual argument, and impracticalities. And I think that it is a most complex competition which places the multifaceted, splendid elements of a civilization in opposition to one another. For alas, the pitting of two benign groups against each other often produces the third banality of ridiculous struggle. Linked as I AM to the universal Mother and upholding as I do the high standards of the Ancient of Days, your beloved Sanat Kumara, I propose that the world should examine itself anew. In what direction is humanity going? Discordant elements among the youth of the world and even the more mature say, "We are fed up with the civilization of our elders." But what tomes of wisdom do they propose to uphold? What example do they set? Upon what ethics of virtue can they expound? They would tear down the culture, the jurisprudence, and the religious expression of contemporary man without understanding through experience over a longer period of time what it is like to live by these rules, all the while reaching out for a greater and evolving transcendence within the framework of universal law and order which are the bulwarks of society. In heaven's name, young people of the world, do you think that by violence and destruction, by rebellion and mockery you can contribute to the world good? Consider mankind's great needs. Consider the institutions that were framed to supply these needs. Consider your own potential and what it would mean to the world if you gave it lovingly, wisely, and determinedly. The energy that you now employ in rebellion, in criticism, and in an attempt to evoke a response from the elders of the world - that energy, used constructively and added to the positive factors that exist in society, could wield the balance of power which would change the world into a place that is acceptable not only to you but also to those higher intelligences who have framed it in such glorious hope. It is easy for men to talk, to criticize, and to deny traditions long established. We do not say that many of these traditions ought not to be changed, but the fresh winds of a new understanding reveal that much of universal culture lies hidden in old expressions however timeworn and archaic they may seem. The hand of heaven is not stayed of its judgment. And if the various elements of society continue to mete out the spirit of unrest, they shall reap the whirlwind{154} and find civilization itself broken at their feet. The idols in the marketplaces remain in vogue for a time and then pass away. Each man rises meteorically to his zenith and then, as a falling star, flashes and dims out. The Lord has need of you. The world has need of you, and you have need of the world. By universal, loving cooperation the picture of universal harmony can be framed and made real. I make my appeal to the world, believing or unbelieving. I make my appeal to the world, deceived or engaged in deceiving. I make my appeal to the world, loving eternal truth. I make my appeal to the world, guarding, exalting our youth. The looms of the gods, the great and the small, Controlled by a hand that is greater than all, Outwork perfection in motif of love, Weaving examples that are patterned above. Showing to all the way of Christ-peace, I AM example - Oh, won't you release Now from your hearts life's burden and pain. Gaze on perfection's great beauty and flame. Hold, then, your faith by its link to the real. Let mind of perfection within you now feel Practicality's glow - God's Presence does heal. Each veil of sense bondage now burns in the glow (Illusions vanish as forward you go). The real that's within you is Spirit and flame, Controlling your form in dear being's name. You go forth to win as knights of the light And banish the dark of stupidity's night. For wisdom was given to help each one rise, Your life pattern beauteous descends from the skies. We call, then, to those among mankind who have the understanding and the faith to hold this beautiful immaculate concept for the youth of the world. Condemn them not in their ignorance, but accept not their wayward ways. The power of better example belongs to the strong. If error has existed in the world, it requires correction. The welding together of dissonant elements of society is necessary in order that the harmony of higher spheres, dispensed from the many mansions of the Father,{155} may come to the people of this blessed planet with that long overdue peace which every mother's heart ought to crave. Sons of the flame, keep your hands upon the plow as it makes its straight furrows for the reseeding of this age with the seeds of righteousness in God's name.{156} Your sister of light, Meta Daughter of Sanat Kumara ****** Chapter 29 Rose of Light - July 21, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 29 - Rose of Light - July 21, 1968 The Bonds of Love Can Never Be Broken To Men and Women of Faith, In a world of change, man seeks the changeless. The flowers that fade were once beautiful. The falling seeds speak of promise. Out of harshness and misunderstanding are tenderness and wisdom born. Men lament their transitory nature, but let them understand that the very nature of the transitory (the fact that it is subject to change) makes possible the way to light. Those who climb to the stars on ladders of light should understand that until their feet have left the highest rung and they stand upon the star of light's attainment they remain in transit. Movement is the universal power of the Great Central Sun magnet as it draws men through the processes of nature and spiritual evolution toward a higher goal. Let individuals learn to discard feelings of struggle and involvement in sense consciousness. This too shall pass. But while it stands and acts upon man, it is the pressure of new opportunity; for out of the old is born the new, and the body of corruption that puts on the body of incorruption{157} is also the dying seed that in giving its life makes possible the true and abundant life.{158} Saint Germain has spoken frequently of the immortelle, of never-fading flowers. Like never-fading flowers, the permanent body of man - his luminous body of light - is the eternal hope that, rising in the human heart acting as compass needle, enables man to chart his course over the troubled seas of life. And the seething of discord, the seeming triumph of the temporal, is as naught once the race is run. To cast your anchor beyond the veil means to fit yourselves for progress. Recognizing where you are and where you are going establishes contact with the higher way and enables you to come up over discordant conditions because your anchor is already cast into the goal-fittedness of the master's plan for you. Let everyone understand that there is a divine plan for each lifestream and that this plan is beautiful beyond description. It is like a golden glowing rose saturated with light, each petal pulsing with the power of momentary renewal as the divine heartbeat surges out from the center of the universe, from the source of all life, into monadic expression anywhere and everywhere. Life is God extended From center-beginning To peripheral ending Of delusions, blending, Confusion sending, Authoring a missive Of giant storytelling. Flower-telling, selling hope, Dispense the new, A greater view of purpose. While you're here, Remember I AM near To free from doubt and fear And old elements of wasted effort, Of blighted severance From universal reverence That moves each Man By light beams from on high To where the glowing image from the sky Reveals the real and helps to heal Each fracture of immortal intent, Applying love's cement To bond the soul to wholeness, Reveal the fullness Of the master plan. Incongruent congruency, Life expands from hope to hope - His glory to us spoke. From the farthest star and flower-center, To the heart of consciousness does enter Glowing firmament on high - Seed eternal, Breathes your flame so nigh, Supernal wonder, Folds unfolding In the starlit radiance Of the rose I'm holding. Now then, when the passions of your heart seek to burst the bonds of reason and of judgment and you know, blessed ones, that the act you contemplate will bring regret, fear not to deny yourself - your little self - and to build a giant image of your Higher Self that will project itself upon the screen of accomplishment before the Lords of Karma. Men will come to judgment, one and all. But the judgment that they should fear is not the judgment of a day but of each day. For it is not at the end of the road that men can act to remedy but as they go - as the days come, as they are dispensed, then can correction be made. Now - while you abide in the world of form, while you have the blessing of consciousness and control and astral forces are relatively dim to your consciousness - learn to control your character by keeping the faith, the flame, the law, the love, and the mastery of your being active and determined to overcome. We did not say it was easy, for it was not easy for many of us. But to us it was the only way. The glowing light of universal reality may have escaped us from time to time and the enticements of the world seemed entrancing, but we had to reverse the process as you must also do. And if you will let go and cease the sense of struggle, it will help a great deal. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work,"{159} referencing the eternal Christ, shows that the power of the abundant life that is above you is striving magnificently within you to outpicture the higher image that you long to express. The mockery of the world, its sullen power of overlordship that seeks to intimidate you by the opinions of friends, neighbors, relatives, and employers, has no power. Unfortunately, many of these are as the chaff blown by the wind. {160} They are not yet compassed to any reality. Nature means to them little more than a commercial exhibit - so many hogs to hang on the scales, so much meat to be butchered, so much flax to weave into garments, so much feed for dumb cattle fattened for the marketplace, so much iron for plows and swords, so much labor to be bought and sold - of human bondage. This is not life, it is strife. We will not allow it so, for we will hold to the realm of cause. We will uphold the laws of universal love. We will set before you the example of the Cosmic Christ. He has said, "Who touched me?" for he perceived that virtue had gone out of him. The woman came forward with fear and trembling and said, "I touched you, Lord."{161} Shall man, then, approach the divine with fear and trembling? It is better to so approach than not to approach at all. Yet the son of faith knows that the Father's love is his inheritance. He knows that nature and all of it, God in all of him, is his to command when he has become worthily aligned with the universal plan. This plan in glowing reality is framed right within the fire of the heart - the heart of purpose - the fabric of soul substance upon which God would engrave worthy acts. There is no need, then, for men to continue in fear, in struggle, and in the palliation of their own passions. Feelings when negative or obdurate stem from an inversion of the Holy Spirit's ray. The ray of the Holy Spirit is the ray of the abundant life, the Shekinah glory that descends into the cupped chalice of every man's being suffused with the reality of God. Aborted and turned upside down, this ray becomes the energy source of restlessness and the tides of many misadventures. Reverse your course! Learn to be karmaless, to be free from stain or sin, to be free from the need to give pain to any, to be dispensers of reality in a world of ersatz technicality. Is it not true that the technocracy of the world has created a cornucopia of doodads, of thingamajigs, of passing fashion? The fashion of the divine never fails. It never loses its luster. It enables man not only to reach for the stars but also to attain them. The glow of the Rose of Light that you behold is not my body or being, it is the glow of your own soul, of Christed hope, of pure delight. In the consciousness of reality and of God, there is no break with one another. Everyone whom you have ever served and to whom you have given energy is forever tied to you, and you are tied to all who have ever given energy to you. For the bonds of love can never be broken, and it is God's will that in the mystic circle of the lives you contact you should spread the wonder of his love and grace. If you give, you cannot fail to receive. The law will return full circle to your life every beautiful thought you send out. As you send out thoughts of beauty through the years to come, if you call unto me, I will try to convey to you some of the divine reality of myself in its musings upon the life here and the life hereafter, for these are one. Life is unending. Without beginning, it can have no ending. With faith in your immortality and the immortality of all, I remain Your friend forever, Rose of Light ****** Chapter 30 Chananda - July 28, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 30 - Chananda - July 28, 1968 Solar Manifestations of the Living God To Men of Earth Who Seek the Reality of Cosmic Wisdom, The challenge of mountain heights does not seem to be for all. Are those earth bound individuals who are afraid of dizzying heights and unsure of their own limbs unable to live profitably? We do not believe so. We believe that we should hold the immaculate concept for all, and we recognize the bounds of man's habitation. All have not attained, yet all should. The Darjeeling Council ponders now the subject of race. Each day man weaves a strand of his own future. Long ago when the pigmentation of race was implanted in the soul structure of man through the radiation of the seven color rays, {162} there lived upon the planet what were known as the red man, the yellow man, the green man, the blue man, and the purple man. At that time the darker pigmentations of the skin did not exist. Now I am well aware of the fact that down through the years men have stressed the differences of race and that the brown and the black have been questioned in particular. But if individuals will think of themselves as solar manifestations of the living God - recognizing that the outer garment of race that they wear is only an overcoat which they will one day put off - they will cease to think of themselves as white, black, yellow, red, or any other color. This attitude of mind is much to be desired, for while we cannot deny that racial prejudice does exist in the world - and that without our favor - we propose, as one of the first steps to the shedding of the racial consciousness, that men understand who and what they are. Man is not his body any more than he is his memory, his emotions, or his mind. He is a being. He has a body, he has a mind, he has a memory, and he has a spirit. The spirit of man is neither black nor white - it is forever free. The consciousness of man and of his individuality is, however, very involved in his own density patterns. Men think black, they think white, and they think yellow and red. Men express, through the opacity of their thoughts and feelings, the light that itself is never in bondage to the intruding screens of consciousness through which it is projected. It is true that a part of the light is trapped in these screens and thereby opaqued from view. But the energy that is trapped is obedient to man; therefore, it is content to abide anywhere. The problem lies not in the energy but in the vision of those who do not see the light that glows just beyond the veil of manifestation but only the limited release that passes through the form. The problem of density is not a problem of race. On the contrary, it is common to the whole human race. Individuals who have a great deal of light are often despised by members of their own race or of other races who have less light. Students of the light should understand that as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the law they may become objects of despite or ridicule insofar as the world goes. Be not concerned about this. They have their day and vengeance belongs unto God. He will repay.{163} Never allow yourself to become involved in retaliation. This is how man creates negative karma. Each time he arises to defend himself he puts himself, as you say, "behind the eight ball."{164} Self-defense is always a defense of the human ego, for the Christ of every man needs no defense - truth bears witness of itself.{165} In matters of race, many have put themselves behind the eight ball. Evil dwells in all races. And wherever racial differences are given power in this uninhibited age, there is a strong possibility that violence and negative karma will accrue to the records of many lifestreams. We wish to avoid this most unfortunate eventuality not only for the sake of humanity but also for the sake of the individual. We know very well that a sharp thought or an unkind word can easily rise to the surface of the unguarded consciousness. But mankind should not indulge in a display of crassness concerning their own or another's race. After all, can the leopard change his spots? Can man by thinking add one cubit to his stature? as Christ said,{166} the very hairs of his head are numbered.{167} Man must learn to live not in his externals but in his internals and above all to keep the inside of his vessel spotlessly clean. Let all races heed this word, for it is an admonishment as well as an indictment. The furies released by mankind in racial disorders and riots instead of putting forward the races that are behind will put them further backward, and every individual who has augmented the strife by thought, word, or deed - seen or unseen, known or unknown - will surely pay the penalty for all of the karma he has created - and this applies to both sides of the fence. The ascended masters have thought long and hard on the matter of "racial inequality." In this release we desire to express to the peoples of the earth the consensus of our thoughts about it. Man is a product of his environment, but he is also a product of his heredity. His heredity is twofold: (1) he has an earthly inheritance, a portion of which was bequeathed by his earthly parents, and another portion which represents his own karma from the present as well as past embodiments; and (2) he has a heavenly inheritance. His heavenly inheritance is the soul of God individualized and focalized for him as his very own I AM Presence and his causal body, which contains the solar fires he has magnetized through faith and good works. Each man possesses an infinitesimal drop of the ocean of infinity. He himself is intended to be a gatherer of more light as he makes his way along the Homeward path and as the entire body of God expands throughout cosmos. As long as he limits himself to race, regardless of the sense of injustice he may have, he is actually selling his birthright for a mess of pottage.{168} I do not say that underprivileged races and peoples should not rise. I do not say that the enlightened among humanity should not help them. I do say that men of hatred and ill will, speaking out with craftiness and sometimes appearing as angels of light,{169} have gone forth with the intent of Mark Antony in his funeral oration to Caesar: "I came to bury Caesar, not to praise him."{170} These have often thought to arouse and to incite to violence the members of a particular race and of the entire world community as well. Can hatred give rise to love? Can darkness bring forth light? Enlightened conduct recognizes that the winds of change are best harnessed by the sails of application to existing law. While it may seem that a situation is intolerable by reason of its duration and men may feel that they must win their freedom now, they must also bear in mind, and full well, that temporary and transitory freedom as a gift grudgingly given and enforced upon the world community by either a minority or a majority will ultimately be recognized as tyranny and one day it may well be withdrawn. You cannot force people to love you or to accept you. You can only expand the light within your heart and, by noble and useful effort, contribute to the well-being of the world community. If violence is to continue unabated in the world, it will be a long time before it comes to know the peace of Christ that passeth understanding.{171} The hunger in the hearts of men and in the little children of all races for kindness and brotherly love clearly shows that if they could have their way, they would live together in harmony. The world must learn to live with what it cannot change and to change that which it can. Change can be wrought by the people of any race. I cite the miracle of George Washington Carver who, by his great love, won the respect of an entire nation. The son of a slave who, in one sense, was born in ignorance achieved by his illustrious and noble spirit such freedom as few of any race have enjoyed. Men must learn to garner respect first for themselves and for what they do. Then they must learn to respect the rights of others because they respect this freedom for themselves. Those who would expound upon nonviolence must be nonviolent in thought and in feeling as well as in word and deed. Mohandas K. Gandhi of our own land of India was a man of peace in every way. For this reason he was successful in carrying out his campaign of nonviolence. Those who cry peace and safety but who are filled with violent feelings are hypocrites and traitors to reality. They keep not the city of the world in peace, nor do they win by their efforts respect for their own race in the world community. Let those who would bring about a change in racial relations understand that all change begins within the individual. You can never legislate respect, you can only earn it. There are among the white race those who live in abject poverty and are looked down upon by many. These, too, can rise; for all can rise through their own noble efforts and put down the awful specter of violence that has loomed in the land and brewed destruction to the very marvelous democratic principles upon which the nation America was founded. We of India, mindful of the crux of all of these problems, ask in God's name that men consider who and what they are. Let them understand that the short period of time during which they live is spent in the schoolroom of earth, a place where they can learn to love to do well.{172} Here the challenges of life are meant to be overcome. Each man is intended to become illustrious. His purpose is "Destiny not dust."{173} May I remind you of the words of one of your American poets, "We can make our lives sublime, and, departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time."{174} If your footprints, beloved ones, are to be followed in safety by those who come behind you - your children and your children's children, by the posterity of all ages to follow - would it not be well if you understood that to be a Christ or a Buddha in the making is far better than to be a Hitler or a Genghis Khan? For India and America and for the world's freedom from prejudice, I AM Chananda for the Indian Council ****** Chapter 31 Godfre - August 4, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 31 - Godfre - August 4, 1968 My Faith Is in the Heart of America and in Its Immortal Dream To Men and Women of the Hour! The immanence of the kingdom of heaven is now and always has been within the aura of every soul. The great God flame, the mighty I AM Presence, was given to man when he first sprang forth from the heart of God. There is no need for men to placate God. He is not a tyrannical being, but one who bestows the highest graces upon his creation which he framed, not in ignorance, but out of the wisdom of his heart. America, too, was born as a dream of God - a confraternity of equality, a "land of hope and glory" where every man and woman could enjoy the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity. At a time in history when this land - loved of old by poet and bard, nourished by statesmen and soldier, watched over by God and his angels, and upheld by many sons and daughters of liberty unknown and unsung - stands in her greatest hour of peril, we summon by the power of Almighty God understanding for the American people. America is not a land of bondage. Here the sweet air of freedom is yet breathed. Regardless of restrictions and impositions of government, the bane of what may seem to be unjust taxation and a host of excesses, this land is still the cradle of liberty and the cup of light to the family of nations. The greatest commodities America can export to the world are her statesmanship, her diplomacy, and her nourishment of the principles that gave her birth. When the footsteps of stealth and darkness and the plots of assassination walk in the land, the memories of yesteryear and of patriots' hearts now stilled linger in the memory of men. "Of thee I sing. ..." "In God we trust" - sacred words, adulterated now in human consciousness even as the coins of the realm have been adulterated by impurities. The society of America enters now a period of distrust and dissolution. The very expansiveness of the land makes it impossible to have the community of hearts that once existed. Today, those who control the economy can buy the media - television, radio, newspapers, and books - and put themselves over in the eyes of their peers by propaganda methods. In olden days it was not so, for we lived in the hearts of our countrymen because their hearts lived in us. We fought together, we bled together, we dwelled together in a great hope which we sought to convey to generations yet to come. When I attended the little church at Alexandria, Virginia, as I rode there by carriage or sometimes as a solitary figure on horseback, it was with a great feeling that welled up within my soul of the destiny of the land that should be. It is, perhaps, difficult for men who are yet unascended to realize the passions of my heart now as I see this land of which I was once commander in chief broken by the blight of foreign interference in American affairs, her image tarnished abroad, the hopes of her youth for the principles we have loved and cherished dimmed, and all mankind involved in a fierce battle with invisible forces of treachery and hypocrisy. I commend to the people of America the meaning of the word integrity. For when as a Mason I sat in the lodge at Alexandria, it was to see the dream - the immortal dream of the eternal Father of the ages - outpictured on the blue field of honor as men, differing from one another as one star differeth from another in glory,{175} sought to excel in service and in love for God and country. Neither the arrow that flieth by day nor the pestilence that walketh in darkness has in all these years succeeded in bringing this nation to her knees. {176} And I pray that they never will. Yet that illustrious figure, that man of sorrows who held the nation together during the dark hours of the Civil War - President Abraham Lincoln - did solemnly warn that if this nation should ever be destroyed, it would be from within.{177} I therefore urge the people of America - not because, as an ascended being, I favor this nation above other nations, but because I favor her destiny as the servant of all nations - I urge every son and daughter of America in whom breathes the soul of liberty to rally to the cause of responsible citizenship, responsible service, and responsible love to make this nation under God a sovereign nation whose glory shall never die. America was intended by God to be a saviour nation to the world, and the annals of the Great White Brotherhood reveal the plan. America was intended to bring forth the Manchild that should rule the nations with a rod of iron.