Superior Index Go to the next: Chapter 23
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To the Fearless Who Stand Ready to Challenge the Last Enemy,
There comes a time in the life of every initiate when he must face the temptation to believe that death is real. In the words of Paul, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."1 And you have read the words of Serapis Bey, his admonishment to resist death as the personification of the energy veil called evil as well as the impersonal force that would feign to deprive every man and woman of the inheritance of immortality - the gift of God to his creation.
Somehow, somewhere, through habit and indoctrination, mankind have accepted the concept that the laying down of the physical body, the cessation of life and consciousness and heartbeat in the material form, is the definition of death. This definition is neither scriptural nor is it founded in cosmic law. As we, then, intensify our effort to merge our consciousness with your own, we can do aught but challenge the record, the memory, and the consciousness of death that lurks as the enemy within the camp at subconscious levels of humanity's awareness.
It should be remembered that at the hour of the crucifixion of our Lord, it is recorded not that he died but that he "gave up the ghost."2 This wording is a more appropriate explanation of what occurs at the hour of transition. We define transition as that moment when the soul takes its leave of the physical envelope and makes the transition to the habitation of the etheric body, sometimes called the etheric envelope. This forcefield of electronic energy vibrates at a level of consciousness just below the ascended master octaves of perfection.
It is in the etheric plane that the soul (the individual evolving identity) remains between its incarnations, which continue so long as it is required to evolve in time and space in the planes of Mater. The `giving up of the ghost' marks the hour when the breath of the Holy Spirit takes its leave of this mortal coil,3 this physical forcefield provided by God for a certain cycle of opportunity to prove self-mastery in the physical plane and dimension.
If this is not death, then what is death? As Paul said, "It is appointed unto men once to die." What is this death that all must experience once, "and after this the judgment"?4 And if living be Christ, as the apostle proclaimed, and dying be gain,5 then why should this death be resisted as the last enemy? Clearly there is a death which must be welcomed as the edict of the Lord and a death which must be overcome - and this, too, is his edict. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord.6
That which is real, that which is born of God, created in the image and likeness of the flame of Life itself,7 cannot die. For the laws of disintegration and death do not apply to that perfect creation which God hath made. Only that which is unreal can die. And in this context we define death as the cessation of being. Neither God nor his creation - his offspring, the Christ - can die. But the creation of unreality, of darkness and sin, of the Liar and the lie,8 is doomed to death from the moment of its inception. For the flame of Life abides not in that creation, and therefore it contains not the momentum of self-perpetuation which only the Seed of God can contain.
Paul says, "Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?"9 Baptism is the infiring of the soul, the form, and the consciousness with a greater measure of Christ-awareness. It is a sacred ritual, a sacrament of the true Church Universal and Triumphant. If, then, we are to come forward to be baptized in Jesus Christ, we must know the meaning of being baptized unto his death.
The death of which Paul speaks is the death of the form of Jesus - the manifestation of the Christ. As the Christ in Jesus laid down that form, it was for a high and holy purpose, that purpose being the death of sin on a planetary scale. Jesus himself was without blemish and without spot10 - without negative karma, without any residue of sin from any previous incarnation. Therefore, the laying down of his body temple in that supreme sacrifice was for the balancing of a certain momentum of world sin by the action of the light that coalesced in his body temple and made him not only the living, breathing awareness of the Christ but also the very living presence of the Holy Spirit. His temple was the habitation of the Most High God.
When he made himself the sacrificial lamb11 and allowed himself to be crucified, it was that a greater concentration of cosmic energies might be reinforced in the body of the planet and in the bodies of all who would ever evolve upon this planetary home. By the ritual of the crucifixion, he increased the action of the light whereby all who would follow him in the regeneration could obtain the greater glory of the resurrection from the dead. And this resurrection from the dead is from the dead consciousness of sin, of separation from God, of existence outside the orb of Reality. "Therefore," said Paul, "we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of Life."12
As we merge our consciousness and being with that of Jesus the Christ, we put on the garment of the Lord's consciousness and of his experience in the planes of Mater. And by the grace of God, we are permitted to experience those initiations which he went through for the sake of our own soul's reunion with the flame of God. "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin."13
Now we come to the plane of the enlightenment of the Buddha. Now we see that that which is destroyed in the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the fire14 is the body of sin. Is there anything inherently evil in the physical body of man, of woman, that God has fashioned as the temple of the Holy Spirit? Is the flesh of itself wicked, that it must be condemned to death?
