Superior Index Go to the next: Chapter 9
Print Files: A4 Size.
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?"1
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.2
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 men3 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,