{178} This means that America, in essence, was intended to bring forth the dream of the Christ image for every man not by way of a decadent Christianity but through a universal Christ-I-AM-ity. When the souls of men draw together in the understanding that God is our saviour, that Christ the beloved Son is the certificate of each man's immortal inheritance and that he was given to every man to assist him in building his character and expanding his light, then and only then will America be united under God. Freed from the banalities and oppressions of Calvinistic hells and in the realization of the law of rebirth (as it was proclaimed by Saint Francis in the public squares and was once so integral a part of Catholic doctrine), men will understand the unity of their hearts and the Law of the Circle. They will know that whatsoever they do of betrayal in their lives - whether it be treachery to God, to country, or to self - will surely return to them full circle. They will know also by the great blessings of divine truth that all that they do that is good and of benefit to their fellowmen will return to them individually as well as collectively in a greater and freer society where the miracle of Christ-perfection can live upon earth. The ancient pyramids of Atlantis reveal the destiny of America. She was intended to rise stone by stone - lively stones all - as a living temple of monumental achievement pointing the way to the stars.{179} Let us, then, in hope renewed in the white purity of this nation's flag envision the day when the bloodbath is o'er, when war shall cease and the stripes of red shall be changed to the gold of spiritual innocence and virtue - when holy wisdom will dictate the way of peace and prosperity for all who dwell upon the planetary body. We cannot hallow this ground, we cannot consecrate this land in any finer manner than to bestow upon it our love and our appreciation for all that it has meant to those who have lived here. Long ago, the red man called it home. Today it is the home of many people from many lands and it is the bastion of liberty and freedom for the world. With all of its faults, America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.{180} My faith is in the heart of America, and I stand ready with every ascended master to see to it that this land of liberty shall not perish from the earth. That this may be so in this time will require the diligence of all who love liberty and freedom. There is no time for idle drift or partisan dreams. There is no time for common rift - Let all men mend their seams - For in the craft of unity, The olive branch so green, Beside the dove of peace is seen An eagle heard to scream, "Eternal vigilance is the price for liberty!"{181} I urge every son and daughter of liberty in whom burns the spirit of cosmic evolution to understand that not by senseless revolution but by progressive evolution can the world be moved forward. To this let us ever be dedicated, that America go not down into the dark night of mankind's violence but pass ever upward by its own inner transcendence into the light of hope for a brilliant tomorrow. In the name of your own beloved mighty I AM God Presence and the great hosts of ascended masters, I invoke the spirit of renewed faith in the heart of America and in its immortal dream. I invoke the spirit of Christ-comprehension that will spread this dream into the hearts of laity and clergy alike who will see that the flame of the mystery schools of old is neither degrading nor satanic but that it is the all-enfolding luminosity of the dream of the ages for peace, prosperity, and freedom to all. Life is often not what it seems. The traditions handed down to men must be reexamined, thread by thread, and their values reassessed. Yet that which is of worth must be preserved. If men will die for freedom, then they can also live for it. And today, We need men and women to live for it To recapture the dream, To see the gleam from afar Of the Holy Grail, like a star Of mystic brilliance, speaking To the shepherds within your midst Saying, "Behold, He is born." The highest form of worship is imitation and, in the imitation of Christ and in the fulfillment of the purposes of life, America will glow and expand as never before. The spiritual wings of the great eagle{182} shall cover this land and the children of this world - of the kingdoms of this world - shall become the children of the kingdoms of our Lord.{183} Obediently, I AM Godfre ****** Chapter 32 Prince Oromasis - August 11, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 32 - Prince Oromasis - August 11, 1968 Viruses Created and Uncreated through the Fiery Element To the Pure in Heart and Those Who Would Be, One of the greatest difficulties encountered by mankind in the world today is the flow of ungoverned emotions. When spiritual laws are better understood by men and science works hand in hand with God, men will see that their thoughts do influence seemingly inert matter. Certain experiments conducted by your scientists have shown how thought can affect the formation of crystals under a microscope. We who understand the fiery element know that human emotions actually do give rise to pestilence in the world. Through the phenomenon known as mutation, intense concentrations of negative thought and feeling patterns that are released into the atmosphere by the undisciplined use of energy create new forms of virus which, once having been launched, continue as parasitic organisms to prey upon mankind. Your own beloved I AM Presence, precious ones, did not create disease germs and unhealthy conditions upon the planet. These were created by wrong thought and feeling, by a misuse of the fiery element as it works through the water element in the emotional body of man. The four elements of nature are a harmonious whole which functions according to the law of the square. When there is a distortion in any one or more of these elements, it cannot help but affect the harmonious balance of life in the other elements. We cite these facts to remind the student body that invocations to God utilizing the power of the spoken Word and appeals to the higher powers of the universe do bring a response which manifests as control of natural forces. We have seen cases where focuses of bacteria - larger than the city of Paris - were blown away from the area of dense population by "the wind" which responded "miraculously" to calls of the students of the light. With the help of ministering angels, the bacteria were totally destroyed by the transmutative power of the sacred fire before they could affect large numbers of individuals upon the planet. Often the outer world, lacking yet in the knowledge of the inner sciences, is of the opinion that spiritual power because it is invisible is ineffective in fighting against physical organisms. I want to tell you, beloved ones, that the power of the Spirit and the power of prayer - the power of the invisible world - when properly harnessed and called into action by embodied mankind, can produce more so-called miraculous corrections of disturbing conditions than most people would ever dream possible. We can understand how those whose faith is rooted in visible things can deny that which they do not see. But on the other hand, they do not see the wind, nor can they measure with their eyes the impact of heat. When they are in an air-conditioned room, they need a thermometer in order to determine the temperature outside even when they can see through a window. There are many stars in the skies that they do not see with the naked eye, but by the use of powerful telescopes they can confirm their existence. Mankind cannot see into the heart of an atom, yet they have learned to split the atom and to unleash its energies. Using scientific instruments, they are able to extend their vision; yet in times past many of the now visible things were invisible and considered but theory. Those of us who function above the physical sciences in the ranges of the great cosmic light do not need to take these things by faith, for we can see them clearly. It is you who are embodied upon the earth in a sphere of relative limitation who require faith in order to accomplish, as we do, in this realm of light. The burden of proof rests, then, upon those who require it. Many outer conditions can be brought under effective control by the power of the mind and Spirit of God when faith enables man to step forth and to perform that which without faith he would never consider possible. Now while we are on this subject, blessed ones, let me tell you in God's name that there are many diseases known to man that have been labeled 'mental' when in fact these diseases of the mind are physical in origin; that is, the mental problem is actually conveyed by a living organism. I do not say that there are not karmic conditions involved, that individuals who are mentally ill do not have in their karmic records certain causes which they have set up in the past which could produce the effect of any of a number of various mental disorders. I do say that in some cases, if they had never come into physical contact with a certain organism, it would not have triggered the body response that first threw them into a state of psychosis. Once an individual becomes psychopathic, because of the lowered vitality of the mind which may then become depressed or morbid and begin to hallucinate as a means of seeking to obtain balance, it can be extremely difficult for him to recover. The trigger of the organism induces a mental imbalance which the energies of the mind tend to follow, thereby perpetuating the unstable condition. Spiritual fire is most effective in healing such cases, for an invocation made to the mighty I AM Presence of the disturbed individual can result in a release of spiritually regenerative fire into the entire consciousness, including the four lower bodies of the individual. This corrective panacea from the spiritual pharmacopoeia of the cosmos can soothe, realign, and transmute the being of the disturbed individual. The soothing is, of course, the action of divine love. The realignment is the corrective power of the Holy Spirit that takes the deranged substance of the mind and rearranges it. Transmutation is the necessary change within the thought and feeling processes whereby the symptoms are permanently corrected and the individual is freed from all undesirable tendencies. We know that as scientific research moves forward the truth of what we say will become proven and acknowledged fact. If scientists would divorce themselves from prevalent theories on mental disease and begin to analyze the causative factors in the physical plane as I have outlined them, they would soon be uncovering not only the primary cause of mental and emotional disorders but also their cure. It must be remembered that electromagnetic coils create a forcefield which is carried over from one coil to another. All substance is in a state of vibration. Healthy tissue and healthy matter have one rate of vibration; unhealthy tissue and unhealthy matter have another. The same is true in cases of mental disease. Because of the potential of one lifestream for inducing electromagnetically in another in proximity the wrong type of vibrations, great protection is necessary for the student of the light and even greater protection for those who do not have the light. Yet those who need the greater protection often do not have it. I do not mean to imply that a low vibration, taken into the body or consciousness of an individual, cannot be expelled. But the balance of power always depends a great deal more upon the host consciousness than upon the donor consciousness. Some individuals are so strong that they automatically repel any form of vibration that is foreign to their own God Presence or their own positive state of mind. Such spiritual fortitude is, of course, most desirable and should be cultivated by every student of the light. The strengthening of one's aura requires an invocation to the sacred fire. Only the fire element, blessed ones, can withstand the impact of earth, air, and water. The fire element is the highest of the four elements and, in a very real sense, it is capable of consuming the other three for it is the bridge between Matter and Spirit. The fire heats the water until it becomes a mere vapor and vanishes away. The fire melts the elements of the earth with a fervent heat. And the oxygen in the air can also be burned out of it by fire. The greatest fire of all is the spiritual fire which, when it manifested in the burning bush before the eyes of Moses, did not consume the bush.{184} There is no need for mankind to fear fire. Certainly, they ought to have great respect for physical fire, for it can be most damaging. When I say there is no need to fear the fire, I reference spiritual fire; for fire is the quality of regeneration that descends from the heart of God to uphold his perfection in man. Therefore, regeneration is the greatest protection anyone can have. The tempests of the world that are directed against so-called pseudo-organizations - its recalcitrance in accepting things not seen as yet and its quickness to condemn scientists of the Spirit - are most regrettable. For much could be learned all the way around, and a wedding of science and theology practiced in the name of truth could yield great benefits to mankind. Today the world is prone to label anyone who has faith in the invisible world as being on the lunatic fringe. Yet there are many men of science who in their private acknowledgments pay homage to the powers of the spiritual world. These are not carrying water upon both shoulders, they are exercising discretion with their fellowmen and avoiding clashes in their professions where more harm than good would be accomplished by a pronouncement of their beliefs. Yet there is a need for men whom the world honors and respects to engender faith in the things of the Spirit that are yet invisible to men by offering themselves as witnesses to truth and staking their reputations upon that which they believe. Alexis Carrel, brave physician and investigator of the Spirit, was just such a man. With a plea to the world to explore the applications of ecology to individual spiritual happiness, we urge that more worthy goals be put before the eyes of the young. Do not saddle them with your own burdens and doubts. Teach them to reach for the stars. So shall the ageless magic of God be manifest in the young of heart. I remain Prince Oromasis of the Fiery Element ****** Chapter 33 Mighty Victory - August 18, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 33 - Mighty Victory - August 18, 1968 The Passion for Victory Beloved Who Seek Your Victory! How deep is the pattern of the divine in man! How mighty is the passion for victory! How man longs to overcome limiting conditions with that universal balance of Christly discrimination and Godly discretion which will give him his victory! The world is often wedded to a necessary convention. But oh, if only the blessed people of this planet would understand that there is a time to shatter convention and to throw to the winds the caution that breeds discouragement because it stops mankind just at the moment when he is about to take the first step that will achieve his victory. Again and again we have watched with intense desire to see an individual reach up for the victory that he longs to have only to stand by as he subsequently allowed doubts, fears, and discouragement to creep into his consciousness and upset his course. Do people suppose for one moment that doubt, fear, or discouragement is going to produce for them a miracle of happiness or blessing? Do men think that when they turn away from the light that the light is going to pursue them and then say forsooth, "Here is your immortal inheritance, I want you to have it"? Blessed ones, the reverse is true. For those who turn away from the light soon find that the light turns away from them even as those who draw nigh to God find that he draws nigh to them.{185} Men must develop - out of the seed-flame of Almighty God and his internal reality planted right within the forcefield of the body temple - the necessary determination to enter into their freedom. Freedom will not come to mankind simply because he desires it. Freedom comes about as the result of God's laws acting in the domain of the individual and expressing through him those righteous acts which attune him with the power and victory of his own God Presence, the I AM in every man. God did not create one man to obtain his victory and another to go down to defeat. He created every individual to obtain his victory, and every individual is intended by Him to obtain it. The key to each one's overcoming lies within his own acceptance of his victory as a fait accompli - an accomplished fact - and the turning of his attention to those things that will produce his freedom and the miracles of life that intensify the flame of reality within the mind. In this manner, the consciousness is able to cut itself free from trivial and disturbing affairs. Do individuals suppose that they can continue to wrong themselves and then find that they will be praised by the universe? The universe will praise the man or woman who will right himself, not wrong himself. Far too long have individuals walked in the pathway of doubt and fear, seeking first this way and then that way to obtain some understanding of the Infinite. Yet the natural simplicity of a little child that is a part of everyone would give them the answer if they would only attune with it. I do not say that great benefit cannot accrue to the disciple who contacts one of the ascended masters or cosmic beings. But certainly if individuals were permitted to walk directly to the very throne of God and to touch his hand, unless they were able to retain the vibration of infinite love which he gave they could not possibly know their freedom. The real way to freedom, then, is for the individual to absorb within the flame of his own heart that tremendous God-joy which reaches out into the universe and bears good tidings of great things which shall be to all people.{186} The Universe loves you. The Universe created you. The Universe is the oneness of Almighty God, the power of the Word that expanded and filled all creation. This is God's victory, your victory, over all outer manifestations. Did not the Father say through the Son, "All power in heaven and earth is given unto me"? {187} Do you think, precious ones, that this power is given to one man to assert himself above another? Do you think it is an exclusive formula that one man is given and that another is denied? Nay, I tell you, the power of the Universe is for all and I affirm it by my flame of victory. If you will call to me, I will anchor a flame of victory right within your own forehead. I will anchor it through your spiritual eye that it may rise and pulsate and give you a glimpse of your infinite, cosmic future. But you must have the faith to believe that I exist, and you must have the faith to believe that you exist. You must have the faith to believe that a response can leap across the space between our worlds and convey to you that which God has already conveyed. Then by reactivation in principle you will receive that gracious gift of life - the animating principle of immortality that is the flame of your overcoming victory. You do not need to die. You need never cease to be. But you do need to identify with your own reality which holds in trust for you the gift of immortal life. Through identification with that reality, you become one with it and there is no power in the universe that can ever take from you your victory over death - the last enemy that shall go down to defeat{188} - because you have fulfilled the fiats of Almighty God and manifested the power of the living Word. Individuals should understand that this is a simple process of identification with God, but once entered into it becomes complex because the nature of all creation is embodied in the central power of the Word that went forth and created man - the Word I AM. When men understand the power of that Word, they will see that the I AM claims for them the reality of themselves. But when this power is applied to trivial conditions which men impute to themselves by using the name of God I AM before such words as sick, tired, discouraged, unhappy, angry, etc., they weaken themselves spiritually by accepting these negative qualities and entering into their vibratory action. I AM Victory, and I come to bestow my blessing upon those who will accept it. I AM Victory, and I confess to you that God is my victory. There is never any need for anyone to be ashamed to acknowledge the power of the invincible cosmic honor flame of Almighty God. In heaven's name, what is the world coming to when individuals feel they can deny the Presence of life that has given them birth and opportunity and every other good and gracious gift which they enjoy? The world belongs to Him and He belongs to you, and this belonging is the greatest conveyance that has ever been made. Unfortunately, the world neither understands nor accepts it; for they dwell in the obscuring clouds of mortal consciousness, of things visible which in themselves do not have the power to perpetuate life but only to manifest it temporarily and fragmentarily. All of nature - earth, air, fire, and water, the very elements of which your body temple is composed - must come into obedience unto cosmic law and to Spirit; for the Spirit of God that giveth life,{189} the Spirit of your own mighty I AM Presence, is your victory and it is within you. If you will only accept and understand this fact, you can have the dominion that the Christ intended you to have over all outer conditions including the manifestation of the natural man which houses the Spirit. As I return momentarily in thought to the idea of one man possessing exclusively this quality of dominion, I want to say that there are those upon earth who would like to convey the fact that they and they alone are the Infinite God. This is darkness and shame, for the gift of the Infinite God is given to all, and the spiritual loaf of his love was broken into many crumbs that fall as sacred Eucharist from his table. Your own mighty I AM Presence itself is a fragment of the whole that has within itself the power of the whole, the quality of the whole, and the ability to communicate itself to man and to realign his four lower bodies. Jesus said long ago, "I and my Father are one{190}. ... Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us"{191} is our prayer. Let all understand that oneness does not mean loss of opportunity. God, if he desired to do so, could long ago have absorbed into himself all of creation by a fiat of his mind. But he preferred to take mankind into his heart as conscious, God-free beings possessing the equality (the energy-quality) of all eternity. He wants them to possess every quality that he has in dynamic abundance, retaining for them forever that wondrous happiness of utter givingness which the Presence of life is. I AM Victory. You are Victory. God is Victory. All of life is Victory. When men understand this truth and abide in it, when they dwell in the buoyant consciousness of this Victory, each individual monad will begin daily to express a greater measure of that cosmic dynamism which life desires to give to every man. Now let us seize this opportunity that is before us! Let us change the world by the power of infinite love and the acceptance of victory for every man! Let us deny the power of outer conditions to limit any man, woman, or child upon the planet! And let us see if we cannot produce for this age, here and now, the miracles of Cosmic Christ victory! From the heart of the Great Central Sun, I AM Victory ****** Chapter 34 Jesus Christ - August 25, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 34 - Jesus Christ - August 25, 1968 "Come. The Spirit and the Bride Say, Come." Blessed Shepherds Who Seek to Serve and to Follow Me in the Regeneration, As the period of peril concerning the Dark Cycle of January 18, 1969, approaches, our love and our desire to feed the lambs of God, to gather them together into the sheepfold, increase. There are many magnificent individuals on the planet who have offered themselves to God in service who do not yet understand that all of their substance, all of their supply, all of the abundance that they enjoy was bestowed upon them by God as stewards of cosmic grace.{192} There is a wondrous need exhibited by mankind - like that of young birds in the nest who extend their necks and opened beaks to the mother bird as she comes to feed them. They are utterly dependent upon her loving attention and watchful care, and the same is true of the lambs of my flock. The Good Shepherd must provide for the sheep a full measure of his heart's devotion.{193} I am come, then, to remind the mankind of this planet that regardless of the straining difficulties that exist between the religious sects - the unfortunate disagreements in doctrine and the promotion of hatred in our Father's name as individuals consider that they do God service to separate themselves from those who think not as they do - the question must be raised, What can be done about the separated brethren? I remind you of my parable concerning the workers in the vineyard.{194} Some who were hired at the eleventh hour received one penny for their labor even as they who came in at the first hour and toiled all day received one penny. The grumbling of those who came in at the first hour was answered by the lord of the vineyard, "Did you not bargain for so much?" And they said, "Yea." And he said, "You have received it. Take what is there and go thy way: I will give unto this last even as unto thee for it is lawful for me to do what I will with mine own." And this was followed by my statement, "Many who are first shall be last and the last shall be first, for many be called but few chosen." If those who have a smattering of spiritual knowledge and dogma and a touch of devotion wish to abstain from the heart's love of their own divinity, to deny opportunity to others, and to speak disparagingly of universal harmony between peoples, we will indeed go out into the highways and byways and bring in the multitudes and the last shall be first. There are many people in the world today who have had little exposure to faith in God. They have had little contact with religious doctrine, and they have had little experience with the things of the Spirit. Yet their hearts are anhungered and they, too, are sheep of the Father's pasture. We turn, then, not in desperation but in deeper love, to those who have long lived in error and in the stain of moral sin. We turn to those who have been enmeshed in the gambling marts of the world, in prostitution, in crime, in narcotics traffic, and to those who dwell under the shadow of the wings of darkness. We call to the lame, the halt, the blind, and to all those who have need of our healing hands and we say, Come. The Spirit and the bride say, Come. Let all who are athirst say, Come.