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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.1
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."2 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."3 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.4
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.5 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.6 These are not worthy to unloose your shoe latchet.7 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."8 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.9 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.10 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.11
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!12 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.