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To Those Joyous Hearts Who Would Expand the Joy of God:
Our subject is the spreading of the network of joy, the antithesis of sorrow, in the domain of consciousness and its communication into the world of form.
When the individual monad can willingly give up the personal self beyond the point of test in a genuine act of surrender, he is soon magnetized to the God ideal of spreading in the world domain the marvelous activity of vibrant joy - joy in self, joy in nature, joy in opportunity, joy in service, joy in music, joy in art, and joy even in the process of purifying the self.
Every facet of life takes on the aspect of challenge to those who daily strive to be more like Him. But this is not a challenge of discomfort, it is one of hope. The very fact that the individual can improve regardless of his station, that he can change his concepts, his vibratory action, and the contents of his mind as he would his garments is a sign of hope and a portent of delight.
Energy fields are magnificent when they are properly qualified, for they not only surround the creator of the energy field with his own vibration of bliss but, according to the law of attraction, they also magnetize the vibrations of happiness and joy from many parts of the world. We acknowledge that the reverse is also true, and seldom do people take into account the fact that from time to time they are surrounded with entities - entities of fear, of doubt, and of grief - which seek to invade the aura only because by their own attitudes individuals create the climate that attracts these outsiders.
In the matter of moods, then, we would suggest to every student who pursues God's happiness, whenever he is invaded by a feeling that is less than God-happiness - a feeling of discomfort or disquietude - that he begin to look for the cause first in his own subconscious mind and in the centering of his attention around negative ideas which he may have allowed to enter his world and secondly in the person of masquerading or malevolent entities.
The nature of invading entities is such that whenever an individual seeks to improve himself by engaging in religious worship, by attending a constructive lecture or concert, or by reading religious literature, the vibratory action of the higher pursuit makes the entity extremely uncomfortable. The entity, unwilling to relinquish his hold on the lifestream, will then project to his consciousness a feeling of discomfort or unhappiness and this, he will assure the individual, is directly attributable to the function in which the individual is involved.
In this manner many sincere souls are either stopped on the Path or they are prevented from obtaining the benefits of higher meditation. Thus, through their susceptibility to invading entities, they are deprived of the opportunity to receive transcendent blessings. This is why spiritual protection is necessary for those who would continue to progress on the upward way - protection not only through the knowledge I am conveying but also through decrees, through prayer, and through the determination to do the will of God no matter what the argument of the opposition may be.
When you are able to cast out from the self the influences of discarnate entities - whether these be departed relatives, friends, or enemies who may be magnetized to your person - when you are able to invoke the protection from on high that will insulate you from the malice of those whom you may not even know are your enemies - whether embodied or disembodied - you will find yourself making spiritual progress at a more rapid pace.
Because of the increasing threat of witchcraft in the United States as well as in the world, spiritual aspirants must exercise caution and they should learn to weigh the evidence before they credit all of their failures or seeming failures to themselves. Witchcraft has a subtle allure for those who are not grounded in spiritual knowledge and who do not understand the karmic penalties that accrue from such dangerous practices. Often practitioners of witchcraft use their powers to launch a general form of attack against anyone who tries to escape from the mass miasma.1
There is something about progress that always engages the teeth of men's egos. When others begin to progress, they often enter into feelings of jealousy. Jesus described this human propensity in his statement "Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."2
Many in the orthodox churches are naïve concerning these facts. They are entirely too standpat in matters of the self. Quite frankly, as you have been told in this series, the self is little understood. This is why people often work against their own best interests and against the best interests of humanity, why they are so easily captivated by the idea of massive social gain and why the dark forces are able to create so much unrest in the world, making men and women think they can gain spiritually as well as materially through forms of government control.
The ideal society is that which evolves out of the higher consciousness when the individual opens the door of his being to God without reserve. In such moments of personal contact with Life, the entire being of man becomes as a mouth pressing itself against the Infinite in order to receive the subtle nourishment that floods into the hungry soul.
Because the grace that comes from on high is so creative, so inspirational, so filled with depth and height and volume, it literally overwhelms the being of man, and spilling over the lip of life it floods forth as the impulse to be a benefactor to the race. Such impulse must be guarded under God-control and channeled constructively in order to protect the self and the highest nature in others.
Each person should realize that the higher intelligence within himself is capable of making accurate decisions as to when he should speak and when he should be silent, when he should offer a helping hand and when he should withhold it. There are times when nothing is as important as a physical gesture of assistance to another, and at other times there is nothing so dangerous. Some of the best gifts that can be given to men are inward gifts such as the communication of the highest vibrations of hope and comfort.
The consciousness of the individual should become like a grail, and the knowledge that flows into the grail consciousness should draw more and more of the regenerating Christ consciousness into the domain of the self. Certainly it is true that if a man ask of God bread, he will not give him a stone.3 Therefore consider the fact that constructive endeavor always receives the necessary support spiritually, morally, and materially proportionately as one accepts the highest sense of his mission in a spiritual manner.
"It is more blessed to give than to receive"4 yet unless men receive they cannot give. Therefore the words allotted portion must be understood as the grace of God on deposit in the great causal body for each individual. Man can expand, as he is able to receive them, the highest judgments and qualities of God. He can grow in grace and in the knowledge of truth. He can become tomorrow a greater servant than he is today.
Yet the foundation stones of the temple must be laid while consciousness is held in readiness. This is done by an act of willing to do whatsoever must be done in the furtherance of the kingdom of God both within and without. The self needs to expand. In order to expand, men need to receive. But all who receive need also to give; for if man becomes an inlet with no outlet, he will eventually become a parasite on the world body.
Man must qualify his energy with divine love just as the pulsing joy of God vivaciously entices all of Nature to perform her wondrous feats - her miracles of temporal reality immortalized as they recycle over and over again. Thus shall the individual realize that one day the true meaning of his life will be found in the spiritual interchange between the microcosm and the Macrocosm that is known as flow. Through this process, the allness of man flows into the allness of God and the allness of God, flowing into the allness of man, brings about an exchange of the pulsations of identity which make the humblest soul a king of victory and the most exalted to bow in joyous humility.
Truly "he hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree."5 Truly the living God is crowned in every atom. Truly each man is the son of the Eternal One. Move on, then, to understand that which you can be; for out of the expectancy of hope is born the implementation of faith that establishes the borders of self right where charity is. When the meaning of true love is known, it is found to re-create that supreme moment when the innocent soul cried out with divine wonder, Because thou art, O God, I AM!" Thus we see the links of identity, intelligence, power, and love uniting all to the oneness that is God.
[The preceding text is taken from the book version, Understanding Yourself.]