Superior Index Go to the next: Chapter 26
Print Files: A4 Size.
Friends Who Love and Continue to Love to Do His Will,
Taking up again the spiral of my experience in the Middle East, I give you the conclusion of this most unusual episode of my lifestream.
The weeks passed into months, the months into the turning of the year. And Life continually revealed itself to me in nature. One day as I was tending the sheep, I saw a caravan approaching in the distance, which was not unusual for this time of year. For many merchants came through this country on the way to Damascus to sell their wares. As the company drew nigh, they stopped to refresh themselves at my camp. As I had a stew brewing on the fire, I invited them to partake of my humble fare. For to me, whether rich man, beggar, or thief - all came forth from the one God, hence all were brothers.
They accepted my hospitality. And as the meal progressed, they began to recount the tales of their many journeys. And then they spoke of having been accosted by a band of robbers many months before, of having been stripped of their goods and several members of their party murdered. I asked them to describe what had been stolen from them, and they went to great length to give me the details of the silks and jewels and gold that I knew only too well.
When I was convinced that these were indeed the ones who had lost the goods which I was holding in the cave, I invited them to come up with me to the hiding place. As we climbed the rocks, I unwound the tale of my adventure and I told them of the fate of the bands of robbers. When they saw their treasure intact before their very eyes, they could not believe it. How great their joy! How great their gratitude! They turned to me and they said: "O shepherd of the hills, your honesty is greater than any we have ever seen. If all men were like you, what a different life it would be - what a different world!"
Had they left with all that was theirs, I would have been grateful simply for the opportunity to balance Life's energies - to right a wrong that had been done. But they did not. They gave to me one third of all that was there, insisting that I take it for myself. But I said: "Alas, I am happy as a shepherd. I will see to it that conditions are improved for my people in the village. And we will dig a well and provide care for the needy and give assistance to the poor." They were astounded when they learned of my wishes and that I desired nothing for myself, so much so that they offered their help to implement a plan on behalf of my people.
I tell you this story - an episode in a lifetime, a lifetime among many - because of the record that was left in akasha there in the hillsides where these events transpired and of a flame of the Holy Spirit that was anchored there because love was born and kindled in the hearts of one and a few. Many centuries have gone by since those precious hours of my communion with God. But as I look down the years and see the events that have transpired since, I note with joy that all who have passed that way have also been kindled with love, with concern for their fellowman. And the events that have flowed from that beginning have turned the tide in many souls, in many hearts.
Some who come and are weary, others who are vicious and dark, as they approach the place where virtue is enshrined, find lofty thoughts, aspiration, and concern for humanity beginning to dawn upon the consciousness. They are refreshed in a spiritual way. And they do not leave that place without receiving in some measure the transforming energies which love does impart.
By putting on the garment of the Lord, by putting on his consciousness, his awareness of Life forms, and loving the many parts of the Whole as one, I was able to pave the way for others - perhaps to touch the hem of that garment, perhaps to be impressed with the jewellike virtues embroidered thereon. And in conclusion may I say that everyone who has ever passed that place has received something (even the most hardened) in some degree, however small, by the actions of those days - by the integration of my soul with the souls of total strangers who by rendering mutual service implanted the signet of Genesis "I AM my brother's keeper."3
I have recounted this to you that you might go and do likewise - that you might render service, knowing that every act that is selfless is a seed that is planted in the soul of a planet and that that seed will mature and wax strong and then blossom as a floral adornment for those who come after. This is the meaning of the blooming of Aaron's rod.4
When man and woman use the energies of the sacred fire - the rod of power that flows from the heart on the altar of the spine - in service and devotion to one another and to all mankind, they find the blossoming in their own world of the virtues which they have planted and watered and which God has increased.5 And all who pass in the way where you walk where you have left the record of selflessness will likewise be impelled to perpetuate that spiral which you have initiated. And, by and by, the reinforcement of virtue by successive acts multiplied by other acts builds a compelling momentum for love as the foundation of a new civilization, a new age, and a new hierarchy.
Life will not resist the flow toward the source of love. For all of life, great and small, in the very core of being desires to reunite with the flame of love. To put on the garment of the Lord, you must first divest yourself of resistance to this flow, to this love, and then demonstrate in small deeds as well as great ones that yours is a living faith - a faith of action that is realized word by word, deed by deed. Then you will see the hope of mankind gain new fervor because you have set the example. Then you will see how charity begets charity and how the community of the Holy Spirit is fashioned anew out of flame flowers that have become one in the thousand-petaled lotus of the Buddhic light.
I shall speak to you again of the foreverness of love.