{195} And let a new outreach go forth into the world bearing the tidings of truth. As Saint Francis taught the law of reembodiment in the public squares, so let us now have teachers who are willing to brave the censure of the merging orthodox movements that would unify all churches into one great church in order to intensify their power of religious control in the world. Let us proclaim the truth of reembodiment to the world in order that they might clearly see that all of their infirmities and all of their problems are caused by disobedience to the law in the present as well as in times past. Let us remove from them the fear of religious persecution and the fear of an awful state of burning in a world hereafter and yet to come. Let us show them that it is not alone for the world to come that they should have fear and respect but also for the world right here where their own karma returns to them day by day that which they have sent out. Here the mercy of heaven holds in abeyance the overpowering karmic record which some do write - a karma which is more than most of them could bear. Therefore, the Lords of Karma mete out to them in succeeding embodiments that karma which requires balance, that which they have unjustly created. And this action is taken not in order to punish a wayward generation, but solely for the purpose of learning and instruction that through trial and error they may yet come to the full opportunity of cosmic sonship which God offers to all. Let us show forth the meaning of the universal Christ. Let us publish, let us preach, let us teach, let us heal, let us illumine, let us feed the sheep of God who are hungry for the truth. Let those in all religious movements who can accept our call made in this day and age for the salvation of a planet and its people see the need to work together in harmony with the Spirit of life and with the ascended masters' octave. Unfortunately, men have expounded upon the idea that we are not real - that the ascended masters do not exist. Some who have failed to recognize that God is within them have launched attacks against the metaphysical movements. These have not understood that aspect of the law which reveals that his kingdom, being within them,{196} is also without and that as he lives in the microcosm, so he lives also in the Macrocosm. These do not understand how God has made possible the conveyance of hearts - communication between the octaves of heaven and earth through the great macrocosmic network of light rays, harmoniously blending throughout the warp and woof of creation. Neither do they understand the fact that when one part of the web of creation trembles, all other parts are affected. Let men understand, then, that not by condemnation of one another will they succeed in rallying the congregation of the righteous{197} but by the proclamation of truth as God has given them the eyes to see it. It is never wise to limit the eyes of others but to give to all the freedom you seek for yourselves, for the day has come when the expansion of universal law must be accomplished and the truth must be brought to the masses - "Feed my sheep." {198} Today the communications media control the world. Were it not for the light energy, the cosmic electricities involved in the transmission of radio and television waves, the spark of electrical energy within the motors that turn the great presses of the world, and the universal energy imprisoned within the telephone, the teletype, the communication satellites, and all of the various forms of media, it would be impossible for mankind to contact one another. At the present hour the mass media are controlled for the most part by the commercial interests of the world. Among these are the merchants of Babylon as well as those who are in the fold of the light. For there are just men in industry, yet the commercial aspects of media exert an overwhelming influence in the field of broadcasting and in the programming of radio and television time. Do you think the power of free speech, of free press, and of free assembly is allowed in the Communist countries of the world? I tell you, it is in name only. Do you believe that Reverend Billy Graham could go to Moscow to preach the word of God? If they permitted him to come at all, it would be to exploit his name and to make propaganda to show their warped sense of freedom to the world. Do you realize that America, through creeping forms of control, is being headed in the direction of this same type of totalitarianism? The political control of media has been sought and achieved by some in the denial of program time to individuals who seek the dissemination of ascended master truth. But they will not succeed, for the powers of the light will work through the students who realize that their future in the world not only now but also in the days to come depends upon their immediate backing of our projects with the necessary supply which God has entrusted to them. Therefore we know that the overcoming power of victory and of the light to help contact embattled, tumultuous mankind will be mustered here and now by the students of the light until no power can hinder or further delay the plans of the Great White Brotherhood for the incoming golden age. We expect to see a miracle of Christ-victory brought out of all of the darkness and despair that has been created by the astral hordes and unleashed in the world at large. We expect that the truth of Christ-regeneration for every man will be expounded all over the world. We expect a sea of light to cover the earth above the mountain ranges.{199} We expect the prayerful support of our messengers and the teachers whom we send forth into the world, and we expect the decree support of our projects and plans as well. We expect that in every way unity shall prevail and that no power of shame or darkness shall further deter us from releasing cosmic truth to the world. Then shall every city, town, hamlet, and home bristle with the spiritual energies of cosmic electricities, and the mass media of the world will carry constructive, uplifting instruction to the youth that will enable them to grasp the cosmic principles of life and to understand the full meaning thereof. Then they will no longer play with the dolls of horror and the weapons of war. Then will they cease their struggle to intensify the spirit of vain competition, and they will understand that man can compete only with himself for the overcoming of his imperfections. Then will they understand that cosmic law, the law of unity, of harmony, of the golden age and the golden rule must prevail and that by its prevalence abundant life will come to all. I AM and I remain the Good Shepherd. Yours for victory in the light, Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 35 Gautama Buddha - September 1, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 35 - Gautama Buddha - September 1, 1968 Come, Let Us Build a Better World! To All Who Love Peace, Greetings! When man is aware of it, his search for God is the most beautiful experience of his life. The Lord of the universe continues his love-striving for his creation, seeking to bring it to the lotus throne of peace. But as long as their hearts are involved in the sense of struggle, as long as their ways are not the ways of peace, they cannot truly know him.{200} He hides in nature behind the visible forest, beneath the carpet of the grass. His face peeps through the billowing clouds, and life for the soul who would scale the infinite is as a game of hide and seek. The concept of ships that pass in the night, each containing the dearest of friends, is like unto the unrealized man - the soul within who knows, the outer self that remains aloof. There are many who feel that God should show himself to all men by his omnipotence. Others understand that life in bud can come full bloom only through the stresses of nature that open the rose. No careless hands of violence can steal from life the treasures of the Infinite. Yet the question is asked again and again, "What can we do to inherit eternal life?"{201} At times the searching ones feel a sense of helpless frustration. It is as though ebb tide has come to the soul who seeks to illumine others. At that moment we commend all to the patience of God.{202} He who has labored six days and rested the seventh patiently observes that the sun does not set upon the first day of creation. He is Lord of the seven days, yet the dalliance of outer expression as it seeks to run in the race with the fleetness of the Spirit seldom achieves the heavenly goal. Is it any wonder that God speaketh to the avatars and saith, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"?{203} For while he, the Great Giver, continues to expand his passion for peace and beauty, his love of serenity and the glow of his fires suffuse all of nature. How few search him out all the way. How few understand that to search him out all the way does not mean an end to one's spiritual responsibilities, even as it does not mean an end to one's earthly responsibilities as long as one remains unascended. First there is man. Then there is man and God. Then there is God and man. Then there is God, and then God stands embodied in flesh form. Clothing mortality with immortality, he seeks to express the fullness of his magnificent infinitude within a dewdrop, a rose, a glimmer of sunbeam, and the hum of the universe, Worlds without end, vast skyey distances - all of them collapsed into a second, into a pinpoint of light - bespeak the fragrance of hope as hope permeates the universe. God has not reckoned with the ultimate end of his creation, for living and dying worlds turning in space all turn in him. But it is within the domain of his highest expression, man - whom he seeks to raise to coequality - that peril threatens. The appearance of death, of cessation, of blackness and void is no part of reality - as it was expressed so beautifully in the Bhagavad-Gita - "Never the Spirit was born; the Spirit shall cease to be never;/Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!/Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the Spirit for ever;/Death hath not touched it at all, dead though the house of it seems!"{204} Nevertheless, the fragility of the soul looms as a shroud as the Spirit of life seeks to convey immortality in order that man may continue to become a living soul. It is elementary that life, which is God, could not continually support any manifestation that must die - that carries within it the seeds of its own destruction. Death comes when the initial impetus of spin in the top of manifestation is lost; no longer vertical, it has passed the point where the hand of the master could yet provide another turn. Thus the personal manvantara has ended, the flow of individual experience has terminated. Now the miracle of mercy, of reembodiment, raises the hopeful gurgling babe to begin again the "long" trek of individual life expression which, in reality, is but a vanishing mist - no sooner come than gone. The love of God is not so. And his way of peace and of beauty, eluding men more than pursuing them, remains the goal of all ages. One of the most unfortunate conditions in the world of men is that they seek constantly for a god who will favor their ways, who will condone their infractions of cosmic law. Thus a god made in their own image is easily raised in the idols of the marketplaces, in spiritual organizations as well as in political and cultural circles. Thus are born personalities to be worshiped, lauded, and sought after who glorify the status quo whatever it may be. In pursuit of these "haloed" figures - and I apply this term equally to the idols of the screen whose questionable temporal crown many covet - the masses deny the light of the Christ that God has placed within them, the unfoldment of reality within the center of their own being, and the last full measure of devotion that they must give until the great divine magnet can draw them to God's heart. The way of the illumined ones is not to proclaim, "Lo, Christ is here" or "Christ is there." It always has been and it always will be to find the kingdom that is within.{205} This is why the gurus, the great spiritual teachers of all times, have proclaimed that the kingdom of God is within. The way of personality, of personal adulation and personal glamour, is not proclaimed in the ascended masters' Summit Lighthouse activity. The masters of wisdom have sought herein to teach men the way of the lonely ones, the way of those who choose to unfold the bud that life has put upon its stalk and offered unto them, the way of those who are grateful for the flow of vital energies within themselves, who recognize that God's garden is composed of many varieties, who understand that the firmament of the heavens is filled with many stars who seek to unfold and express his light and beauty. This is the way of God. Mankind must learn to surround themselves with the elements of creative expression which God has given them. These elements must be outpictured in the fields of government, religion, social service, the cultural and dramatic arts, and all manner of human endeavor. Men must seek to fulfill their places in the creative scheme of God and in the brotherhood of all in whom he has breathed the breath of life. They must recognize the golden-rule ethic, even though it may seem hard to live by in a world where harsh individuality in crude bas-relief leaves in its wake monuments to the defeat of self in the valley of the skulls. Golgotha, the place of the skull,{206} is the place of testing and crumbling - a testing of that which is real in man and the crumbling away of that which is unreal. The divine man, having surrendered his all to the infinite Way, is crucified between the two malefactors{207} and his form is removed in the hope of a quiet resurrection. With the first rays of the dawn and the summoning of the life force, as a lamp wick draws the oil to the flame, the emergent spiritual forces pulsate through the flesh form and quicken it. The hope of resurrection from the dead lives in every man, for triumph of the Christ and the triumph of the Buddha is one magnificent initiation that is recorded in the memory body of every man, woman, and child upon the planet. This recording of victory makes it possible for every seeking son to find his way home to the peace of God that accomplisheth and transcendeth all things. Peace is not dead, beloved ones. Peace liveth, peace floweth, peace ascendeth, peace transcendeth, peace anointeth, peace maketh still and draweth out of the stillness the eternal sound of Home. "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," said my beloved brother, Jesus.{208} Together we offer to the world arms intertwined and hearts devoted to life's purpose. East meets West in the flow of our love, and individuals are summoned to frame a more beautiful world. Together, the Carpenter of Nazareth and the Arbiter of Peace extend hands of heavenly compassion to the world community. Come, let us build a better world. Let us raise man below as above - in the life of form and in the formless, in the visible and in the invisible - to the throne of enjoyment and happiness in order that the cosmic spectacle may involve God and each one. In radiant peace, I AM Gautama ****** Chapter 36 The Great Divine Director - September 8, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 36 - The Great Divine Director - September 8, 1968 Leadership, Take an Uncompromising Stand for Righteousness! To Our Many Sons and Daughters of Light, The recalcitrance of human nature has been building over centuries of neglect of spiritual opportunity by embodied mankind. Their gaze has been focused outwardly. And whereas all life around them moves on in cyclic fashion, as falling leaves descend to the ground and die, they do not seem to reach out readily, eagerly, and hopefully to discover the inner purposes of life. Their consciousness - captivated, then, by the senses - is wound tighter and tighter around the shroud of human density which accumulates, layer upon layer, and affords less and less opportunity for perspective. We are not standing idly by. One is being taken while another is left.{209} Those who are being taken are the alert, the devoted, and the perceptive who are determined and do demonstrate their mastery over outer circumstances. Beloved ones, you should recognize the fact that all things are in a state of flux. In the main, man is moving forward and spiraling upward; but some, by reason of karmic violations, move upward only to fall backward into careless decay. It should be understood by everyone who follows the sacred path that leads to God realization and Godly manifestation that man does not swoop from the first flush of the dawn of purpose into the twilight of sweet accomplishment. Victories are won in small portions or larger ones, as the case may be. None should be discouraged simply because he has not manifested the fullness of mastery which he desires. Let all understand that God's love for each one is exhibited in his watchful care, in his concern, and in his readiness to transmit progress to man as he is able to receive it. Some individuals who are very sturdy, indeed, demand of the universe a great outpouring of progressive victory. They are able to receive it, and they expand very rapidly. Others who call for their expansion and the perfection of the Infinite, when they receive the promptings of the Holy Spirit are thoroughly shaken by heaven's response and sometimes they retreat to the rocks of mortal density where they prefer to seclude themselves from the world and live the simple life of the idle visionary or the child-man, involved in a host of games which they can play to while away the allotted time that God has given to them. Still others have a different concept. They ask for a little advancement, or such as God feels that they are able to receive. They accept it when it is given, and they make steadfast progress. Heaven welcomes all progress. And whereas the Father seeks to glorify the Son in the ever-present now, the readiness of the Son is governed, in the main, by his free will. The greatest key for the advancing chela, then, is to call for the will of God to be stimulated throughout his entire being and consciousness. It should be understood that the will of God actually beats man's heart, stimulates his digestive system, and provides the impetus for perfection throughout the physical domain. When interfering activities are allowed to intrude themselves upon the perfection of the divine pattern that is inherent in man - even within the cellular structure of his physical body - there is a jangle of inharmony, a friction between the perfect model and that which challenges the harmonious relationship of the parts with each other and with the whole, and disease follows. The quickening of man's entire consciousness and the harnessing of the four lower bodies for maximum efficiency is best accomplished, then, through his understanding of the nature of the divine will. There has been a great deal of study and experimentation by members of the medical profession and other investigators in the material sciences concerning the effect of the mind upon the body. In that connection I would like to point out that the planet is one, but this idea is too big for most people to understand. Each nation is one, and this idea is also too big for many to understand. The community is one, and this idea some can assimilate. For those who are able to understand it, I must state that the body of the world - civilization as a whole - is subject to each individual's thoughts and feelings taken singularly and to the thoughts and feelings of mankind taken as a whole. The thoughts and feelings of the masses have created famine, hunger, and disease, war, and natural disaster. The thoughts of the masses have conspired to shake the foundations of heaven itself and to bring forth avatars with divine missions to correct the conditions mankind have brought upon themselves through this untoward use of divine energy. The thoughts of the masses are a vital factor in the manifestation of individual and planetary happiness or unhappiness. Today, men are witnessing more than ever the spread of violent ideas through the mass media. I would remind that the spread of peace, of beauty, of harmony, of culture, and of reality can also be activated by the correct use of media, of science, and of the mind of man. It is a great pity that many of the orthodox leaders of the world, with the exception of a few such as Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, have not been active in teaching the people the power of positive thinking, of mind over matter, and the control of emotions. So lacking is the education of the people in these matters that many successful professional men actually project feelings of hostility against individuals and segments of society that are not to their liking, and they are totally ignorant of the great harm and the great karma that they thereby incur. Because of the dearth of right knowledge in high places concerning the laws governing thought transference, the thought-power of energy misused goes out into the world and stimulates frictions. If the clergy and the laity of the orthodox movements of Christianity and other religious orders would wake up and recognize the power of right thought and right feeling to magnetize more of their kind and to galvanize right action, they could provide a sound basis for the power of right example in the world community. For as subtle and invisible as the stealthy vibrations or mortal wickedness and hatred that now radiate in the world are, the power of good would swallow up the power of darkness and light would be shed upon many of the problems now disturbing mankind if those to whom the masses look for leadership would take an uncompromising stand for righteousness (the right use of thought and feeling). We cannot see how the world situation can get better without first getting worse unless people will turn now and recognize that the Christ view, the divine view, is not a neat little package which they can tie and hold within a healthy and glowing sect. It is not possible to remain aloof to the problems of the world and to the divine plan for the planet while you are seeking to work out your own salvation. Personal salvation, blessed ones, is dual. It affords each individual a means of finding himself, but it also requires that in finding the self one possess understanding of the needs of others and give that assistance to life which wisdom would dictate. We do not say that everyone should become involved to the same degree in service to the planet; there are many offices that need filling, and there are many tasks that need doing. But there are some things that all should do and one of them is to exercise the power of right thought. When we consider what has made heaven what it is, we recognize full well that the correct use of the divine mind - of the mind of Christ, of the mind of the Logos - has ever brought about the greatest benefits to all creation. This attitude, and I reference the divine attitude, cannot possibly have in it the elements of hatred, distrust, and decay. True though it may be that there are crafty ones upon the planet who will use their questionable prerogative of individual action and say one thing while doing another, this should have no bearing on the standard that individuals or society as a whole should keep. For those who practice hypocrisy are sick, and they need a physician. One day they will find that the craftiness they have exhibited is a manifestation of their own warped vision of the world. They have thought, because they were exposed to poor examples in their immediate environment or in the world at large, that such conduct was permissible. Therefore, their way is to outsmart others before others outsmart them. This is not the correct attitude for the advanced chela to have and, for that matter, it is not a correct attitude for anyone to have. The universe was created in basic trust - the trust of every part in the wholeness of the vast creative scheme, the trust of every part in the head and in the plan for the entire cosmos. Those who have little faith, strangely enough, seem to pin what faith they have in themselves. Unfortunately, they pin their faith not in the Real Self but in the pseudoself - in the carnal mind, in the outer manifestation. With the thought and the desire to assist the chelas and to help the world to function in a golden-age manner as it emerges from the dark ages of the past, I propose the mobilization of every gift and grace that life can bestow to move man forward spiritually and progressively in every way. Thus should the technology of this age be employed together with each day's opportunity to direct into life its true and intended beauty. In the name of the living Christ, I remain The Great Divine Director ****** Chapter 37 Nada - September 15, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 37 - Nada - September 15, 1968 Practicing the Principle of Love Blessed Ones Who Follow in the Way of Christ Regeneration, There are those to whom the idea of practicing the principle of love is abhorrent. They have seen violence in the world, their early environment has been tedious and destructive. Let us remember that all have not had the same opportunity in life to witness those happiness-producing concepts that were cultivated around the hearthside by the early American women. Cottage industry, such as that advocated by the late Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, has its own peculiar charm. Early America practiced by the hearthside that form of busyness which produced a great deal of the necessities of life that are now readily available in the marketplace. To spin thread from the flax and then to weave it into homespun brought to the wearer the comfort of nature, of field, of mother, and of home. The love that is now reserved for a few fortunate babes in the land whose mothers yet knit or sew their tiny garments was in bygone days in America appreciated by children of all ages and by the father of the house as well. The rapid industrialization of the land, the growth of the cities, and an increasing technology have certainly taken their toll upon the youth of the world. Their perspective, which at one time seemed forward looking, has taken the attitude of a forward principle in reverse because of the misapplications of science. Certainly the ascended masters do not advocate a return to spinning and weaving or to producing within the home all of the clothing and victuals which are needed by the average family, but we do advocate a realization by everyone that there is a source in nature from whence all things come. This source is divine love, for it is love that bursts through the fallow earth and expands stalk, blade, and ear. It is love that watches over the growing things of the field and observes their patterns and production for the good of man. It is love that stands guard over home and hearth and seeks to implant in each soul some realization of the worth of life's opportunity and the worth of life itself. Life is a doorway through which men gaze into another realm, at times knowingly and then again unknowingly. Some are so busy creating imaginary pictures by the fire they have kindled upon their own hearth that they scarcely find time to examine the seed of universal reality implanted within them or to aspire beyond the self to understand the meaning of life and nature. Yet life