Superior Index Go to the next: Chapter 47
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Man's destiny is in his own hands even as it is in God's. The will of God left to its natural course would have long ago automated the perfection of man; but man demanded and was accorded free will, including the right to choose between his own versions of "good" and "evil," for the Lord God envisioned only good and produced it and it alone. Yet men dwell in the vale of dualities. This makes it necessary that they be given cosmic tests. All embodied men are tested. Therefore, I call to mind the words of Jesus "If it were possible, they [the false Christs] shall deceive the very elect."1
Although they have been warned that the powers of darkness masquerade as angels of light, the children of God are often fooled by the masqueraders. Wise, then, is the student who will kiss the opportunity to learn discrimination and who will rejoice when the steadfast hand of progress becomes a hand of chastening, for the fruit of the Spirit is ever and anon the reward of man's conscious, willing acceptance of the immutable law of his own being.
Until the students understand, and clearly, that the pathway through the vale of shadows is full of hidden dangers, they may well fall prey to the confusions of the carnal mind. When Philip said to Jesus, "Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us," the beloved master replied, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me ...? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. ... Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."2 Those who have communed with their own Holy Christ Selves and with the beloved God Presence have seen both Father and Son; these will not be confused by the carnal mind if they remain steadfast in the vision of their oneness.
Our instruction is a bond of light; it shatters darkness, it confutes error, it reveals the inner light of truth; yet, even our followers are sometimes deluded by reason of the very kindness of their hearts. The spoiler lies in wait. He comes wearing robes of righteousness. He preys upon the children of God; for they alone, in their innocence of heart, possess the virtue that the spoiler has not known and that he will not espouse in the secret heart of his being.
The winnowing process must go on. The children of the light who seek the highest spiritual attainment, as opposed to the mere excitement of religious adventure or the temporary satisfaction of intellectual curiosity, will seek righteousness and pursue it. If they fall, they will rise. If they are tricked or deceived, they will admit it; for the face of cosmic honesty is the prize they seek. They know that only the gem of truth will reveal the hidden doorway of the heart of God.
We do not need to close our doors against those who do not possess cosmic honor, against those who flash forth a wild spark of passion, favoring their human egos which always betray the kingdom of God. Nay, they have already closed the door of reality unto themselves by their thoughtless blasts of criticism, by their failure to apprehend the best fortresses, and by their unwillingness to see that the fortitude of the Brotherhood is in straight knowledge and in purity of motive.
What a pity that men often forget that Christ was tempted. What a pity that they do not realize that the best instruments are sometimes partially strung. Morya stands with everyone who stands with righteousness, with all who sense the struggles of these hours and with those who perceive that with the approach of solstice, the thick and gathering darkness moves in to stifle the cry of the newborn babe of righteousness.
It is true that the cloistered hours do not necessarily bear fruit, but what of the frittering away of time in the social whirl of mortal unrest and egoistic struggle? What of the strange dichotomy that drives men of spiritual potential to exhibit their lesser wares to humanity in a display of their "attainment," while the virtues of honor, decency, integrity, and reality are sometimes absent from the household?
I tell you truly that I would rather have a man of honor for my servant, one who would not hesitate to admit before men a mistake which he had made, than I would to have one who would preserve his image before men while dethroning the great cosmic purposes of life that plead from within himself for the right to manifest.
Little do individuals realize the impact of their thoughts and feelings upon others. The statement, "Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge,"3 refers to the meanderings of the dual stream of individuality (the individed duality), made dual only because men have not allowed the polarities of life to run side by side into one blending.
We, who have and know that which is above and that which is below, find that in the allness of God there is neither height nor depth, but only the stream of oneness. Separation ensues because men will have it so. They will themselves into a false sense of individuality, and then they spurn the uniting fires that would meld their duality into wholeness.
The dregs of the cup of wrath are drained and the cup of purity is rejected. The rushing wings of the angels are heard, and men say, "A flock of birds has taken off." They will to make common the greatest gifts of life, and they do not understand the need for valor in the battle. They say, "What struggle is this? God is peace." Yet, the Apostle declared, "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them."4
That destructive consciousness which wasteth at noontide5 is also that subtle wit that gazes upon the substance of eternity in minute increments, dispensed as drops of time to men, and then assumes that in a given era these dispensed treasures are themselves full of reality. They are but drops of potential, but the correct use of their potential will result in the release of the radiance which God has locked into the secret of substance itself, awaiting the keyed response.
How diverse are the origins of man, yet how universal! Coming into manifestation from a common source, the "diversity" of the people of the world is a witless cloak that conceals their common origins. This shroud of pseudoindependence, while purporting to give man a "feeling of freedom" that makes him "his own man," binds him ever more tightly to the festering rood of self-delusion.
Approaching now the moment of freedom, we say, let the people understand that the fault of their lack of progress lies in the domain of individual motivation. Men are motivated by greed and egoistic desire. They are full of vanity, and they are unwilling to see the sorcery of their natures consumed by the purifying fires. Now, with the advent of the annual renewal of the Christ Mass, our hearts turn to outwit the sinister strategies that would lay to waste the opportunities that God has made for man.
The Lord of the First Ray speaks, but the Lord who is the first ray spoke long ago; and his holy will is a joy-bomb, exploding its fiery intensity of cosmic magnetism into the soul, shattering the awful fences of darkness as though struck by a wild whirlwind, and creating the pure and whitened spot of atomic realization where the broken fragments can be gathered up. Here the altar of the Lord will be builded, here the hunger-strivings of cosmic fulfillment will yield the fruit of pure reason!
What is the gathering darkness of the gathering storm that seeks to destroy the Manchild, that seeks to snuff out noble cosmic effort? Why do the dark ones come and wear their white masks, practicing their deceits in the name of Christ?
We say, let the light from The Summit gleam on! From every attack we will rally, summoning the continuance of the faith in the hearts of the faithful who have seen that the adventure that will illumine the holy road to perfection is a gem of such worth as to merit all one has first received from God.
What price is glory? It is the prize, the greatest prize that fills every moment with delight.
Cast aside the curtains of darkness. Let the clear radiance shine through, and behold the living witness within yourself that has always sought only the doing of His will, never the undoing, always the doing. And then let us see in ourselves what is the meaning of the words, "By their fruits ye shall know them."6 Let us make all words of His will live in the self. Let us perceive them in others, whether they are there manifest or not; but, above all, let us retain always in the fragile moment the discernment of living truth.
Thus, the dust of error shall not cling to your cloak for long; and He will stand revealed, the living mentor of God's will.