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Pilgrims on the Path of Illumination,
Just as divine qualities are the source of man's freedom, so human qualities are the source of his bondage. The two streams flow side by side in the human consciousness. From which shall man drink?
Sometimes individuals dip into both, the result being a muddied mixture. And so it comes to pass that in the spiritual search there are some who become caught up in the stream of human greed. This means that their prime reason, subtly concealed from view (even from themselves), for engaging in the spiritual quest is in order that they might expand what they hope are their "latent spiritual powers" that will enable them to demonstrate their superiority over other parts of life.
The age-old statement attributed to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree"1 is applicable here. The key to God-success and God-happiness is in drawing nigh to the beautiful givingness of the Christ character. Albeit man was conceived and born in the being of God as a creature of love and service, his identification with the human ego has warped his expression of both love and service. Men love in expectation of being loved; they serve in expectation of being served.
At this time of the year, when so much accent is put upon both giving and receiving, the Brotherhood here at Lake Titicaca wishes to create in the consciousness of the disciple a breathing, tangible awareness of the nature of God. For that which came down from on high, that which was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the humble surroundings of the manger, was in reality the manifestation of the divine nature.
The morning stars sang together for joy.2 The conclave of the Magi journeyed across the sands. The shepherds, awestruck in their huts, paid him homage. Every part of life was affected by the glorious tinge of that which composed both the corporeal and incorporeal body of Messias, the Promised One, the actual manifestation of "the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."3
But with the passing of time, the 'personality' of the Master overshadowed in the minds of men the power of his grace and truth; for it has ever been customary for mortal men either to deify or to deny the existence of the human person. They have never understood that the human person is also sacred to God - in all of its ugliness, in all of its waywardness, in all of its destructivity.
God already is and he can say with all of the power of his light, "I AM." But man, even in his present state, is but a creature of becoming who can only say, "Through the power of God, I AM."
Man has failed to understand that God loves even the human person and that he holds him dear to his heart - yes, even with all of his defects. For, by his great love, God hopes to transmit the radiance of the divine image to the mortal self that it might clasp to its consciousness his own thought about the identity of the real man. And it is thus that God hopes to imbue man with the power to mold and to shape his character according to the wondrous manifestation of the only begotten Son. This is the true meaning of the celebration of the Christ Mass. This is the means by which the soul imbibes his true worth and the precious gift of immortality.
All who destroy the character of God in themselves, who permit themselves to lie and to steal, to depart from principle and to compromise the law, all who are pleasure-mad and live only for themselves know it not but they are entering into the vortex of the bottomless pit. This is the pit which never exalts but always draws the soul downward into a consciousness of continual demand for more of everything to be gotten.
And how well the statement has been made "It is more blessed to give than to receive,"4 for that key which truly unlocks the blessings of eternity and supplies man with his own natural spiritual grace is his givingness in accordance with universal purpose. God is the Great Giver, and he has given to all that they might multiply the gifts they have received through giving them away; for the only gifts that men ever retain - which they have first received from God - are those that they give away.
In reality, then, if we are to achieve solidarity of Christ-love upon the planet, it must be a solidarity that submits itself to purpose and principle above persons, places, conditions, and things, that enters into the all-knowing mind of God, and that gathers the fragments of light, shattered now and dispersed upon the planetary body, into one cosmic summit of universal reality, a beacon set upon a hill that cannot be hid.5
While men are often prone to preserve their personal idiosyncrasies, the Great Cosmic Law desires to free them from all sense of drudgery, of fear, and of turmoil and to give them once and for all a sense of the dignity of God and the true worth of their being. When man esteems the true worth of his being, he also esteems the laws which God has created and by which he framed the universe. The operation of these laws is essential to the business of living. To honor these laws is to honor the heavenly Father and Mother and to provide for that endless continuance in the being of man known as immortal life.
What a fraud it would be if the type of life that is based on hatred and struggle were to be preserved and men were never to find their way to the path of universal God realization. What is God realization but a realization of His nature within the nature of man. It is the being born again,6 the being born with the Christ universal, the being born in the hope of pouring out so much divine love and light into the world matrix that at last the very substance of the world's corrosive thought, of the world's thoughts of fear and doubt, will be erased. Then will being be vivified by the emerging consciousness of the universal Christ in every man.
How else can we celebrate and send gifts one to another except through understanding the spiritual law? So long as men seek to defeat and to destroy one another by malice, by gossip, by misunderstanding, by deceit, by confusion, by greed, and by the building up of the human ego, so long do they delay the manifestation of the kingdom of God upon earth.
Many think, because they have escaped temporarily the full descent of the karmic results of their own recent acts, that perhaps the acts were not wrong. Be wary, beloved of the light, for the law is unerring in its design; nevertheless, it has never postulated man's destruction. Hence often even karma is momentarily delayed in order to give the soul a chance to brace itself, for God does not wish it to be destroyed.
His love, then, is so valiant, so magnificent, so totally glorious that I commend it to you as the love of pure wisdom. This is the love that extracts from all of the religious writings of the world not the sense of domination of other lives or even of Life itself but the entering into the Spirit of universal Christ dominion where the kingdom of God is always the first consideration of each soul. Then, you see, the fulfillment of the promise of old "Peace on earth, good will toward men,"7 can become a blazing reality because you will be entering into it, not only individually but also universally.
It is in this hope that the ascended masters pour their radiance over the earth during this season in a special effort dedicated to the unfoldment and the awakening in humanity of the precious powers of the world to come. These powers lie dormant within the being of man; they are latent truth, latent immortality, the vitality of the soul awaiting expression.
Will you understand, then, that his star in the east within you is a symbol of immortal greatness that shall come forth upon the true vine. The statement of Jesus "I am the vine, ye are the branches"8 references man's universal contact with God, with being, with the I AM Presence of his life. Will you accept this wisdom and thereby obtain all wisdom in perfect balance?
Felicitations of the holy season to all,