and God, which are one, have endowed man with great richness in many ways. But an appreciation for life must be acquired; it must be learned. Many of the young today will find it necessary to unlearn much of that which they consider to be real. They are caught in the jar of the door of the ages. Long ago, the records of history were not available as they are today. The recordings of mankind's infamy and the disturbing conditions which were his undoing were not perpetuated through education but only by the deep stirrings of unrest that people felt from within themselves, from their own etheric (subconscious) records. Today they have to carry not only the burden of their own unbalanced karma and the restlessness of their own unfruitful lives as the Spirit within them seeks to draw them upward into reality, but also they must stand face to face with the age-old problems of history all coming to the fore at once as intricate weavings to be redeemed. What can we do, blessed mothers of America and the world, for the babes whom God has entrusted to us? What shall we do today in order that tomorrow may be better for them? One of the things that all can do is to recognize that selfless action is required. The span of many individuals' lives has passed the zenith, yet many are groping to find themselves at the close of an earthly cycle. It does not take a great deal of searching to find others in life who are positioned in their thinking just a bit below the level of one's own range of spiritual comprehension. Share the deep longings you have within yourselves with others, being careful to enter only where you have first knocked and received the welcome to come in. Friendship should be given to those that seek it and to those who appreciate it. If you thrust yourself, your ideas, or your love upon those who view your every act with suspicion, you may actually cause them to become hostile not only toward yourselves but also toward the world. You may then be accused of hypocrisy or base motivation, and little profit will accrue to anyone whereas great loss can come to all concerned. The bulwark of prayer, the bulwark of cosmic attunement with the God Self of every individual, will enable you to develop a kinship with all life that can foster upon the planet greater understanding among peoples because through attunement with cosmos there is created an unlimited flow of Godly expression. Today the art of spinning flax has, for the most part, been lost; but all can learn to take the thread of pure longing that connects each one with God and to spin in their meditations the substance of the Spirit. You can design and create swaddling garments of light to surround those who would resent your personal interference in their spiritual affairs. You can weave this thread upon the loom of your mind into pictures of home and hearth, of friendship, of the beauty of flowers, and of nature herself. You can hold thoughts of rosy-cheeked babes, of hope in the eyes of the children of the world, and of the calmness of the divine mind in the downtrodden and those whose earthly responsibilities are heavy. Through these pictures of perfection which you hold for the race, God will convey the greatest passion of his love and his supernal strength to all who can receive it and to his devotees. You can take the cloth from the looms of your spiritual weavings and make of it a seamless garment{210} to clothe yourself and your loved ones. You can understand that that which cannot be done outwardly can still proceed from within. Men may look upon you and say, "What does that woman or that man have that I do not? I would like it." But be on guard. For it is a flame, it is a torch, a lamp in the night that has been held by many Florence Nightingales and George Washingtons who have kept the watch or prayed on bended knee for those whom God entrusted to their care. You must learn that you cannot always share the secrets and sacred moments of life with all who seem interested. Frequently it is best to let them wrest them from you, even as Jacob did wrestle with the angel for his blessing;{211} for men always appreciate more that which they have sought with all their hearts. Today the greatest hindrances to true spirituality in the orthodox movements are fear on one hand and insipid love on the other. First, they have threatened men in the name of religion with eternal burning and then they have followed up their threats by a wretched pleading for souls to come unto God. Many have been driven from God by fear while still others have been drawn to him by a false love. Yet I do not deny that among those who serve without understanding - without the correct interpretation of the Scriptures, having been subjected to many vicious forces that have worked through religious orders masquerading as angels of light - there are many sweet and devoted people. We pray also for these and for all who seek to serve mankind. But we know that the Christed way, the way of regeneration, not only disputes with the doctors in the temple,{212} overturns the moneychangers' tables,{213} and recognizes a generation of vipers,{214} but also extends living hands of light and saith unto all: "Come and dine.{215} Unless ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye have no life in you."{216} I remain your sister in divine love, Nada Chohan of the Sixth Ray of Ministration and Service ****** Chapter 38 El Morya - September 22, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 38 - El Morya - September 22, 1968 The Plan Must Be Externalized To Those Who Lament Not the Will of God, How shall we gather the eagles together?{217} With what measure shall we dispense salvation? The trembling in the cup of reality causes us to ponder how bestowal may be made upon the seeker. If the gift be carelessly given or the precious liquid be spilled, who shall make the mark upon the record and who shall erase it? To capture the sense of the sacred breath requires diligence on the part of the seeker. There is no room for nonsense when one ponders the meaning of life. A vapid consciousness mulls over the trivial and bypasses the thunder from Olympus. The holy mount of attainment beckons. Men are busy. They go their separate ways. They flow as dust blown by a strong wind. And they remain the unformed, the uninformed, and the formless to whom has been given outer form. Consecration is the requirement of this day. Past reckonings and devotions are not suitable tokens for the journey. A new summoning must be made daily of energy and of the fire of purpose. Renewal must become a habit, and the generation of the will to renew must also be sought. The price of freedom is high. The diligent are aware and the Lord cometh not as a thief{218} to such as these, for they bid him welcome and they vanish with him quietly, rising toward the dawn of realization simultaneously as they attain the zenith of radiant purpose. Ours is to pursue. And if we be pursued by a higher purpose, we bid it welcome. Hierarchy has thought; now it is the responsibility of men to think. In the world today a release of light has been made and the glyphs are recorded of vast cascading radiances. Underneath the feet of men there are stagnant pools of darkness. Indescribable horror lies locked in these subterranean channels clogged with lethargy, greed, and the base order of the carnal nature. While many feed upon this substance and ignore the hopeful flowers descending within rays of light, we plead for an awakening. It is one thing to see the ignorant feeding upon unclean substance, but to see the children of the sun to whom has been entrusted the banner of hope feast at the same board with the sons of Belial is a sight calculated to make the hair stand on end. Yet the mercy of God proceeds, life proceeds, and the carvers of jade and ivory watch as men distort the figures of nobility into the mud pies of a child. Hierarchy has discussed, hierarchy has thought, hierarchy has loved. The children of cosmic nature have spun, as your beloved Nada has said, "garments from the sun." We can do no more. Heaven can do no more. The quickening, the awakening, must now come from the will's stimulation within the hearts of embittered men who are in bondage. I think, then, that we can safely suggest to the students of the light to make calls to the Lords of Karma for an overturning of the table of records. I think it is time that mercy be dispensed to those who merit it and to those who seek it. The handwriting on the wall, whether or not it is seen by men, has made its appearance to the discerning. We are not abandoning the ship of state. We are carefully integrating the saints into the fold of service for the plan. The plan must be externalized. The children of darkness have said, "We will fabricate darkness." The children of the light, then, must spend their time in designing light. They must follow the prescribed patterns of the will of God. They must work in the light, they must be examples of the light, they must tremble with the light - unleash it and live by it. We have seen how men make caricatures of darkness. We have watched as they traced by gross exaggeration parodies on the forms and faces of men. Yet I tell you truly, those who see with the eyes of the Spirit know that the darkness in men is worse than that which they portray. Conversely, the unfailing light of God, the universal design of infinite beauty, the holy reality of the Lord in his temple, is made known to us. And I say to the brethren of light, it is worth all the effort men could make through manvantaras after manvantaras.{219} There is no end to striving, for beauty unfolds progressively within the transcendent image of God. Now we ponder the need to teach the young. How hungry their hearts are. How eagerly they grasp the frail patterns of drops of light extended from the sun, the drippings of hope that, as holy unguents, anoint the consciousness. What shall we say when we consider the minglings of peoples, the vast montage of society, civilization pursuing itself as a dragon nibbling its own tail? - India, America, the bond, the free, the wise, the foolish, the brave, the cowardly, the rich, the poor, the poor in spirit, the struggling ones, and the children of vain desire who scrape the very walls of their own reality until there is nothing left. But oh, how beautiful life is in its contrasts! And I think perchance that all of the darkness of men has made a canvas upon which the light can paint its sublime reality. The temporal is but the screen on which the radiance of the Infinite does shine. And it shines to drop hope to men, to swaddle them with comfort, to show them the way through the dark that they may part it, to lift the curtains of obscurity, and to fashion in the minds of the smallest and least of these the design called life. The machinations of chaos bear their own harvest, but the seed of universal grace plants the feet upon the Path. Then the journey is undertaken and our abode is discovered. Where am I? Where are you? Are we not all within His hands? Shall we not bask in the radiance of the light? For certainly the darkness has no radiance, but in our consciousness there is the constant dispensation of hope. Morya challenges. Was the Taj Mahal{220} the work of an empty moment? What of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh?{221} Has it outlived its creators? What is the message of the Taj? of the Pyramid? What is the message of life? Shall men destroy themselves in the search or shall they find themselves? The individual is of greatest worth, for the individual is a universe. The individual is cosmos. The individual is always the center of it all. The pure sun center (pure son = per-son, or person) is a great seed. Like the tiny mustard seed, it will expand and expand and expand and the birds of the air will come and make their nests in its branches.{222} This parable illustrates the magnificent truths that all things come to him who unfolds the divine seed; for he finds through the light of the Christ, through the light of Reality, through the power of the Word, through Logos, that he is one with God, that God is one with him. He finds that there is no darkness in him at all,{223} but only the pure light of universal reckoning which finds its way to every particle of reality and immerses it in the spirit of creative purpose. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. All things were made by him with purpose, and without him was nothing made with purpose.{224} The way of the carnal mind is death. The way of the Christ mind is universal life.{225} The soul, balloonlike, expands by the breath of the Almighty. Consciousness flows outward even as it flows inward. There is neither height nor depth in which God is not. And neither height nor depth can separate us, as Saint Paul long ago declared, from the love of God which is in the Christ.{226} Be at peace, each one, in the certain knowledge that one with God is a majority. Life is one. In the Father's name and by the Father's love, I remain Your devoted mentor of the Spirit, Morya El ****** Chapter 39 Mother Mary - September 29, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 39 - Mother Mary - September 29, 1968 God Loves You My Beloved Sons and Daughters, So there are times when you do not feel like going on. The light seems far away, and you question your favor with heaven. The weight of returning misdeeds seems heavy on the scale of manifestation, and the comforting word far away. And on top of it all a spirit of fatigue adds to your outer distress and inner turmoil. If, then, the words of the ascended ones seem to you to be as platitudes, as oft repeated statements, believe it not; for God loves you and his love is tender, sweet, and understanding. Those who have erred much in the past, who come to him now with heavy burdens, he will not turn away. The children of the light, the elder brothers of the race, the ascended masters, and the comforting angels are also real. They will not turn you away so long as you do not turn yourself away from the light. And herein lies the danger. Man is made to feel by conspiratorial circumstances that all is lost, that he is cast out, that seedtime has come, summer and harvest, and that his fruitage is lacking. But the love of the Infinite, the eternal plan, and the etchings of tests must be taken into account. For the soul must be given the opportunity to have her fullest test in the realm of experience. We are not forbidden to reach out into the domain of men and to extend a more than ordinary passion toward embodied mankind. Have we not walked the via dolorosa? Have we not stood in the presence of the living God? Have we not lingered in the valleys and watched from the snow-crowned summits as the sun went down, washing in splendid gold the land, the air, and the sea? Oh, blessed ones, if only you would understand as you look at the lamps lit in the heavens that the fingers of God that placed them there - so far away from this terrestrial globe - are as near as the doorway of your hearts. If only you would understand that the fingers of God reach out to the meek and the lowly, to the poor and the tired, to the despairing and the joyous. For the fingers of God touch also the joyous lest they be lifted up to such a height that they could not bear a descending cycle. The sound of far-off worlds is heard in the hearts of the lonely ones, and they are lonely no longer. The collapse of the universe into the microcosm of man is the surrender of the Eternal One to the individual. The flame caresses the soul. And as God draws nigh within the flame, understanding is born and all of the pieces of the strange puzzle of life rise into place as a cosmic picture of celestial hope. "I AM the way," he said.{227} My son spake thus, and the Christ of every man that spoke in him speaks yet today. I, too, in the name of the Spirit of the Resurrection, hold the immaculate concept for every one who loves God. And how wondrous is the love of God! It is a mother's kiss planted on the forehead of a child. It is the tenderness of a father's watchful care as the fever breaks with the dawn and the heart is flooded with the promise and the hope of a new day. Things will be better. The angels, too, whisper hope to the listening hearts of men and, midst turmoil and confusion, the artistry of God is seen afresh. I cannot, in these dark hours of the nations, refrain from reaching out to touch individual man. While many are concerned with national crisis, with world-shaking events, to me - to a universal Mother - each child is important and, as a representative of the Divine Mother, I must express her love to each one. To go and do likewise{228} is to place your hand in the hand of the trembling ones who grope in the dark. They have no one else to turn to among men but yourselves. In the days to come, many will reach out into the dark to touch the hand of God and they will find your own. The chain of the Spirit must not be broken whether from near or far. Wherever the cry rises up the answer must come, hope must be bestowed, and tears wiped away. The blindness of despair must be shown to be a passing thing. The universal plan lingers in the air, but it is also in the hearts of men. Little light rays from near and far are pulling together the scattered pieces of universality. God's will is being done, even when men tremble and quaver and react as though the darkness in them were real - as though they must protect it from the covetous ones who would steal the shadowed misconceptions of their worlds because they, too, believe that they are real. Nothing is real, blessed ones, but the light and the truth and the Spirit of God. His love transcends all things in life. The sting of death cannot stand before the face of God, for he is life. And as the untoiling lilies are arrayed in white, in fragrant garments, so will everyone be whose faith is deep enough to move the heart of God, to evoke a response from him. He knoweth your needs before you ask. Yet they do not always seem to manifest. What is the reason, blessed ones? There is no reason, for they do manifest. God responds at his level with the immediate answer to every need of men, but they must learn the art of finding it, of accepting it, of receiving in grace the divine "yes" or the divine "no." And sometimes the "no" is greater than the "yes," for God knoweth what is best for men. And if they wisely ask, "Do unto me whatsoever is best - not my will, but thine, be done,"{229} they may meet their Gethsemane, their Golgotha, their via dolorosa, but this will be followed by the resurrection, by the ascension, and by unity with truth. "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."{230} Let us remember his words always. Lovingly, I remain your Mother, Mary ****** Chapter 40 Lord Ling - October 6, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 40 - Lord Ling - October 6, 1968 To Every Leader in the Lord's Domain To All Who Would Lead and Also Follow, I address myself now to the fishers of men,{231} to the shepherds who seek to follow the admonishment of the Christ "Feed my sheep."{232} The so-called thankless task - the task of unified service, of seeking to evoke from the multitudes a response to the Hidden One - is difficult indeed, and yet the need for those who would dedicate themselves to this calling has never been greater. Paul said: "We know not what we should pray for as we ought"{233} which confirms Jesus' statement "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick."{234} The spiritually infirm know it not and walk in darkness as though it were noonday. The truism "You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink"{235} is applicable to mankind upon this rebel planet. When, as Moses, I led the children of Israel across the great Sinai Desert, it was an unforgettable experience which engraved upon my heart an understanding of the differences in people - all made by the same God, all fashioned for the same purpose yet some learning slowly, others quickly, and the many in varying states in between. Yet the Lord has commanded saying, "Go forth and gather my people."{236} The remnant who respond - those who hear his voice today and desire to serve his cause - are the vanguard of the golden age. These have a crown of righteousness eternal in the heavens, yet their lives have been committed unto God who has also returned varying degrees of responsibility to each man. In many cases the Father of all has returned, as he did to me, a responsibility for a great people - for a multitude. Some may think that it is as easy to lead a vast multitude as it is to lead a few. I say, not so. For the larger the group, the greater the tribes. And the more tribes there are under one's direction, the more difficult it is to mobilize the people, for thoughts are things and the pressures of living can be enormous. Some of you will recall that when my strength waned, Aaron and Hur held up my arms.{237} For every leader in the spiritual vanguard of perfection, there must be those who will hold up the arms of the devotee and the servant of God. In the darker hours, the lighted torch must be passed and the glory of the Spirit translated into reality for another soul.{238} Just as a babe having descended into form comes to consciousness, breathes its first breath, and takes embodiment in the field of the world, so does the soul experience its own cycle of birth when it passes from death unto life. Then the things of the world that seemed so utterly important no longer matter, and the things of the Spirit that once seemed so far away and to matter so little now mean everything. In order to survive spiritually, man must do an about-face. For the cloak of materialism is a shroud; it swallows up spiritual ambition and leads the children of men into states of indolence and pleasure seeking. Here they have such a "good time" that all too often they are unwilling to ponder the sobering realities of life that are all around them or to recognize their own spiritual needs. How then can you, blessed ones, be asked to do for mankind that which he cannot and will not do for himself? I am persuaded that heaven must extend to the world the banner of hope and truth through the medium of strong leadership. It is not enough for failing, recalcitrant men to be surrounded by the eternal verities that are self-evident throughout nature. They are blind to them. Their ears are stopped. They do not hear the great tones of universal law resounding through cosmos. But when the law gathers enough momentum in human affairs to cut through human recalcitrance and to reduce man, by the circumstances of his own karma fully fair, to a position where he will accept the truth, it is often too late for him to alter his course significantly. What shall we do, then? Shall we strike fear and terror into the hearts of men or into the leaders who seek to convey truth to them? I think neither. We shall request of heaven a strengthening of the bond of service. We shall request of heaven a more ripened perfection for the servant of universal law. We shall pray that all who are willing be endowed with a greater portion of the Lord's majesty. When Elisha, son of Shaphat, asked of his guru, Elijah, a double portion of his spirit, the reply he was given placed a condition upon the response: "If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee. ..." And because his eyes were opened and he saw Elijah ascend into heaven, the noble Elisha received the mantle of Elijah which he sought.{239} Above all, I say to every leader in the Lord's domain and to all who would lead or lend a helping hand to promote the plan of expanding the light, be not discouraged or affected by mankind's perfidy, by their immersion in self-deluding concepts. Many are called but few choose.{240} As it was said long ago, "For every one thousand people, only one seeks me. For every one thousand who seek me, one finds me." There has been some extension of hope toward the planet in the dark hours of this year, for America is considered in the graphs of the ascended masters as the great wilderness land. Tamed now by the sophistry of civilization, the world rises to new disorders and, like unto the children of Israel, her people continue to worship the golden calf and to run riot against the order of universal law.{241} Now is the time when all who are able must recognize the need to cast to the winds all deterrent forces and to respond to the summoning of the banner of creative love. Men dare not spend their time and energy upon self-pursuit, upon hobbying to personal enjoyment. Those who understand the needs of this hour will see that they cannot wait any longer to act. Those who do so will be milled out in the great era of cosmic threshing when the harvest of good works is gathered into barns. At that moment, the children of the righteous shall shine forth as the sun{242} and the children of iniquity shall cry out to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them.{243} We await the dawn of peace even in the hours of man's striving, for we see that peace is worth striving for. The peace of the Spirit is the reality of foreverness. The people of this land must be caught up into the glories of spiritual reality. They must be taught the meaning of love and the exercise of the divine prerogative in man. There are many who wait. There are many who must be led. As a spokesman for hierarchy and for the Divine Mother, I add my voice to the admonishments of the day to feed the divine sheep in embodied form the living Word. This counsel, as universal wisdom, I lift up in the wilderness. Now the Son of man, the universal Christ Spirit, must be lifted up into full view that every eye may see him.