Neither the flesh, nor the stone, nor the twig that is bent can be considered as inherently evil. That which is evil is the consciousness which elects by free will to ensoul darkness, to spawn an energy veil that inhibits life, truth, love, freedom, and all that is sacred and whole. Thus the body of sin that is destroyed is not the flesh form but it is a conglomerate mass of misqualified energy that has been called the dweller on the threshold and the electronic belt and which consists of the machinations and the evil misrepresentations of Life spawned by that which is known as the carnal mind.15
"For he that is dead is freed from sin." This teaching of Paul can be understood only in the light of our definition of death as the cessation of all that is unreal - including sin and the sinful consciousness. For we know that the cessation of life in the physical form does not necessarily free the soul from sin. For it is written of those who pass from this plane to the next, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still."16 We know that the freedom from sin does not come until every jot and tittle of the law is fulfilled.17 Therefore, the death of which Paul speaks is the death of the sinful consciousness that is consumed by the sacred fire in the hour of the judgment, the hour of the return of all energies of darkness and light, the hour of the reckoning of the balance of those energies that is made for and on behalf of the soul by the Christ Self in conjunction with the Lords of Karma.
Christ is not dead. He is alive forevermore! As Jesus was the perfect incarnation of that Christ, as his outer consciousness, the man Jesus, merged so completely with the inner consciousness, with the Christ - so the only death that could be ascribed to him in the ritual of the crucifixion was the death of humanity's awareness of sin. This he took upon himself that we might have a renewed opportunity to claim Life and to disclaim the lies of the wicked who would have us believe that our true identity that is hid with Christ in God18 could or would succumb to the laws of dissolution and decay.
"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him."19 Here we see the explanation of that statement "It is given to men once to die." Once sin and the sinful sense have given way to the fires of the resurrection, there is no more death or dying, neither indeed can be. For the identity of the soul is merged with the Christ, and it is sealed in immortality. "For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."20
Take heed, then, O fellow servants of the Most High God dwelling in the planes of Mater, that you do not succumb to the consciousness of the wicked who know that their time is short and who, when they pass from the screen of life and must stand trial at the Court of the Sacred Fire, know that they indeed will pass through the second death, which is the death of the soul.21 For these who have wedded their consciousness to carnality for thousands of years and hundreds of incarnations, there is no hope for a life everlasting. To them death is final. And they mourn when one of their members passes from the screen of life, for they know that this truly is the end of opportunity and of an identity that was bestowed in the beginning as an opportunity to expand God's awareness of himself in the planes of Mater.
As Ramakrishna spoke to Sarada Devi from beyond the grave and told her, "Here I am - where did you think I'd gone to? I've only passed from one room into another,"22 so I say to you in the words of Jesus: "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you ... that where I AM, there ye may be also."23 In the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, there is infinite opportunity for the expansion of identity and consciousness that is given to those who have proven in time and space that they will elect to do the will of the Father/Mother God. And as cycle's door remains ajar, so you will find that each door leads to another room, another plane and dimension where life unfolds life and self realizes more of Self as the flaming identity of God's being.
There is no death for the sons and daughters of God but only eternal victories beyond victories! The death, then, that must be overcome as the last enemy, the death that must be resisted to the finish, is the temptation to surrender the material form and consciousness before the soul has fulfilled its destiny in and through that form and consciousness.
Therefore, do not welcome this death which is transition but tarry ye in Jerusalem until I come.24 Tarry you in the plane of Mater until the Christ appears in the full effulgence of the glory of the Second Coming - right within your mind and heart and soul! Do not accept the lie that you must die in order to be free of sin but affirm rather the death of the sinful consciousness here and now and the perpetuation of life in this octave as a mandate of "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."25
I AM for you and with you the victory of immortal fires within every atom and cell of your being,