{244} Error was made to be broken, bands of bondage to be sundered, and all things to be overcome. The Promised Land awaits you. Faithfully, I remain Lord Ling{245} Part the Red Sea by Lord Ling Part the Red Sea Open the way Freedom must be Each one's today. All can aspire To be now free Truly on fire Canaan to see. All that I AM Comes from on high Let none condemn Freedom is nigh. Light from above Claims now its own Heaven's great love Radiance full blown. I AM thy son Child of thy heart Victorious ones Thy grace impart. Help me right now To see my way To God I bow For strength I pray. Take me right through Master, I love you Hold me by light Guide me aright. ****** Chapter 41 Goddess Meru - October 13, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 41 - Goddess Meru - October 13, 1968 THE SPIRITUAL EDUCATION OF THE AGE I For the Illumination of Man Blessed Peacemakers Who Are Called the Children of God, Life, as an educational process, is schooling for infinity. Babes come into the world of form carrying with them the tides of a subtle glory. Men marvel at the aptitude of the very young to assimilate knowledge. It is self-evident that, with the passing of the years and the setting in of personal recalcitrance, many cease to be receptive to knowledge or to a reconsideration of that which they have come to accept as "truth." With this thought in mind, it is my desire to establish a greater understanding of the laws of God. This we will do by projecting into the consciousness of the race a mighty tide of light from the great golden flame of illumination, pulsing high in the Andes in our retreat at Lake Titicaca. In projecting this ray into the mental belt of the world, we are counting on those receptive "poles" - the true disciples of cosmic law and "followers of God as dear children"{246} - to do what they are able for the expansion of true illumination by receiving and anchoring in the world of form those positive and constructive ideas which I hereby release. The attitude of each individual who has fostered a misinterpretation of scriptures or a fraudulent understanding about the vicarious atonement has done much to alienate mankind from genuine truth and to prevent them from being receptive to the laws of life which would deliver them from every form of bondage. We would free mankind from the bondage of ignorance and the oppressors who would keep them bound. The idea of God as the avenger is an anthropomorphic configuration; certainly it is no part of the consciousness of God. The power of Aton revealed by Amenhotep IV (Ikhnaton) was that of the Sun God Ra and his extension in the world of form as ray. Each monad was considered to be a ray of light emanating from the Central Sun source. Ra was the dispenser of all good, and the fruit of this goodness manifested as love, peace, joy, harmony, culture, beauty, strength, and immortality. Certainly these qualities deserved to be immortalized. By a like token, qualities of negation that evolved out of the ego - from whence came wars, struggle, and inharmony between peoples - did not deserve to endure. They must perish with the dust that bore them. Ra would go on forever. He was the source of the coming light that each morning brought forth a new dawn of hope, portending a new day. These simple concepts of a monotheistic God have been aborted in the name of religion; blood sacrifice was no part of this early monotheism but entirely a pagan activity. In its Department of Instruction, the Great White Brotherhood has caused to be issued forth in numerous ways knowledge that would counteract deliberate perversions of truth and set straight the record. Saint Francis of Assisi proclaimed the truth of reembodiment in the public squares. Other men and women possessing partial knowledge of the law proclaimed reembodiment to be the "transmigration of souls" which made the whole idea not only distasteful but also ridiculous to most people. They were not taken up with the thought that in a succeeding life they might come forth as a cow or a bull.{247} This erroneous concept has never been the teaching of the Great White Brotherhood concerning reembodiment. Reembodiment refers to the placing of the soul into new and successive temples of greater usefulness in order that it might evolve progressively toward Godhood. ("Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,/While the vast seasons roll."{248}) The teaching of reembodiment has been spiked by the orthodox clergy, and their followers have been taught to believe that they have but one fleeting chance to grasp at the coattails of Deity. Should they fail, they are to be placed in a state of torment forever; if they succeed, they are to be place in a state of blessedness forever. They are taught that the grace of God is extended to sinning mortals through the vicarious sacrifice of the Lord Christ upon Golgotha. They are taught that the blood of Christ literally cleanses them from their sins, and that this blood is a propitiation for their sins. (This teaching with all of its ramifications makes them dependent upon the Church and the sacrifice of one man for their salvation rather than upon God and their own karma of good works.) Blood is the symbol of life and, when purified, it flows through the body as the cleansing, life-giving essence of the sacred fire. The life of Christ was carried on in the tradition of the Father whom Jesus showed forth. He, as an elder brother of the race, sought from the beginning to adhere to the primal truths of being that were taught by the Brotherhood and the priesthood of Melchizedek in the days of Abraham. Hence he said, "Before Abraham was, I am." {249} Let all understand, then, that God is not a God of vengeance, that he does not require propitiation in the form of blood sacrifice (whether it be an animal or his only begotten Son) but rather repentance, which means a turning away from iniquity. When men turn from darkness to serve light, they themselves identify with the law of love and every man must bear his own burden.{250} Everyone has the opportunity to become one with the Father through his own Holy Christ Self, who is the Mediator between the human personality (that is emerging from chrysalis into light) and the great individualized God Presence I AM, or the image of God individualized for each one. Therefore, through the only Son whom God made in every man, man becomes one with the Father and follows the elder brothers of the race in the regeneration. "The first man Adam," who is "of the earth, earthy," comes forth through the flesh, through the generations and genealogies of the race. The second man, "the Lord from heaven," reverses the course of human generation through the regeneration of the Spirit and the genealogy of the divine. This makes him literally the offspring of God. "And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Christ] was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. ... And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."{251} Unless the fact of man's latent divinity is recognized and accepted, there can be no real regeneration or redemptive process; for man can never become that which he does not already have within himself. God created in man the divine potential. How could one man possibly be acceptable to God as a sacrifice for the sins of all? The only way this could be is through the universal garment of the living Christ - the spiritual power of the Word, or Logos, which "in the beginning" framed the world. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made."{252} This means that no one was created without the divine seed of the Son of God - the divinity of the Christ, the Universal Mediator - who lives for all and in all and is, then, truly Christ the Lord. Jesus, as the Son of God, manifested the fullness of the Christ to men. This fullness God expects each one of his succeeding sons to manifest. The words "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father"{253} are understandable in this context. Jesus intended that all should follow his example and do even greater works through his own oneness with the Father. All should understand that the real purpose of the spiritual education of the age is to refute the satanic lie "Thou shalt not surely die"{254} by teaching men to overcome "the last enemy" which is death.{255} Death can be overcome by manifesting life, and life is simply God. God can be manifested by each one as the light that is within him qualifies the life flowing through him with the nature of God. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord."{256} Now, then, as we take on the nature of God and as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds,{257} we find that life begins to expand. The mystical Christ, the mystical Jesus, becomes one with the manifesting mystical Ego (God in man). The lesser ego, no longer identifying with name, fame, or self-seeking, seeks only to express the beauties of God, the beauty of holiness. The holiness herein referenced is the wholeness of the total man - mind imbued with God, memory imbued with God, emotions imbued with God, and form-consciousness acting as the chalice in which dwells the completely spiritualized ego. The propitiation for man's inequities is taken on, then, by the great mediatorship of the universal Cosmic Christ. This is the life which has been symbolized in the blood of Jesus. But men have put Christ to an open shame by seeking, under the urges of demons, to teach openly and spread everywhere those dogmas of the vicarious atonement which confute universal reality in the consciousness of men and render chaotic the manifestation of cosmic law. This cannot be. For the laws of God are complete, and every son whom he made was created with equal opportunity. These truths must be taught in the schools and in the churches of the world. Yet today such a program is only a vision, and certainly it is one that will be mightily opposed by those firmly entrenched forces that do not understand what they teach and consider the greatest desecration to be the denial of the blood of Christ. We deny him not, but we affirm him forever for we see him as he is: the Universal Lord, the everliving Logos, the Word that goeth forth equally to redeem the sons of men and to bring to all the joy of the Lord. Lovingly, for the illumination of man upon earth, I AM The Goddess Meru ****** Chapter 42 God Meru - October 20, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 42 - God Meru - October 20, 1968 THE SPIRITUAL EDUCATION OF THE AGE II For the Deliverance of Man Blessed Seekers for Infinite Wisdom, May I continue with the thoughts of my consort, the Goddess Meru. We do not consider that the entrenched forces that seize the minds of children from the cradle will lightly give them up. Certainly, the Armageddon of spiritual warfare will continue - error fighting against truth and truth standing alone in the world as the means of man's deliverance. Be that as it may, those who personalize these matters seeking to attack (as many do) the person through whom truth comes may well be forewarned, as is our will: "It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."{258} These words, spoken by the Lord Christ to Saul on the road to Damascus, show that the power of truth is invincible, indomitable, and absolute. Men and women should learn to understand the difference between truth and man's interpretation of truth. The world today is filled with a dogma that is based upon the misinterpretation of scripture with a generous sprinkling of correct interpretation thrown in as good wheat among the tares.{259} Those who would compel mankind to make a decision for Christ that is based on fear rather than true understanding and inner commitment have also to remember that the winning of individuals to your own opinion will in no wise eliminate the karma and responsibility you have for dominating the consciousness of mankind. Continuing our discourse on practical techniques for the young, we wish to advocate that the school systems of the world provide a greater measure of studies in human relationships. What men have taught as ethics and integrity is but a shadow of that which is to come. Too frequently mankind's service is only lip service and his heart is not with it, for he has not been taught to expand the flame in his heart and to offer it as a token of the Father's love to all whom he contacts. We desire that the young shall understand the law of interaction - the law of the golden rule. Recognizing the primacy of example, various stories - some of which have been called fables and legends - have been given to the race through collections such as The Thousand and One Nights. Many of these lessons are of great value, and they have been used successfully to convey the higher ethic to the youth of the world. One of the saddest factors involving the release of straight knowledge from the heart of God is that individuals have a tendency either to deify those through whom knowledge is given or, if they do not agree with it, to attribute it to demons. For most people there are no gray tones, only the blackest of blacks or the whitest of whites. They seek to hold men in bondage through the power of absolute fear, and this can only produce torment. The nature of truth and the power of truth inherent in nature bespeak an eternal spring. Nature shows forth the power of the resurrection flame in her continual garlanding of the earth with renewal. Men see young genius in the babes who come forth into the world of form with high levels of culture that they have retained from former embodiments. Others come forth carrying the remnants of a subtle memory of the past. While it is true that many have no conscious knowledge of a personal preexistence, this is no reason for its denial; for the processes of reembodiment are vital to the spiritual evolution of man and, when properly understood, they can be a key to his immortal freedom. The law of karma - which refers to the law of return that states: for every good deed that a man does he shall be repaid and for the opposite as well - shows that the weight of human conduct should be governed by the golden rule rather than by confession of sins or repentance. People repent and confess again and again, repeating the same old sins. When they are taught that there is no escape from sin in its repetition but only by freeing oneself from the weight of sin through prayer and whatever ordeal or personal sacrifice the law may require, they can take the first step in eliminating the consciousness of netherworld conditions, of astral horrors, and of the fear of death or hell. Then they begin to learn to live in goodness, in the consciousness of the nature of God, and to express him. And their lives become more sublime the longer they live. One of the prime causes of the death process is the generation of decay in mankind's thoughts which is subsequently conveyed to his body. Hence the statement " ... In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." {260} The seeds of death coexist with the seeds of life in the consciousness of men. The seeds of death must be eliminated, and the seeds of life encouraged to sprout and bear fruit. The very young, when they are taught cosmic ethic and cosmic integrity, can understand clearly that all that they do returns to themselves; therefore, as they sow continual good into the world they continually reap that which they sow. The understanding of the larger circles should also be conveyed - circles of community, circles of friendship, circles of family, circles of states, circles of nations, and circles of civilizations. There are always smaller circles within larger circles, and the system of worlds to which the planet Earth belongs has its own solar circle, its own galactic circle, its own universal circle, and its own cosmos. The vast sea of tiny pinpoints of light - many of them suns of interstellar systems - is a Macrocosm of unfathomable mysteries to the naked man. But when he understands that God is Spirit and that he is the Creator of all that is, man, as God, joyously enters into that which he, as God, did create. He has never been man. He is only manifesting. In manifesting the finite, he is carving doorways into the infinite. The finite is only the schoolroom; the infinite is the great world of open-spacedness where consciousness dances in an aurora borealis of exquisite cosmic freedom. Attainment comes through working with microcosmic law. That which affects the microcosm also affects the Macrocosm. The nature of being is affected by small things; therefore, small things provide the pathway to deliverance. The child must be taught that even graces and courtesies extended to others return to the universe the gratitude of the individual for the opportunity of life. If men fail to be grateful, how can they expect that God can convey to them a higher way of his understanding? The correct use of talents, then, is the key to the universe and to greater wisdom. The ascended masters could well bring forth worded instruction that would create a backdrop of beautiful foliage on which might be projected a few beautiful jewel forms. We prefer to give the meat of cosmic instruction unto men in the fond hope that their souls will respond to the nourishment we are giving, that men and women will understand that the instruction for the new age is for all. All are "babes in Christ."{261} All are children in the eyes of God. Even the ascended masters, when standing in contemplation of the universe, feel the humility of the monad that is quantitatively less than the whole while it remains unseparated from the whole. The desire to be a part of the allness of God can be satisfied only through infinite grace. Infinite longings descending into the finite realm of the mind may bring unrest, but it is a disquieting for a purpose in order that it may create in men a striving for the real. Life is filled with unrealities. This contradiction must be resolved, and the very young must be taught the simplicity of the nature of the divine. One of the best ways of imparting truth is to teach cosmic ethics and the laws governing the relationships between peoples and nations which apply equally well to interplanetary and intergalactic relations. Jesus said long ago, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."{262} This is the golden rule rephrased. But no law, however phrased, has any validity until it comes alive in the consciousness of people of all ages. If individuals would only understand that none are immune to the law, that the law acts coequally upon all, they would realize that the dawn of perfection within themselves is the first ray of service to the will of God. After all, if the wisdom of God is given to a man, should it not identify with God's will? If he has the wisdom of God pulsating within him, should it not identify with God's love? Who is excluded from the love and the will of God? Only they who exclude themselves. In this world it requires courage to take a stand for truth, blessed ones. But it is a courage that, viewed from our level, is most natural; for where truth can be seen and its adherents made visible, the multitude naturally live in the truth and for the truth. Often great compassion goes out from our temple for the people of this dark star of Earth because they have sunk so deeply into the oblivion of illusion. Let us never forsake the deliverance of this blessed planet that God loves. Let all stand with the ascended masters in seeking progressive revelation and the glories eternally released from the fount of wisdom for yourselves and your posterity. Graciously, I AM The God Meru ****** Chapter 43 El Morya - October 27, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 43 - El Morya - October 27, 1968 "America, Awake Before It Is Too Late!" Men and Women of Freedom's Hope, Those who love the natural expression of truth find it difficult to understand how there can be so much untruth in men's concepts. As they gaze upon the face of nature and see the beauty of the light passing through the sky - the fretted, fluttering, fading leaves of autumn penetrated by that light, their cadences promising change - it is as though there were two gods - a God of nature where the face of truth is and a god of man where vacillation, deceit, and confusion manifest. Men of truth, then, must weigh the human heart which the Scriptures have called deceitfully wicked,{263} for nowhere is it more wicked than in matters of politics. Men may ask themselves the question "Why?" The answer may be found in an examination of the machinations of the sons of darkness who have capitalized on human fears and weaknesses while denying men access to those ideals reflected in the face of God and in the face of truth. Men find it easy to rationalize their own acts. And in the glaring light of honesty we must also concede that the refractions of true thoughts do produce new ideas, clearer concepts, and a renewed hope for a better world. The current political campaigns in America reflect some of the most gross attempts in the history of man to distort the images of the candidates - one playing upon the real or manufactured weaknesses of another in order to revamp his own pale platform - and how they have turned the world community away from the simple gospel of light and its natural order. Well have some of the electorate asked themselves this question: "Dare we trust the destiny of our nation to men such as these?" You may be thankful that there is a higher destiny that presides over the affairs of men. When people continue to attack individuals as a means of winning approval for themselves, they cast serious doubt on their own abilities. Without question, the honest man is aware of the need for order or the control of dissenters and for the harnessing of the energy waves which men are constantly emitting in their secular struggles for humanistic achievement. If they knew the whole truth, the spiritual truth, this would itself set them free from the sense of struggle.{264} Those who are embroiled in the terrors of the night and in the pestilence that walketh at noonday should understand that this human drama is also captured in the hymn "My Country, 'tis of thee/Sweet Land of Liberty/Of thee I sing/Land where my fathers died/Land of the pilgrim's pride. ..." For you are all pilgrims still, in search of higher goals. While it has been said, "Your goals should be one," they remain diversified through the lens of the minds of the many. But we foster and encourage appreciation of the culture of liberty, of freedom, of the power to express transcendent humanitarian ideals. You cannot gain order in society by disorder or by disrespect of the law. The so-called avant-garde culture presently in vogue to which the young are being subjected is in reality one of the terrors of the dark night of human consciousness. If they could see from our level, there could be no practiced deceit or intended destruction wrought upon them. But the darkness of protest and social unrest comes as a thief in the night to rob them of their birthright. To those who have yet the clarity of vision to see we say, "Awake before it is too late!" There are those who seek to carry a torch for freedom, but they are surrounded on every side by the spoilers and the purity of their motive is distorted on every hand by an almost militant propaganda machine. Yet they continue fearlessly to uphold the banner of Christ. Such as these have won our respect and our support, for can heaven do less than to pledge her all to the faithful who dare in the darkest hour of human infamy to seek to preserve us a nation? Those who are alert will understand the need to uphold in prayer the land of the pilgrims' pride,{265} the ancient boundaries of respect for neighbor, for property, for opportunity, and those who have the courage to take a stand for the principles of the Brotherhood. If the world is to have a solution to its problems, it must be because of the example of liberty and courage set before it from the heart of America. This heart must survive and pump into the mainstream of the body politic of the world the nutrients of independence - the vital strength to rejuvenate the nation and to slough off the old cancer of human disrespect, profanity, obscenity, degeneracy, and disorganization. Both old and new institutions must uphold the banner of the Christ. This is the culture of the Spirit that leads humanity out of darkness to preserve this nation under God{266} for that new birth of freedom which will be its eternal portion so long as men and women of courage live to support and to uphold that divine right of life. For the victory of right over might and the perpetuation of the light of freedom forever, I remain El Morya ****** Chapter 44 Kuthumi - November 3, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 44 - Kuthumi - November 3, 1968 Potentials of God Realization Lovers of the Christ Mind, The contact with one's own Divine Presence, with what we may call the potential of the Source, is the greatest blessing any soul can ever have. Like many graces and gifts of life, the very ease which makes it possible for a man or woman to say, "Help me, Lord" and to know that the message will be transmitted to the Highest, causes some individuals to fail to appreciate this commodity of communication with God which is so ever-present. Wise is the man who learns not to take for granted the great potentials of God realization that are available to him. Born of reverence comes the gift of greater understanding. Reverence for the intricacies of spiritual laws will enable the students of the light to examine, by contrast, the probings of material science and to see how spiritual science, the grace of God, and the teachings of the ascended masters do in reality supersede even the glories of the material world. As a matter of fact, material things do contain the recordings of the mind and thoughts of God even as do spiritual things. But the power to retrace the subtle gifts and graces of God that are hidden behind the veil of nature is often denied individuals by reason of the coarseness of their consciousness. When we say that we advocate a refinement of consciousness and the development of the subtle sense of knowing divine grace, we are not making vain expressions but giving the most valuable instructions. When we pause to consider the wealth of ascended master instruction that has been given in the past as avant-garde spiritual information, we perceive that one of the reasons why so much of it has not been appropriated is because some individuals have limited our release of spiritual information according to certain misinterpretations of cosmic law taken from the sacred scriptures of the world. For example, the admonishment "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it"{267} certainly was not intended to forestall the privilege of the eternal Father to release from the treasure-house of his being - through his emissaries and teachers, through his prophets and revelators - transcendent information for each advancing age. To "diminish" or to take away from the word is to delete the eternal truths, the timeless truths of God, from the consciousness by failing to recognize the divine intent hidden within the word. The "adding to the word" of extraneous matter is the adding of distortion from the levels of the human intellect to the pure teachings of the universal Christ which are the same "yesterday, today, and forever."{268} On the other hand, the statement of the angel who released the Book of Revelation to John the Beloved "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book ..."{269} signifies the fact that the Book of Revelation is an open book "to be continued" by God's appointed representatives for the enlightenment of every age. Those students of the masters who understand that a great compendium of the law has been externalized in the past and has now been made a part of the akashic records of this age will realize more fully than those unfamiliar with our service to life that divine grace is more than anxious, when the student is ready, to let the teaching appear in the consciousness. It has been said many times that unused knowledge passes from the screen of the mind; therefore, it should be wholly understandable that advanced teachings are given to men in order that they may rejoice in the transcendent glories of spiritual knowledge and revelation and use them to improve their spiritual lot and that of their fellow men. To be quite frank with you, as has been our policy, the things that God has prepared for those that love him,{270} which he has yet hidden behind the veil of that which shall one day be released, are so magnificent as to spur hope in the hearts of the most downtrodden if they could only have what we may call "a sense of glimpse" of that which shall be. The joy of the Father as he "worketh hitherto, and I work,"{271} the joy of God as he expresses myriad revelations through those advanced teachers and Masters of Wisdom who serve with humanity, is very great; and the joy of the teachers themselves, as they pass the fingers of their consciousness over the beauties of the divine face, is very full. Transcendence is progressive change, and the nature of God with all of its absolute beauty becomes more magnificent each moment. If it were not so, the advancing souls of the ascended beings would come to a point in the Absolute where all things would be attained and they would no longer experience that holy anticipation - that joyous expectancy for the cornucopia of progress and expanding awareness that is so much a part of the unfoldment of the divine in man at every stage of his development. It is, then, the nature of God to increase the vibratory action of the Godhead itself so that all of creation can always move progressively in the direction of greater happiness, greater achievement, and greater wisdom. Many of the old and familiar stories given by the Masters of Wisdom down through the ages have been reclothed from time to time by the skill and love of the Master Weaver of stories of the Spirit. Just as men and women enjoy the skill of a great novelist, so do the ascended masters enjoy the repetition of those old but magnificent and ever-new teachings of the laws of life and light. If the students would understand this and would not allow themselves to be caught in the downdraft of human boredom that defrauds them of the marvels of the Godhead, they would joyously permit their consciousness the experience of retraveling over those old ideas of spiritual knowledge with a view to probing the hidden depths which may have been missed in the first, second, or third reading of the word of eternal truth. When men consider the fact that born of human vanity is the perpetual search for new drama and sensational experience, it is easy to see how this search can become a trap for humanly intelligent beings whereby they completely overlook the glories of God that are hidden in the microcosm of self. Then there takes place a sort of mental tumbling and a wild emotional activity which captivates the mind. These arise out of the eagerness of the ego for attainment. Students in search of spiritual reality trample upon holy truth again and again, and they ride roughshod over the road of spiritual progress failing utterly to perceive the subtleties and beauties of the Path. Once they have read what they consider to be the last chapter of their intellectual investigation of the mysteries of the universe, they feel there is nothing left in the cup of life. They have drained it to the last drop. And thus they conclude that this God who has not come forth to change and to elevate their human personalities does not exist, the search was invalid, and from the standpoint of the philosophy of nihilism - evolved through an inordinate search for reality - their own lives no longer appear worthy. By contrast, the devotee of the Spirit squeezes the last drop, if I may use a colloquial phrase, out of each marvelous subtlety of manifestation. The law is his delight, and its inward parts{272} are probed over and over again - both microcosmic and macrocosmic space being found to contain spiritual minerals and wealth beyond compare, jewels of illumination. In God's holy name, I remain Your spiritual mentor, Kuthumi ****** Chapter 45 The Great Divine Director - November 10, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 45 - The Great Divine Director - November 10, 1968 THE CULTIVATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS I The Field of Consciousness Devotees of the Flame of Truth: In examining the processes of spiritual education once again, following the trends of beloved Kuthumi's marvelous release of last week, I am reminded that in constructing universities of the Spirit the curriculum is all important. But equally important is the attitude of the students, including that quality of receptivity to higher truth and its disciplines which I choose to call 'fallowness of consciousness'. As we examine aspirants for the higher spiritual teachings, we also observe the causes of past failures in those who have not made the grade, and we take note of the fact that in many cases the consciousness itself was not properly prepared to receive the gifts and graces from on high before the student approached the master's retreat. The driving power of human ambition can easily be turned into spiritual ambition and spiritual pride. Men hear of the ascended masters, they hear of the ascension, they hear for the first time of the great divine potential that is within themselves. Their minds are seized with the possibility of attainment, and the imagination becomes overly stimulated without the sense of universal perspective and divine grace which are the natural gifts of God to all. In referring to the cultivation of a proper attitude of consciousness, I am particularly concerned that individuals shall perceive that they are dealing with the natural order of life when they begin to unfold their latent spiritual identities. The very natural spiritual qualities of life which should constitute the correct attitude of the aspirant are not commonly a part of the human environment, of human literature, or of human experience. Material life for many a year, for many a century, for millennia in fact has been centered mainly around the survival of the human personality, the survival of the flesh, of the family, of the community, and of the world whereas spiritual reality has always seemed too distant and undefined to be of any relevance to mortal men. The great onrush of the tide of human consciousness, its involvement with the pressing problems of the world, has so dominated the minds of men that very little time has been afforded the average man and woman to consider spiritual values. This is why the Master Jesus made the now timeworn statement "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."{273} This statement has been abused by teachers as well as by pupils; for many have decided that the consciousness of the little child was, in effect, purely a manifestation of the child mind. Not so. The consciousness of the little child is more than mind. It is attitude - an attitude of humility, of wonder, of hope, of trust, of determination, and of respect for those who have attained to a fuller measure of devotion and service. Quite naturally the kingdom of heaven is not childlike in its measured attainment, for the kingdom of heaven is full of wonder and abundantly magnificent concepts. These are all enjoyed by the child-seeker. But the term child-seeker references attitude and not the illumined, matured Christ mind to which the child can and does attain. Many times, after having gone to great lengths to inspire certain truths upon the student body, we are faced with the fact that much of our recorded instruction has been misunderstood and misappropriated. Beloved Morya once commented that men literally could not see over their own noses. I do not think that his statement (which I am certain has been made by others) was made in condemnation of humanity but in an attempt, through a bit of dry humor, to provoke individuals to become more perceptive concerning themselves and to develop a willingness to look as honestly upon their own consciousness as they would upon the consciousness of another. The ability to perceive attitudes and motivations, whether in oneself or in another, can be most illuminating providing care is exercised to avoid condemnation of self or others. Rather, discrimination should always be used as a lever to evoke higher perception and attainment. When we begin to prepare the consciousness of a student to receive the wisdom of the Most High, we find that a study of contrasts is in order. Now we must admit, if we are to be honest, that all who are evolving on earth have in one embodiment or another partaken of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.{274} The descent of human consciousness into the knowledge of good and evil is, without question, the complicating factor that has for ages hindered men and women from the attainment of right knowledge. Whenever the knowledge of good and evil is approached from the level of the human consciousness (which remains untethered to the divine except it be illumined by the Christ), division, duality, and double-mindedness{275} follow. The first and greatest error that can be made subsequent to the departure from wholeness (designated by some as 'the Fall') is to attempt to gaze upon all things as though they were good without actually having either retained or regained the Edenic consciousness of good as the platform of perception from which one may gaze. You have then, in effect, a state of consciousness that is basically evil, that seeks to gaze upon the universe and to perceive only good, and this is not possible; for evil cannot focus upon good even as double-mindedness can never magnetize singleness of vision and purpose. This is a most subtle point and one that argues mightily for a renewal of consciousness, for a change of mind, for the development of the smallest portion of the mind of Deity as a seed-spark - a germinal factor in the evolving process of illumined perception. "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth."{276} The eyes of perception must be lifted up to the hills, and the Lord - as law, as love, as truth - must be perceived as emanating from the highest source. The garden of the heart must be prepared to receive the immaculate conception. This can best be done by calling upon the higher law of God to release mighty light rays from the sun of universal wisdom. Faith must be engendered from within the heart that these light rays are tangible and real - atomic flames of universal substance which can actually be passed through the very field of consciousness which the student would use to plant the fertile and germinal ideas of the Spirit. The purification of the field of consciousness is accomplished through the process of transmutation. As the knowledge of good and evil is removed by the violet flame, there occurs a resurrection of the faculties of the Christ mind whereby the ability to reach up to the Holy Christ Self and to perceive the myriad manifestations of good is amplified while the awareness of evil, as the cleaving asunder of the Real from the unreal by the sword of truth, is retained as the power of divine discrimination. This washing of the water by the Word {277} is the action of the all-seeing eye of God as it is focused through the consciousness of the Christ who is the only safe mediator between good and evil. It is just as important to be able to recognize a thorn as an abortion of the consciousness of the rose as it is to be able to recognize the beauty of the rose. If we were to give an individual the responsibility for bringing forth all of the roses upon the planet and the pattern of the thornless rose were to be lowered into his consciousness but he were to retain the memory of the thorn, it would be possible for him to abort his responsibility and to bring forth a roseless thorn. We are trying to show you that in the realm of mortal affairs there is much that must be undone as well as much which must be done. Consciousness and its field must be prepared so that an understanding of the Real and the unreal will enable the individual to draw upon the Real while persistently replacing the unreal by the Real. Unless the ability to do this is conveyed to individuals, they will continue to feel that they are the acting power. And it is precisely out of this false sense, this inability to perceive who I AM, that attitudes of failure are generated whereas true success is and always will be one of the great regenerative factors found in the consciousness of God. I shall continue next week to examine the field of consciousness. Lovingly, I AM The Great Divine Director ****** Chapter 46 The Great Divine Director - November 17, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 46 - The Great Divine Director - November 17, 1968 THE CULTIVATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS II The Mainstream of Consciousness To All Who Would Embody Immortality, Greetings! When the divine sense is truly known, the divine sense is truly loved. The very marvelous consciousness of the Goddess of Justice, Portia, can greatly assist the disciple in the development of a fertile field of consciousness in which can be implanted the highest divine ideas. The very purposes of life and free will were bestowed upon man in order that he might create by right choices a consciousness of Christ-amity. Unless individuals shall understand Jesus' statement "It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,"{278} they may continue the struggle to get it for themselves. Once they understand that the gift of life is theirs to be appropriated, they will see that they cannot serve two masters and serve them both well. The student who would prepare his consciousness to receive God must be prepared to let go of the changing outer consciousness with its warped sense of values. He must be prepared to reeducate the self, to nullify the bad effects of unwanted environment, and to master the reins of his consciousness; then he will no longer be pulled into dank fields of human misery by those snorting beasts (forms of mismanaged and misapplied energy) that roam the astral belt, seeking whom they may devour.{279} Is there a higher mind, is there a mind of Christ, is there a mind of God? Then this higher mind, this higher field of reason and pure intellect is the forte of the God-realized man. But before that gift can be conveyed, preparation must be made. This preparation includes the willingness to bypass the concepts of the intellect which would reason away either God or man. Blessed ones, almost anything can be proven by human reason; the argumentations of the intellect are a complete waste of divine energy in the world of form. Only by a realization of and a faith in the continuity of life and the justice of life can a soul truly prepare his consciousness to receive immortality. As long as individuals are convinced that their lives are their own, they are apt to misuse the gift of free will to bottle up the selfish imp of their own creating. When they realize that they themselves are cocreators of their own divine reality - strange though these words may sound at first to the natural man - they will perceive that God's Spirit and his energy are the rejuvenating powers of the whole field of consciousness which makes the whole man new. The power to renew and to wipe out the stain of the hieroglyphs of error enables man to contact the mainstream of God's consciousness and to become infused with universal reason, with the pure reason of God. Yet, the very name God has become to many an anathema because of human distortions, imaginations, and exaltations falsely premised. Call a rose by any other name, it is as sweet.{280} The ontology of man, the nature of his being, is fashioned in the inward parts according to the nature of the Creator of all things. The universal Word, the Logos, the power of the Spirit and the power of transformation together with the power of the Christ mind contain the dynamic principles by which a mere individual, embodied in flesh, can attain absolute oneness with Spirit and the mastery of himself. But if the field of consciousness be neglected and the old carnal mind referenced by Saint Paul{281} remain in command, it will surely interfere with the externalization of the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is universal. It belongs to the ages, and it belongs to all men of the ages who are willing to appropriate it. Men must understand that they have a responsibility to direct their own lives. If at first this responsibility be understood merely in the sense of directing themselves into the hands of Divine Providence, then let it be done. For sooner or later, when the child initiate is ready to receive it, he will be given the holy responsibility of cherishing his own consciousness. But how can individuals cherish that which is merely an externalization of environmental forces and residual mortal opinions? Even science, with all of its conclusions and accuracies, has often been forced to repudiate accepted and timeworn theories. Therefore, the science of the Spirit is the only systematic means whereby an individual can truly come to know himself. Men are too prone to accept the stream of consciousness as a substitute for the externalized self. The stream of consciousness exerts a pull of forces upon the memory processes which are intended to weld identity together. We do not deny the molding factors of the stream of consciousness, but we question the desirability of allowing these factors to dominate the unfoldment of native being. What man needs is to learn to let go of himself and to release himself from the mainstream of mortal and environmental consciousness. The subterranean stream of the mass consciousness that flows in the world must also be released, and the individual must perceive that the sun of illumination - the Son of God, the wisdom of God, the great stream of the divine consciousness by which the worlds were framed - exists as much today as it did in the beginning and it is transcendently achieving its own goal. Then he must hitch the wagon of his consciousness to this star of reality. When individuals are able to recognize that this can be done, they are more than willing to let go of the muddy stream of human filth and degradation that has for far too long held them enmeshed in its clutches. When this is seen to be possible, then the field of consciousness can be prepared for the incoming of the Christ, and this is the true receiving of the Christ mind. God is the saviour of man, Spirit is the regenerator of Matter, and regeneration is the process by which Matter is changed into Spirit and thus immortalized. It is the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It is the will of God and the will of the hierarchy to bestow upon emerging mankind the highest gifts and graces. But so long as the field of consciousness is not renewed and remains imbued with the concept that "it" is the prime mover, that "it" will ferret out the mysteries of the kingdom, and that "it" will attain and accomplish, just so long will the soul be hindered from finding true reality. Only when the field of consciousness is able to relinquish all discord and sense of struggle, only when it is able to perceive the goodness of God as resident within the Son of God, within the Christ of God, can that Christ and that light truly take dominion over the earth{282} - over Matter, over substance, over manifestation, over identity. When this is done, then the embryonic God begins to manifest and the field of consciousness becomes the forcefield into which universal education can be lowered. Why, the mysteries of God are so deep, so unfathomable of purpose by the mortal mind, that when men begin to absorb even an iota of their intent it is as though they were transported to the farthest star in the universe from that spot on earth where they now find themselves! Let all understand, then, that the very nearness of the divine to the heartbeat of man signifies the intent of God to raise the Christ, to regenerate and to renew the opportunities of life for every individual, and to help him to attain to a state of consciousness that can permanently receive and reflect God. One of the great problems of religious experience is the continual play of negative emotions and desires upon the field of consciousness. This entangles men in old habits without truly affording them their freedom by a renewal of the mind and by a complete flushing out of mortal patterns. By the fire of the Spirit, the garden of man's heart will be made fallow, the educative processes of the Spirit will regenerate him in the divine image, and he shall pass from glory unto glory, even as by the Spirit of God.{283} Herein is hope for the direction and infusion of consciousness by the universal will, and out of this will come the mastery of time and circumstance for all. Gratefully, I remain The Great Divine Director ****** Chapter 47 Archangel Michael - November 24, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 47 - Archangel Michael - November 24, 1968 The Nature of Faith Hail, Sons and Daughters of Faith! The blazing light of faith that is required by man in the process of precipitation is affinitized so completely with the mighty threefold flame of life - love, wisdom, and power - that we must, in giving forth our instruction as we approach the period of winter solstice, remind all seekers for truth to examine once again the nature of faith. Faith, "the substance of things hoped for,"{284} requires illumined hope and is best invoked where the joy of love is sustained. Your feelings are most important, children of God upon the planet Terra, for universal law is ubiquitous. As above in higher realms, so below the same beautiful sustaining law will produce those miracles you seek. There are many factors governing the release of man's desires into manifestation from the realm of the unformed. All of these should be ultimately known and balanced, one in support of the other - as is the custom in higher octaves - in order to assure to individuals the reality of joyous precipitation. Many upon earth are concerned with the precipitation of money and things without recognizing the marvelous joy in precipitating states of consciousness that actually become divine ordinances in action. When individuals understand that it is not reasonable to suppose that the nature of God in its wholeness can be manifested overnight by mortals (who have separated themselves from wholeness for so long), but that a bit portion - which one of the masters once called an "Alpha-bit" - can be externalized and can bring the delight and joy of minor achievement preceding major accomplishment, they will not allow themselves to entertain feelings of discouragement over what may seem to be slow spiritual progress. Many feel the gnawing pressures to escape from the bondage of the flesh and the pitiful situations in which they find themselves, while others do not recognize the fact that the challenges of life with all of their provocations are the means whereby souls attain to a state of universal blessedness. Who can deny that the octaves of light have such magnificent glory as to be almost incomprehensible to embodied individuals? But by a like token, who can deny that this buoyant manifestation would scarcely be enjoyed by individuals who had not first passed through the lesser octaves of light where they were able to master circumstances step by step. For there they might come to realize that the happiness they sought was not to be found merely in the possession of worldly goods or of one another's souls but rather in contributing to the joyous expansion of the universal Presence everywhere, by multiplying the "loaves and fishes" of providential reality, providing self and others with spiritual graces in a true emulation of the Lord Christ. When we pause to consider from our octave the dramatic unfoldment of the life of the Master Jesus, we cannot help but feel a surge of Godly desire to portray it once again and to communicate to each one of you the great joy that an individual can experience as he begins to externalize his own victorious Christ achievement. We who are a part of the angelic host and of the angelic realm know full well that the brotherhood of angels, elementals, and men must - in this time of Aquarius' approaching - enter more and more into the beauty and joy of balanced cooperation if mankind are to come to that state of awareness where the universe in its cosmic manifestation will be made understandable and real to them. For far too long the forces of nihilism that seek to "free" men from dogma and religion have taken men down the thorny road of self-destruction without their awareness of just what was happening. Those of you who have faith do not realize what it is to have your faith destroyed. Those of you who have love do not know what it is to be without it. But those among mankind who have been hurried across the border into the domain of hatred through conspiring circumstances and nefarious forces often become unwitting tools of the legions of darkness who incite a great deal of unwholesome activity in the world of form. Such trafficking in egoism eventually robs men of their spiritual birthrights and of the joy and happiness of higher octaves that are won only through Christ realization. Some among men have a peculiar misunderstanding concerning the purposes of life. They feel that spiritual things exist only in the distant hereafter, in the realm of the speculative, and thus exercise no appeal to them. They want bread here and now. They want joy here and now. And they feel that those who spin otherworldly pipe dreams, as they would call them, only involve men in a loss of time, energy, and opportunity that might better be used to achieve personal happiness. And they are not going to be trapped by the devices of religious hypocrites into following that which they have been taught to scorn - no, never! Blessed ones, ponder for a moment the fact that many unbelievers have had their faith destroyed in past and present embodiments - sometimes through disillusionment with misguided and misguiding religious leaders, and sometimes by the sudden impact of their own returning karma. Unable to face the responsibility which truth brings, they have crossed the border line into the domain of disdain for all that is religious and virtuous. Some have become followers of dialectical materialism and a humanistic ethic, seeking rewards they have not earned. And when their bestial natures are aroused and they feel that they might lose something in a personal way, they can be very difficult even to the point of becoming a menace to the entire social order. You say, "What a tragedy," and we echo your sentiments. But we wish you to be alert to the problems of the unfortunate even as you are aware of the glory of Faith so that the exuberance that you feel for the cause of righteousness will prompt you to invoke the light in such unity and intensity as to dispel the shadowed forms that have been cast upon the world by the unillumined. Then you can invoke our assistance in building reservoirs of light into which the ascended masters and angelic hosts will literally pour their transforming love and faith for the upliftment of all. When this love and this faith are made tangibly manifest to the world through the activities of your lives, it will indeed be a united activity with angels and men and with Nature herself - with the blessed devas who express your joy in the world around, in blue skies, verdant hills, sparkling waterfalls, and all of the glorious manifestations in nature. The angelic hosts will come in with great tides of spiritual feeling, the tangible power of God, to produce the golden-age miracles that are forthcoming. And men who today are without faith, who have been shuttled across the border into the realm of darkness, hatred, and mistrust, will be caught up in the joy and glory of that faith which is the goodness of God in every man. Remember, blessed ones, that whereas they deny, you affirm. But what is it they are spending so much energy in denying? If it is not real, why do they not simply leave it alone? We, on the other hand, who have contact with the Most High - and a knowledgeable contact at that - are able to weld together the entire body of God in the universe through the power we transmit over spiritual cables of love and light. This means that you are not alone, but all one with that which will produce and has produced all joy and gratitude, all satisfaction, all accomplishment, all grace, all loveliness, all reality, and all truth everywhere, worlds without end. The skyey message of the Christ "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will"{285} goes forth as an activity of divine faith, and the body of God is summoned to the coming of the King. Radiantly, I AM full of faith for you, Archangel Michael ****** Chapter 48 Archangel Chamuel - December 1, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 48 - Archangel Chamuel - December 1, 1968 The Image of the Holy Child To All Who Would Be the Pure in Heart, When we pause in the midst of the day's occupation to consider the love of a babe or the face of a radiant child, it is to bring men and women of adult years and children who are maturing into the blessed understanding of the kingdom of God. Life has challenged many, and many of the blessed children of God upon Earth are confused and wounded. The effects of life's chastening that has come to them - the trauma and the confusion, the pain and the discord - are all tangled up in the snarls of consciousness below the threshold of daily awareness. If the blessed people of the planet Earth would only understand that they cannot sow seeds of pain and discord in the lives of others and escape themselves, the golden rule would ring forth the joy of peace to the whole Earth. What is it that men and women are really struggling for? Is it recognition? If it is, then let them recognize the truth and the reality of universal purpose. Let them understand cosmic ethic and the meaning of true love, and they will no longer do harm to any. The peoples of the world long for peace to come forth, but for different reasons. Some desire peace that they might build toward a more effective military victory. Others desire peace out of genuineness of heart and sincerity of purpose. We who are of the angelic hosts, whose love for mankind is not conditioned by personal longings, hold a steadfast state of consciousness toward the people of the earth in the hope that they will learn the meaning of true love and thus express it to one another without fail. Wherever discord is express it is either the result of misunderstanding, through ignorance or happenstance, or it is the result of a struggle in the life of the individual to control his own pattern of recognition in the world. Many create images of fear in the consciousness of others in order to dominate them. You ask "Why?" and your question is valid. It is always because they do not understand the nature of God. They do not understand the justice of the universe, and they seem to feel that they can get away with practices that are unjust. Well, they never do. The karmic record is ever present with reembodying mankind; for every form of disease, accident, and unhappiness that seems but a part of life's unfortunate circumstances is in reality the justice of the law returning full circle to those who in the past sent out harm to others. But now we are captivated by the image of the Holy Child - the image of the Holy Child who while a babe is adored by shepherds and kings, the image of the Holy Child who, although rejected by the materialistic innkeeper, was hosteled in a stable amongst the animal kingdom as though he were unworthy to receive the best that life could offer him. Yet "the child grew, and waxed strong," {286} and he entered into his mission. The purposes that were his are the lot of everyone who will accept his calling at any age. The mystery of the Holy Child is the mystery of the manifestation of the child within the individual consciousness. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. And the teacher appears as the little child within who shall lead men {287} to great heights of truth, to the temple of consciousness where the doctors of the law will discourse with the universal flame that is the Christ, the living Word within.{288} Then having overcome the struggles of the intellect and the passions of vain desire, the little child who overcomes them all will emerge in consciousness as the directing intelligence of the living Word. What a privilege it is for men and women to perceive in the recycling drama of the universal Christ the baptism of cosmic grace upon every heart. We who long to impart to the children of men the greatest desire and reality of universal love caution men to be slow to condemn, to long for more grace, to be grateful when chastened, to be confident when faith is tested, to be more perceptive of the hand of God than to think because God's will is not produced in the world or in the realm of the individual at a given time that the configurations of universal power, wisdom, and love are not acting. Why, gracious ones, if you could see with the eyes of the Spirit, with the eyes of the archangels into every corner of reality as we do, your hearts would pick up so much courage that I think your overcoming would be hastened. Yet it is not always granted unto men to see into the depths of reality; for in such seeing, such sensitivity of consciousness, many of them would also invoke unwittingly, before they had the power to resist it, the untransmuted portions of their own subconscious lives. Far better and safer, then, is it for individuals to take the instruction of the Great White Brotherhood, the instruction of the ascended masters, and to understand that the transmuting power of the Lord Christ must be invoked through the violet transmuting flame, through application in holy prayer, through meditation upon universal grace, through the simultaneous drawing forth of the energies and concepts of God, and through the markings of divine love that, little by little, are recorded upon the soul as correct reaction to the testings that come to the pilgrim upon the Path. Know and believe that God is with you, that he is with the world, that he is hidden behind the appearance form, that he remains the King of Peace even behind the most distressing outer conditions, and that he is the Lord omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. By his stripes you are healed.{289} And through the markings of these stripes upon your soul, as the chastening toward the goal appears, will come the joy of overcoming. While all men come not into manifestation as the avatar, each lifetime and each day is a moment of opportunity upon the divine wind. You may rest there, serene amongst outer circumstances that challenge the soul. You may invoke the presence of Mother Mary, or Joseph the Protector (your beloved Saint Germain), and of all of the angelic hosts; for they will help you to attain your goal, they will help you to express to all men that love which is from above. You cannot afford to be conditioned by the world, and the world cannot afford not to be conditioned by the love that God can give through you. You are a point of conscious contact with the Spirit of Christ-reality for the regeneration of the earth. I remain your angelic friend in truth, Archangel Chamuel ****** Chapter 49 Archangel Raphael - December 8, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 49 - Archangel Raphael - December 8, 1968 The Quest for the Christ Presence Beloved Givers of Self, The trial of triumph continues in the world of form. The pressures of the Antichrist, the brutality that is always human in origin and never divine, can do no more than waste energy and release tears. The consolation of eternal truth cannot be moved. Men may polarize themselves to manifest imperfection with its attendant pain, but the immovability of the Christ is a rock in the cosmic domain that remains a rock amongst mankind.{290} What stunning facts are immortal laws. How they burst into bloom upon the deserts and wastelands of vanished opportunities when the soul first asserts its willingness to accept the healing hands of the cosmic Presence. Giant cosmic truths, lowered into the crucible of the microcosmic Manchild, create a renewed determination in the seeker to accept the flood tides of divine grace that issue forth paeans of hope and dissuade him, time after time, from moving in the wrong direction. To have cleared vision should be the desire of every seeker for God. What a pity it is that individuals are satisfied to bask in the questionable comfort of limited knowledge while the quest for the Christ Presence continues in highest realms by those who have already attained and won their freedom. If ascended beings and angels of high stature continue the pursuit of the fiery reality of God, can men - made "a little lower than the angels"{291} yet bearing the potential of a greater crowning reality - afford to deny themselves through a sense of complacency or attainment? I recall full well the "dress rehearsal" of the angelic hosts which began over the plains of Bethlehem and culminated in their manifestation to the shepherds. The magnificent choral praises lifted unto the Godhead trembled the fabric of the universe, and all of nature sang in unison with our choruses. But the great diapason occurred at the manger, at the place where the young child lay. By the time the shepherds and kings had all come together and knelt to pay their homage, the gentle whisperings in the heart of Mary had become a flood tide, contacting the great ocean of God's heart. For there in the chamber of her heart, enlarged to fill the whole world, the angelic host gave the finale - their performance of an oratorio to the incoming child. And the wonder of his love, in response to the ministrations of the angelic hosts, went forth as an overlay of fiery compassion to the world - a cup of light, an embryonic grail whose filigree patterns were to become the dramatic life episodes of his gracious ministrations to the children of men. What courage was born in that young heart, what firmness of decision, what power of glorious recall of his experiences at inner levels with the invisible but powerful hierarchy of light. The extent of brotherhood in the Christ has never been measured, for here indeed is the "binder-up" of the wounds of the world. Here are the healing hands Extended from Godhead to simplest knave. Here is the hand of courage, Remaining always unafraid. Here is the power of the star In firmament of honor bright, The Spirit of the Grail Caressing all the mantle of the night. Its glow suffusing childlike minds He is all the world caressing, Opening eyes of all who are blind. See the billowing of his garments Shining like a sun of hope. Love is changing mortal vestments By the power Word he spoke. In the Babe's mild smile The high priest stands Behind the outer form. Truly, God in man does manifest - Truly, Son of God is born. Men and women of the planet Earth, let not your hearts be troubled{292} by outer scenes that are the culmination of error's attempt to dethrone the Prince of Peace. Men love darkness rather than light, for their deeds are evil.{293} But there is bright hope in the hearts of millions, and the downtrodden continue to raise eyes to the hills for help. The subtle calls of the hearts of the children of men are heard from on high and deliverance is at hand. In the seeming tragedy of fire, flood, pestilence, and earthquake, in the signs of the times now appearing, the hearts of some are quaking{294} whereas others are lifted up to know that the incoming of the glorious kingdom of God is at hand. For centuries men have decried their own freedom. They have mocked the children of God and men of faith. They have laughed when the mighty spiritual warriors have fallen in battle, and they have thought that physical death could stay the hand of the divine avatar. But the power of the kingdom of God in the world to come is the power of immortality. It is the power of truth that can never be broken. And his kingdom that hath no end{295} shall be set up in the world and in the hearts of the children of men. Already the signs of great shaking are apparent as the spiritual powers of the world focus upon the children of men. The angelic hosts have been alerted, for they know not the day nor the hour which the Father hath kept in his own hand when they shall be called to a more active duty on behalf of the children of men. What are our functions? They are to convey unto men the fiery reality of God in the inspiring beauty of the light and to assist men and women to bring forth a cooperative architecture upon the planet that will bring about a spiritual renaissance unparalleled in the history of constructivism. The burdens of men shall then be lifted, and in the harmony of the sacred Brotherhood there shall be such cooperation as shall end violence and struggle. The clarity of the new sense shall supersede old sensuality. And the reality of the Christ message flashing across the plains of Bethlehem shall be to all races, to all tongues, and to all peoples the forerunner of emerging victory. What once was shall be again. What is of pain and unhappiness shall end. The finale of old earthly patterns shall herald Christ regeneration to a sorrowful star. Then the angelic hosts shall be made visible, and the forms and the beauty embodied within us shall be a constant source of inspiration to every parent and to everyone who desires to put his hand to the divine plow, to prepare the earth to receive the seed of cosmic regeneration, and to assure that the governments of this world shall become the governments of our Lord and of his eternal kingdom.{296} Temporality shall cease as eternal things are made real to all. The reality and the power of the angels, the reality and the power of the indwelling Christ resident as life force within everyone shall be increased, and the glow-ray of cosmic purpose shall cut a trackless path through the air to an understanding of the ascending consciousness. The ascension is the gift of God to men. It was the final story in the life drama of the Master Jesus, and it shall provide for all the hope for deliverance. This is the message of the Christ Mass, the power of the light of the Word illumining the ages. I remain a precipitator from angelic realms. Yours in the bond of the Christ Archangel Raphael ****** Chapter 50 Archangel Uriel - December 15, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 50 - Archangel Uriel - December 15, 1968 He Is Born Again Lovers of Home, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."{297} As many of you are gathering around earthly fires in the spirit of friendship (a bit unusual to other seasons of the year), the angelic hosts in response to your spirit of greater harmony - even in the midst of commercial preparations and traditional expressions - are magnetized to respond to the heart calls of men and to minister to their need for greater comfort. We come, then, as dynamic expressions of the Father's love into the physical atmosphere of the planet! From time to time we actually appear to children and to those whose consciousness is unsophisticated. To those who are able to perceive us, we express the tenderness of the Father's love. There is no need for men to waste energy in denying our existence, for those who see us as we are are already convinced; and we who see men and women not only as they seem to be but as they really are are also convinced (while being convincers of men) of the immortality of the divine expression of each one upon earth. What a great help it would be to the hierarchy of light, to the spiritual overseers of the planet who function under the divine grace of God, if embodied men and women would leave for a moment their worldly cups and the fulfilling of mortal desires to feast at the table of God and to partake of the unguents of the Spirit as they are applied by the angelic hosts in all of their healing love and ministering service to the children of men! What a boon it would be to those who serve with me and the angelic hierarchies if more among mankind, in the full faith of our existence as ministers of the Eternal, would open the doors of their hearts to the reality of our existence! For it is this acceptance in the feeling world of the individual that provides the connection which assures the flow of our energies into his domain. Among the blessings of Christmastide unrealized by unknowing and unthinking men is the approach of a more bountiful harmony as even the most brittle consciousness is moved by the feelings of the season. Feelings of forgiveness that in other parts of the year are but a gritted hardness yield now to the pull of divine magnetism. Feelings of goodwill often absent from the hearts of men come more easily into manifestation. And the joy of that which stems from invisible and angelic realms is tangibly felt by many upon the planet. Multitudes caught up in the flowing movement of angelic choruses and the spirit that is the flame of the Christ experience the divine magnetism of his star singing in their hearts and connecting them with the orderly progression of universal lifewaves. God manifests to men, and he ministers unto their spiritual needs. God feeds the hungry, elevates the child to his knee, and wraps arms of compassion around hearts bursting with shame and mortification. Tears of joy melt old calcifications, and the feeling of closeness to universal purpose is born again. This renewal of the ancient covenant carries tidings of great joy to all people,{298} and the realm of the archangels and the angels is one of descending harmony and blessings. He is born anew - The hosannas of Palm Sunday Ring still through the years, And it does not matter That only a babe appears. Recognizing now an invisible reality within the domain of the world order, men and women can accept the Christ Spirit as it manifests minutely or greatly in any part of life. This is the attitude of amplification, it is the power by which the angels create the buoyancy in their feeling worlds that so blesses men and women when they contact the angelic hosts. How easy it is for individuals to tear down, to destroy, to condemn, and to enter into the "root of bitterness."{299} But it is just as easy for them to be buoyed up by the flood tide of divine love and to give that sweet release to other parts of life that all parts of life need in order to enter into the Father's Spirit. One of the most dramatic moments in the life mission of the Christ was when he set the little child upon his knee and said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of heaven."{300} The joyous expressions of the angelic hosts - childlike in their basic simplicity - reach up to the highest intelligences of the universe and draw forth such grandiose expressions of cosmic thought as to unite to the uttermost every diffident heart. There is time now to live, to think, to express, to serve and this time is borrowed from the eternal purpose. But the world has long given itself to the dark night of human manifestation. Individuals have lived again and again, seeking their own independence without recognizing their dependence on the Within. Inner dependence is what should be sought, not independence - that being merely a manifestation of the personal ego as it seeks to express independently of its Creator whereas inner dependence is the expression of the great inner light, the seed of the Cosmic Christ that is implanted within the domain of individuality to be cultivated and tenderly loved. This is the rod of Jesse,{301} the seed of the living Word. This is Aaron's rod that budded.{302} This is the perennial hope that ministers to men, and it is the rod and staff that comforts{303} their souls. Without father, without mother, without beginning of days and without ending{304} is the Spirit that unifies the soul with the great lightning flash of creative essence and purpose. It is not that we would create a mystical drama of words without meaning. It is that we, in stroking the soul with cosmic hands of light, would call to each electron, each atom to flash forth its Central Sun of purpose. We would release into the whole of the manifestation of the monad the understanding that will raise the individual son into total identification with the universal purposes of life. Then will the son having become one with the Father find his true independence to go forth in God's name as a replica of eternal purpose. Separation no longer exists. The veil of the holy of holies is rent in twain{305} - the Father and the son are one. Each manifestation of God becomes a fiery sun of universal purpose to go forth into the boundless universe and to expand and expand and expand by the limitless light of God that never fails. The angelic hosts joyously spread abroad their feelings of joy to the world - a joy that is expansion without limit, a joy that is compassion without limit, a joy that is a God-release to everyone in bondage. The meaning of our release, then, is that the flame of purpose that is so mightily impregnated in the soul can break the bonds that have held individuals to a round of continual unhappiness and assist them to find their freedom to worship the Divine Manchild by right cosmic action. Then, walking in his footsteps, each one shall realize that behind those footsteps is a greater magnetization for every soul who shall follow me in the regeneration.{306} Life is resurrection, life is the fire of creation, life is the power to create, to become a cocreator with God, to fashion the soul itself in the divine image, to inherit the crown of life that is the Christ radiance of every man. He is born again. Graciously, I remain Archangel Uriel Angel of Ministration ****** Chapter 51 Jesus Christ - December 22, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 51 - Jesus Christ - December 22, 1968 The Nativity of the Christ within the Soul My Brothers and Sisters in God, Though they draw nigh unto me with their lips, if their hearts be far from me, they cannot walk in my footsteps or receive the proffered gifts of God - regeneration, resurrection, and ascension power. The gap between the drawing power of dramatic attachment whereby men are thrilled at my victorious life experiences and the desire to go and do likewise{307} - the action of putting upon themselves the garments of the living Christ - is very wide. Men must not only seek truth, but they must also be truth. They must not only praise truth by vocalized expression, but they must also praise truth by the action of the heart in outpicturing (manifesting) the dramatis personae{308} of Christ reality. As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood within the fiery furnace for their faith{309} - as I appeared within that furnace, the fourth figure of Christed magnificence, seeing to it that not a hair of their heads was singed - so the young disciple in his day can take his stand of cosmic faith, perceiving in the myriad life forms around him the hand of infinite grace. Take dominion over the earth, be fruitful and multiply{310} is a command that is given not only to the flesh, but also to the Spirit. God is the Spirit, and the creative essence of the eternal Father manifests in the domain of nature and in the structures of stars and atoms. His Spirit is compounded into a communicative whole by being, by consciousness, by bliss and joy in consciousness, and by missioned reality. For thereby the soul understands the divine mission and, committing itself into the hands of God, goes forth unafraid to do my will. As the struggle for God realization upon the planetary body goes on, as nature continues to be affected by mankind's thoughts, as the mass consciousness continues to suffer the delusions of the senses, and as the struggle for self-cognition manifests in individual hearts, we who stand as elder brothers to the planet continue to exert the pressure of our hearts' light to the children of men to assist them in achieving that same sense of integrated wholeness that we manifested in our lives. Step by step the children of men move forward. Often the grounds of realization that they tread are not the grounds of attained action. Men know more than they do, and they continue to suffer the results of their failures to appropriate in faith the God ideals that are released to them within their minds and consciousness. Conscience itself is a banner which, when lowered through the acceptance of lesser standards, leads the souls of men through darkened tunnels where hope is dimly perceived. Thus, the search for freedom by young souls seeking a means of emancipation from bondage often leads to greater bondage. The traditions of society falling far short of the expression of God ideals hold yet a greater hope for every son of God upon the planet than the disorganized, libertine expressions of art and music that magnetize men to fetishes of darkness and hide their light under a bushel{311} of personal freedom that but conceals a mound of dead men's bones.{312} We who seek to raise all of life, to elevate the soul, and to bring men into contact with the great universal reality which has been the forte of every avatar down through the ages understand how the magnetism of personality and the fusion of ideas leap from person to person spreading darkness rather than light. Thus, large masses of people become infected by the pressures of astral chaos until the Earth herself literally reels to and fro because of the scattering abroad of what is in reality sheer hypocrisy. Men say they abhor violence and vow that they cleave to higher expressions of truth. Let them know and understand, then, that all who will follow truth in its transcendent state must tether themselves to the law of harmony and love. You cannot bring forth with your mouth protestations against violence and then seek to take heaven by force.{313} The greater the humility in the soul, the greater the possibility that an individual will achieve within a given lifespan. When John the Baptist came preceding my mission he said of me, "He must increase, but I must decrease."{314} This is the way for man to attain - to decrease the power of the personality and the ego, to diminish its aspects within the individual realm, and to increase the power of the Christ, of the light, and of the universal consciousness so that the tender threads of divine reality, of soul reality, can be spliced with the aspirations of the lower self. Men and women often do not take into account the fact that when they are reconnected to the regenerative powers of the universe, there is a healing period during which the fragile connecting skeins can easily be sundered once again. In the early day of the soul's awakening to its divine reality, it must be carefully cherished and the contact revered. Unless this be done the fragile nature of the contact, once broken, can plunge the soul headlong into darkness. I urge upon all, then, the maintaining of the divine sense, the sense of spiritual gratitude for each opportunity afforded the soul to expand, the sense of contact with the spiritual hierarchy, and the sense of unity of the many souls involved in serving the Godhead upon the planet. Whereas all are not the head and all are not the feet and the members of my body are many, there is a pervading sense of unity that runs throughout the whole, that flows into the universe and comforts each part with the comfort of the head.{315} I remain and I stand through the ages as the advocate of the Father's love. I make real to men, who could not otherwise see, the things of the Spirit. I open the eyes of the blind. I heal all the diseases of men. I remain the advocate for both simple and wise, and to each I give the needed grace for his freedom. The earth needs strong men - men who, having consciousness and life, will understand that that consciousness and that life are doorways, membranes between the highest octaves and the earth over which can be conveyed the messages of those educators of the Spirit who will teach and mold the soul until it is able to develop such a sense of overpowering victory that no human circumstance can conspire to take its crown. Whereas many rejoice at my nativity, the greatest rejoicing is the rejoicing of the nativity of the Christ within the soul of the individual. When an individual can feel the passions of the rebirth of the living Christ within the manger of his own heart, when he can feel the kindling of the divine flame there and realize that reintegration has begun, he will have taken a great step towards wholeness. I come this year, as every year throughout the whole round of manifestation, to bring good cheer to the souls of men. "Be of good cheer; it is I"{316} Is the comfort of this hour That men may realize that God speaks In the dark of the human ark To start afresh the holy journey, To heal the curse uttered in Eden, To make the two-edged sword of the Word{317} The pathway through the veil of good and evil And the return to the holy sense of good. All this I AM within you, Jesus the Christ ****** Chapter 52 Saint Germain - December 29, 1968 ****** Vol. 11 No. 52 - Saint Germain - December 29, 1968 The Thread of Contact with Hierarchy Freedom's Friends, From time to time the ascended masters, speaking through the forum of the Pearls of Wisdom, bring forth varied expressions of their consciousness. Some of these expressions are calculated to work in a mystical sense within the soul of the aspirant; then again the disciple is encouraged by words of good cheer and words of hope; at other times he is corrected or admonished to avoid some of the pitfalls that stand in the path of the disciple today. All in all, the challenges of the ascended masters released in varying styles through this medium are intended to supply - for the children upon this planet who are able to enter, at least in part, into the spirit of the masters - a very buoyant, electrifying thread of contact with the spiritual hierarchy. When properly perused, these very personal letters sent from our level to your own will assist the soul in its search for the ever-present reality of God within the domain of the individual. Now that the year has come to a close and men await the dawn of a new cycle, it is with an abiding sense of hope that I, as Chohan of the Seventh Ray and advocate of pure freedom for this planet in my final expression for the year through the Pearls of Wisdom, choose to extol your continual keeping on keeping on. The lifting up of the flame of freedom by the ascended masters has its counterpart in the human domain. When we lift up our torch, millions respond in varying degrees. Students of the light should understand that all people are somewhat limited by their own capacities to receive and to understand. God does not expect that the limited mind will respond to the same degree that the unlimited one can. Nonetheless, progress is the order of the day and we cannot condone the acceptance by anyone of his present state of progress as being the ultimate, nor do I believe that wise men and women would accept this idea. For are not all of us who serve together at varying levels of consciousness determined to press on to obtain the higher prize? The very transcendence of the divine nature is encouraging, for it provides a platform for the most fervent devotee without depriving those whose convictions may be less momentous from receiving some beckoning from on high that will draw them closer to the Divine Magnet. In reviewing the lives of many of the avatars and ascended beings that are clearly recorded in the akashic records and in examining some of the aspirants for the faith today, we are able to see parallels to the divine expression in the lives of embodied men and women. Thus we see the shaping of emancipation within the unascended souls who follow the vanguard of our light. And this is most encouraging to the headmasters of the cosmic schools; for unless we were made to feel that the investment of our energies should produce some fruit, it would be a bit difficult - even from our level - to continue to serve. We understand full well, then, that individuals who do not have our power of vision and perception are, from time to time, sorely tried as they pursue the spiritual path, often not seeing clearly the accomplishments they have made. I hasten to encourage everyone who has pursued this path and to say to you in the fullness of the faith that, although you may not always see that which is accomplished, you may be certain in the name of holy justice that if you have performed your acts of service in full faith - without impure motives and with God-determination - the Most High has certainly recorded upon the scroll of your life through the power of his recording angels those recordings which will ultimately assure you of your freedom. Now there are times when you do indeed see through the veil but darkly.{318} But there is a thinning of that darkened veil and the goals that are ahead, all adorned in their radiant shining, do penetrate the consciousness of the seeker from time to time and bring to him some sweet message of encouragement. As the portal of the year is nigh at hand, we call to your attention that each year is a ring in a vast eternal spiral. The cycles of the years, then, have their own momentums of progress, and there is no time as fortuitous to embodied men as the New Year season. As one cycle draws to a close, it has a tendency to firm the desires of the soul for greater expressions of achievement and progress. Men are also wont to examine the fabric of the past year and to look ahead with hope to that which is to come. Naturally, there are "guardians" at the threshold of the year - beasts of form created out of the substance of men's wrongdoings and past failures which seek to decry progress and to belittle the attempts of men to find their own freedom. The old saying "Hark, hark, the dogs do bark" should be taken into account and then totally disregarded. For whereas errors have been made by those in search of reality, both God and ascended beings would rather have men and women perform acts that are either hot or cold than to have them lukewarm. {319} Therefore, even errors made in good faith can be forgiven with great ease while the domain of action is regarded as one where men of courage are willing to take their stand for freedom by exercising their rights to do right as they see it and then pray God for a greater revelation of truth each day. There are timorous men in the world - men of fear who, fearing to act for God, do nothing at all. And this is a burying of divine ideas in a napkin,{320} a holding of the talents and graces of God in abeyance, for which men are not held guiltless. In the holy name of freedom, then, I advocate that men and women of courage and dedication assess the right as they see it and proceed to move forward in the light. There is a basic need in the world for the teaching to be brought forth. The darkness of the centuries spun in the cocoons of ignorance and calumny has continuously sought to enclose the light of freedom from the public view. Magazines, periodicals, and all forms of media have been enlisted in the downgrading of universal truth and in the slinging of arrows of outrageous fortune{321} at those who would release it. All the while, they are purveying into the public domain and to the public gaze a watered-down form of spirituality that could never in all eternity give men more than the palliatives they seek as a substitute for the valiant and glorious expression of universal freedom which is the power of truth. Reembodiment is true. The laws of karma - which are the laws of the circle, returning to every man the results of his own acts - are true. Forgiveness of sins is but a holding in abeyance of man's debts to afford him a chance to pay them off. Those who would impugn the integrity of the men and women who today take their stand for freedom in the name of the Great White Brotherhood - freedom from fear and freedom for all people - will one day have great regrets as they see how this has denied to those under their center of influence the living truth that would have made them free. But we dare not stand back and recriminate or review to any great extent the lives of those who have sought to suppress the truth; rather must we seek to empower those devotees of the light who now desire to express the truth to men. They must learn to move with great rapidity in the field of action and honor, to give the truth to those who seek it and to turn quickly from those who reject it all the while keeping the door opened and proceeding valiantly on their way to the building of a better community in the world order. A great patriot once said, "Give the people the truth and the freedom to express it and all will go well." But you are living in a time when the flood tide of human opinion seeks to suppress the truth because the dark powers that guide those darkened minds who would suppress the truth do not really want the people free. We who uphold the banner of freedom and the presence of the living Christ in the domain of world action encourage all of you who have spoken out and sought above all to live according to higher law. You who understand that the good that you do shall return to you, to the earth, and to the universal order will continue so to do, knowing that this expression is the living presence of God moving amongst men. It is no blasphemy to accept the fiat of the divine image, for the highest expression of man is the expression of the divine and the highest expression of God is that man who has become the Christ. In freedom's name, let our Brotherhood continue to release its chords of universal harmony. Let us fill the emptiness of life with the reality of goodness. Let us generate new reservoirs of compassion and let life live. In freedom's name I stand with you at the portal of the year, a messenger of cosmic hope, Saint Germain ***** Bibliography ***** [1] Volume 11, Number 1, footnote 1. The seven color rays are the natural division of the pure white light emanating from the heart of God as it descends through the prism of manifestation. These are the subdivisions of the wholeness of Christ-manifestation into seven qualitative parts, as listed in the Pearl. The corresponding electronic patterns of the qualities of God are keyed by the following rainbow rays which are a focalization of each of the respective attributes of the Deity: 1. power and faith - blue; 2. wisdom and illumination - yellow; 3. love and beauty - pink; 4. ascendancy and purity - white; 5. healing and supply - green; 6. ministration and service - purple and gold; 7. transmutation and diplomacy - violet. The offices of the seven chohans (lords) of the rays are divinely appointed by the cosmic hierarchy. Selections are made from among the most qualified ascended beings who have arisen from earth's schools, having attained self-mastery and won the ascension (as Jesus, Elijah, Enoch, and Melchizedek did) by serving humanity "on" one or more of the seven rays through their embodiments in the world of form. Those who retain the office of chohan hold sovereign responsibility under divine ordination for the administration to mankind of all the qualitative aspects of their own specific ray while harmonizing their administration with the other six rays of the white light. The chohans always obey cosmic law; yet they are given certain latitude in keeping with their manifest individual evolution, capacities, and special endowments to direct mankind in the most adroit manner, giving such loving assistance and spiritual direction as may be the requirement of the hour. They retain in their service legions of angelic hosts and ascended brethren who carry out the plan of the Great White Brotherhood for the most complete expression of the seven rays that is possible among the mankind of earth. Individuals are keyed to certain rays in order that they may perform a specific service to God and man. The ray of service to which an individual is attuned may vary from one embodiment to the next, but the reward for service is cumulative. And thus, powerful momentums may be retained from one's past services on several or all of the rays; a balance of the seven is a requirement for the ascension and the mark of the golden-age man. Statesmen, leaders, and organizers are on the first ray under beloved El Morya; teachers, philosophers, and educators serve on the second ray under beloved Lanto; artists, designers, beauticians, and those of a creative nature serve on the third ray under beloved Paul the Venetian; architects, planners and those dedicated to the purity and discipline of any undertaking serve with beloved Serapis Bey on the fourth ray; doctors, scientists, healers, musicians, mathematicians, and those consecrated to truth serve on the fifth ray with beloved Hilarion; ministers, nurses, and all who administer to mankind's needs assist beloved Nada on the sixth ray; diplomats, priests of the sacred fire, actors, writers, and defenders of freedom serve with Saint Germain on the seventh ray. If a student finds that he is lacking in any of the Godly attributes, he may make calls to his God Presence, his own Holy Christ Self, and the chohan of the ray which he desires to amplify in his world. Great strides of spiritual progress can thus be made in a comparatively short time. [2] Volume 11, Number 4, footnote 7. No operation or transfer of the physical organ can interfere with man's unity (uni-tie) with his creator through the mighty silver cord that connects the threefold flame with the Presence of God, for the physical heart is merely the repository and "outer" focus of the "inner" flame of life. The flame is not dependent upon the body temple for its existence, but rather the temple is dependent upon the flame for its existence. When the flame returns to the Presence at the close of a specific embodiment, the physical heart ceases to beat. The cause of death is not the cessation of the heartbeat but the withdrawal of the threefold flame. The cessation of the heartbeat is the outer effect of an inner cause. The threefold flame in one individual can never be transferred to another, for the threefold flame is the very personal point of contact in the being of his own God Self. It is the motor which produces the heartbeat; it is not the heartbeat. When an individual's allotted lifespan is up, no amount of surgical skill can prolong it, although this skill may definitely serve to assist man in completing his appointed round which otherwise might be interfered with by extenuating circumstances. Just as material forces may hinder man, so material methods may help him. The heart itself does not sustain life, but the threefold flame sustains the life of the heart for the exact amount of time prescribed by law - the law of man's own karma. The withdrawal of the flame is predetermined by this law. (Good deeds may extend one's allotted span whereas the misuse of life's energies may cause it to be shortened.) Therefore, when a patient receives a heart transplant from one who has passed on, the patient's own threefold flame must "receive" the new heart and cause it to resume its natural function even as the physical body itself must "receive" the new organ. The threefold flame of the donor of the physical heart thus returns to his Presence, even as it would if so-called death occurred in any other way. (See also Pearls of Wisdom, 12 February 1967.) =============================================================================== **** Footnotes: **** {1} The seven color rays are the natural division of the pure white light emanating from the heart of God as it descends through the prism of manifestation. [1] {2} Matt. 6:1-4. {3} Luke 2:14. {4} Matt. 5:14. {5} Matt. 24:22. {6} Luke 1:46-55. {7} For a definition of man's deathless solar body, see Pearls of Wisdom, 16 July 1967, by beloved Serapis Bey. {8} Matt. 5:29, 30. {9} The ascended masters teach the use of pastel colors (blue, yellow, pink, white, green, violet, purple and gold - the colors of the seven rays) not only in works of art but also in clothing, home furnishings, and interior decorating as a most effective means of drawing the spiritual radiation and blessings of the angelic hosts to manifest as an actual focus of the higher realms in one's immediate environment. {10} 1 Cor. 13:12. {11} Dan. 7:9. {12} Matt. 5:8 {13} Matt. 6:10. {14} Heb. 12:23. {15} Hab. 1:13. {16} 1 John 4:4. {17} No operation or transfer of the physical organ can interfere with man's unity (uni-tie) with his creator through the mighty silver cord that connects the threefold flame with the Presence of God, for the physical heart is merely the repository and "outer" focus of the "inner" flame of life. [2] {18} Luke 12:32 {19} Seventeenth-century usage is implied: to proclaim a practice. See Oxford Universal Dictionary on Historical Principles, 3d ed. rev., s.v. "proscribe." {20} Matt. 10:38. {21} The Class of the Sign, 29 December 1967-1 January 1968 {22} 1 John 4:18. {23} John 4:17, 18 {24} John 14:2, 3 {25} Luke 23:43 {26} From a decree written by beloved Nada (30.04). See Invocations and Decrees for Keepers of the Flame, published by the Summit Lighthouse. {27} Matt. 28:18 {28} In his final embodiment as Francis Bacon, Saint Germain wrote the works which were attributed to William Shakespeare. {29} Shekinah or Sheckinah: Hebrew for "indwelling" - "Jehovah has dwelt" - the visible majesty of the divine Presence of God, of the divine mind, as it descends to lighten the way for mortals. (Ezek. 1:28) {30} Matt. 25:25-28 {31} Portia, the Goddess of Justice, is the divine complement or twin flame of beloved Saint Germain. She is also known as the Goddess of Opportunity. {32} Gen. 18:14. {33} Heb. 12:6. {34} Isa. 55:9 {35} Matt. 5:9. {36} Luke 10:27. {37} 2 Chron. 20:17 {38} Phil. 4:7. {39} Matt. 6:21. {40} Luke 21:19. {41} Gen. 3:9. {42} Titus 1:15. {43} 2 Cor. 3:18. {44} Mark 8:35. {45} Mark 1:35; 4:38; Luke 6:12; John 6:15. {46} John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. {47} The attention of your mind controls and directs the flow of God's energy in your world. {48} 1 Tim. 5:24. {49} John 8:11. {50} Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Passing of Arthur, line 414. {51} Pss. 16:10. {52} John 11:25. {53} John 3:4. {54} Dan. 6:11, 20 {55} Ezek. 33:11. {56} John 10:10. {57} Matt. 5:44. {58} 1 Cor. 3:13. {59} Matt. 23:11. {60} Matt. 10:28. {61} Job 19:26. {62} Luke 23:28. {63} 2 Pet. 1:10. {64} William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 5, sc. 1, line 38 {65} Matt. 25:6. {66} John 8:44. {67} Rev. 2:9; 3:9 {68} 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7. {69} John 10:30; 17:20-23. {70} John 6:1-14. {71} 1 Tim. 4:14. {72} Rev. 1:16. {73} Matt. 20:22. {74} Eph. 4:4-6. {75} Pss. 19:14. {76} Phil. 4:8 {77} Gen. 37:3. {78} John 19:23. {79} 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. {80} 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. {81} Matt. 5:48. {82} 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. {83} Matt. 9:12. {84} 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." {85} Isa. 11:9; 65:25. {86} Pss. 91:10. {87} Jude 13. {88} Matt. 16:26; 1 Cor. 9:27. {89} Pss. 46:10. {90} Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18. {91} Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, "Of Boldness." {92} Matt. 6:24. {93} Matt. 6:34, {94} 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. {95} Dan. 3:24-25 {96} Luke 6:31 {97} Job 3:25. {98} Matt. 6:21. {99} Matt. 6:28-29 {100} Matt. 19:30. {101} Luke 7:47. {102} Aesop's Fables, "The Hare and the Tortoise." {103} Pss. 23:5 {104} Matt. 2:16;24:24 {105} Mark 1:7. {106} John 19:11. {107} John 14:3. {108} Pss. 19:14. {109} John 3:3. {110} Matt. 11:30. {111} From the Sanskrit; an invocation in the form of either a brief petition or the repetition of the sacred word "AUM." {112} Matt. 12:36-37. {113} See Studies in Alchemy and Intermediate Studies in Alchemy by Saint Germain, a complete course on the science of precipitation, published by The Summit Lighthouse. {114} Job 22:28. {115} Gen. 1:3. {116} Josh. 6:10-20; Heb. 11:30. {117} Mal. 3:10. {118} Job 37:2-5. {119} John 1:1-3. Heb.11:3. {120} John 14:2. {121} Pss. 139:14 {122} Dan. 7:9, 22. {123} Matt. 17:20. {124} 1 Tim. 1:19. {125} Heb. 11:6. {126} Zech. 4:6. {127} Luke 17:21. {128} John 21:17. {129} Matt. 11:12. {130} Gal. 6:7. {131} Matt. 15:14 {132} Mic. 4:4. {133} Eph. 6:12. {134} Matt. 10:16. {135} Heb. 11:6. {136} 2 Pet. 1:10. {137} 2 Cor. 3:17. {138} Dan.3:13-29. {139} Baal: any of numerous Canaanite and Phoenician local deities. Moloch: a Semitic deity worshiped through the sacrifice of children. (Judg. 6:25; 2 Kings 10:19-28; 17:31; Jer. 2:8; Pss. 106:37, 38; Rom. 11:4; Lev. 18:21; 20:1-5; Amos 5:26; Acts 7:43) {140} William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1, line 58. {141} God's energy this is entrusted to man is obedient, self-luminous, and intelligent. It always fulfills the mandates of man's thoughts and feelings - for better or for worse - and this energy sustains the momentum with which it is originally qualified until man himself recalls it and determines to requalify it with a more noble form. This process of freeing misqualified energy from the imperfections that have been imposed upon it is called transmutation. {142} John 19:11. {143} Matt. 7:16-20. {144} Gal. 6:7. {145} Ezek. 43:8. {146} 2 Thess. 2:11. {147} Acts 10:34. {148} Luke 1:52. {149} Rom. 13:10. {150} Prov. 4:7. {151} Luke 6:31. {152} Matt. 5:44 {153} 1 Cor. 5:6 {154} Hos. 8:7. {155} John 14:2. {156} Luke 9:62. {157} 1 Cor. 15:42-54. {158} John 12:24. {159} John 5:17. {160} Pss. 35:5. {161} Mark 5:30-33. {162} See Pearls of Wisdom, 7 January and 28 April 1968. {163} Rom. 12:19. {164} In a very disadvantageous position. {165} Luke 23:8-11; John 18:37. {166} Matt. 6:27. {167} Matt. 10:30. {168} Gen. 25:29-34. {169} 2 Cor. 11:14. {170} William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 3, sc. 2, line 80. {171} Phil. 4:7. {172} "Learn to love to do well, and you shall," Motto of Casimir Poseidon taught to the people of an ancient empire near the Amazon River. (From an address by beloved Casimir Poseidon given at Beacon's Head, Virginia, 12 September 1965). {173} From the dictation by beloved Lord Gautama given at the Class of the Sign, 31 December 1967. {174} Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "A Psalm of Life," stanza 7. {175} 1 Cor. 15:41. {176} Pss. 91:5-6. {177} "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," Walt Disney. {178} Rev. 12:5. {179} 1 Pet. 2:5. {180} Francis Scott Key, "The Star-Spangled Banner," st. 1. {181} Thomas Jefferson {182} Rev. 12:14. {183} Rev. 11:15. {184} Exod. 3:2-4. {185} James 4:8. {186} Luke 2:10. {187} Matt. 28:18. {188} 1 Cor. 15:26. {189} 2 Cor. 3:6. {190} John 10:30 {191} John 17:21 {192} Luke 12:42; 16:1, 2, 8. {193} John 10:7-16. {194} Matt. 20:1-16. {195} Rev. 22:17. {196} Luke 17:21. {197} Pss. 1:5. {198} John 21:15-17. {199} Isa. 11:9. {200} Isa. 55:8. {201} Mark 10:17. {202} Luke 21:19. {203} Matt. 3:17; 17-5. {204} Sir Edwin Arnold, trans., The Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1948), p. 9. {205} Luke 17:21. {206} Matt. 27:33. {207} Luke 23:33. {208} Matt. 6:21. {209} Matt. 24:40, 41. {210} John 19:23. {211} Gen. 32:24-29. {212} Luke 2:46, 47. {213} Matt. 21:12. {214} Matt. 23:33. {215} John 21:12. {216} John 6:53. {217} Matt. 24:28. {218} 1 Thess. 5:2. {219} Manvantara: Sanskrit for cyle of cosmic history. {220} Built from 1632-1650 at Agra, India, by Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. {221} Great Pyramid of King Khufu at Gizeh, Egypt, built in the third or fourth millennium, B.C. {222} Matt. 13:32. {223} 1 John 1:5. {224} John 1:3. {225} Rom. 8:6. {226} Rom. 8:38, 39. {227} John 14:6. {228} Luke 10:37. {229} Luke 22:42. {230} Matt. 25:40. {231} Matt. 4:19 {232} John 21:16, 17. {233} Rom. 8:26. {234} Matt. 9:12. {235} John Heywood, Proverbs, 1546: "A man may well bring a horse to the water, but he cannot make him drink without he will." {236} Exod. 3. {237} Exod. 17:9-12. {238} Josh. 1:1-9. {239} 2 Kings 2 {240} Matt. 20:16. {241} Exod. 32. {242} Matt. 13:43. {243} Hos. 10:8; Rev. 6:16. {244} Num. 21:8, 9; John 3:14 {245} Some time after his passing in the land of Moab, Moses reembodied in China where he was known as Lord Ling. He ascended at the close of that lifetime. He now known as the God of Happiness, having dedicated himself to this aspect of the Deity to focus an overcoming momentum of victory for the children of Israel who often complained bitterly during the forty years of their wilderness wanderings. {246} Eph. 5:1. {247} Hence, the reason why animals are sacred to the Hindus; for they do not wish to kill their own ancestors, whose souls might now be inhabiting an animal's body, nor do they wish themselves to be killed should they be encased in animal form in a future life. {248} Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, "The Chambered Nautilus," stanza 5. {249} John 8:58. {250} Gal. 6:5. {251} 1 Cor. 15:45-49 {252} John 1:1-3. {253} John 14:12. {254} Gen. 3:4 {255} 1 Cor. 15:26. {256} Deut. 6:4. {257} Rom. 12-2. {258} Acts 9:5. {259} Matt. 13:36. {260} Gen. 2:17. {261} 1 Cor. 3:1. {262} Matt. 25:40 {263} Jer. 17:9. {264} John 8:32. {265} Samuel Francis Smith, "America," stanza 1. {266} Francis Bellamy, "The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag," 1892. {267} Deut. 4:2. See also Rev. 22:18, 19. {268} Heb. 13:8. {269} Rev. 22:10. {270} 1 Cor. 2:9. {271} John 5:17. {272} Jer. 31:33. {273} Matt. 18:3. {274} Gen. 2:17. {275} James 1:8. {276} Pss. 121:1, 2 {277} Eph. 5:26. {278} Luke 12:32. {279} 1 Pet. 5:8. {280} William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, sc. 2, line 43. {281} Rom. 8:7. {282} Gen. 1:28. {283} 2 Cor. 3:18. {284} Heb. 11:1. {285} Luke 2:14. {286} Luke 1:80; 2:40. {287} Isa. 11:6. {288} Luke 2:46. {289} Isa. 53:5. {290} 1 Cor. 10:4. {291} Pss. 8:5. {292} John 14:1. {293} John 3:19. {294} Luke 21:25, 26. {295} Luke 1:33. {296} Rev. 11:15 {297} John Howard Payne, Clari, the Maid of Milan, "Home, Sweet Home." {298} Luke 2:10. {299} Heb. 12:15. {300} Matt. 19:14. {301} Isa. 11:1. {302} Num. 17:8. {303} Pss. 23:4. {304} Heb. 7:3. {305} Matt. 27:51. {306} Matt. 19:28. {307} Luke 10:37. {308} Characters or actors in a drama, Jesus' admonition to those who would become the Christ references the activity of fulfilling the roles of the many men and women of faith who have outpictured the pageant of the Christ throughout the ages - even before his embodiment as Jesus. Not just one but many players in the cast make up the body of God upon earth. As disciples of the Christ as he appears in all men, we must recognize his qualities wherever they are revered and exemplified in lives of service and dedication. Then it is our role to go and do likewise. {309} Dan. 3:29-17. {310} Gen. 1:28. {311} Matt. 5:15. {312} Matt. 23:27. {313} Matt. 11:12. {314} John 3:30. {315} 1 Cor. 12:14-23. {316} Matt. 14:27. {317} Rev. 1:16. {318} 1 Cor. 13:12. {319} Rev. 3:15, 16. {320} Luke 19:20. {321} William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1, line 58.