Talks

Transcript:

DATE: 19811004

TITLE: YOU ARE THE LIVING WORD OF GOD

I’d like to read to you this morning a poem written by my Master many years ago, way back in 1933. It’s entitled “Where I Found Thee:”

I Bow to Thee in the Silver Rays

I drink to Thee in the Sunbeams

I stand in reverence before Thy Mountain Majesty

I clasp Thy image reflected in the lake

In the voice of the echo I hear Thy voice

I embrace Thee in the calm caress of the breeze

I bathe in Thy bubbling fountain of Thy bosom

The explosions of my passions have died away

And I hear Thy Whispers in the pines and in the

Gentle swish of the laughing waters of the lake.

I listened to Thy sermons through the voice of my reason.

I beheld Thee ploughing the soil of my soul with trial,

And sowing the seeds of Thy wisdom therein.

Every day I watered the seeds sown by Thee

But it was only when the sunshine of Thy mercy came

That those seeds sprouted, grew, and

Yielded the harvest of contentment

Suddenly the waters, Nature’s green carpets

The blue vastness overhead, the opaque stones

And my body became transformed into a vast mirror

By the magic touch of my silence

And I saw myself reflected in everything

And when in concentration I looked at myself

I became transparent, and in my transparency

I could not find me, but only Thee, only Thee

I want to read a well-known chapter to you this morning. St. John, Chapter 1. Nothing wrong with me. [Mother had said, “Chapter John,” before correcting Herself.] [Indecipherable] beginning with Verse 1:

1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2. The same was in the beginning with God.
3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4. And in him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12. But as many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.

I want to speak to you this morning about this subject: “You Are the Living Word of God.”

I have a story that was written many, many years ago—this was also in 1933—by Mildred Kyle. I knew her husband well, and after the Master passed on, he became one of my students here in Seattle. He was a wonderful, wonderful soul. The story is quite lengthy, but the reason I am reading it to you is because it tells of how, in the beginning, we were with God, children of light. and we came down to this mortal coil and we forgot our Son-ship. We forgot that we were the children of God, and we became human, and gradually our animal natures developed and we lost our light, the power to love God, all the beauty, the wonder, and the bliss of His Eternal Presence. And this tells it all in a way that I could never just tell it to you. It’s called: “The Awakening:”

Ages ago, when the world was young and the Sons of God sang together for joy in their working, the King and Queen of the Light Spaces sent their youngest Son on a long journey into the realms of that dark and sorrowful planet called Earth, that he might seek out and win for himself a rare gem said to be possessed of mystical powers, and to be found only in the treasure house of matter.

The Queen Mother made for Her Son a garment of Light and she wove it out of substance drawn from the powerhouse of Eternal Radiance. In its weaving was secreted the name of the Father and the Mother so that the Son would never forget that he was the child of a king and a queen. Its radiance would prove to be a lamp unto his feet and would guide him through the dark and devious paths of matter.

The Son set out on his journey with all the joy of thoughtless youth, full of confidence in his own powers, and with the thrill of adventure such as is felt by a youth when leaving the parental shelter for the first time in order to try his wings in newer, even though lesser, worlds. He had heard vague rumors of dark secrets held by the spirits of Earth, of mighty dragons that devoured all those who approached too near their habitation.

Of all these things the Son had heard, and had been warned to beware of the powers of darkness and the soul-destroying demons that lay in wait for the unaware.[?] But he only laughed at the thought of danger. Was he not a child of the Infinite Light Spaces, his Father the King and his Mother the Queen? Did he not have the protecting power of the Light Robe, woven for him by his mother, which made him invulnerable? And so, filled with joyous confidence, the son fearlessly entered the realm of matter for new and greater adventures.

Now, the rulers of matter heard that a child of the Light Spaces was approaching their kingdom, and so they called together the workmen and said to them:

Workmen and builders, listen to what we say. The king and queen of the Light Spaces are sending their son to our kingdom, that he may take from us the gem that is secreted in the treasure house of matter—the gem which, if taken away, would rob us of our power and cause our kingdom to fall to pieces.

The king’s son is very young and very ignorant of the laws of matter, but he is filled with all the arrogance of youth and thoughts of power, for he is protected by the robe of radiance woven for him by his mother, the queen, that he might be protected from harm and to make of him an immortal.

Now listen to our commands, ye workmen and builders. Build ye a temple that will hold him fast. Fashion the roof trees so that he cannot look upward into the Light Spaces, but must look outward into the dimmer light of Earth. Take ye from him his light power, and rob him, if ye can, of his boasted immortality.

Then the workmen and the builders went forth and erected a house for the abode of the Son. With five windows they fashioned it, each window giving a different vision. From one window he could see the objects of the earth. From another, he could feel the objects of earth. From another, he could hear the sounds. From another, he could taste the flavor of things, and from still another he could smell the odors of Earth. He had no understanding of the meaning of all of the things these five windows revealed to him, so he became bewildered and confused and lost his perspective until he no longer knew the real from the unreal.

The spirits of the Earth made friends with the Son and welcomed him to their feasts. They brewed the spirit of the Earth from the grain and the vine and gave him to drink. They killed their flocks and gave him to eat. In gladness, they drank and ate and laughed together until the Son forgot he was the child of a king and a queen. He forgot his mission to recover the gem, forgot the secret embroidered in his robe by the Queen Mother, and spent all his substance in riotous living until his Light Power was gone and his high vision was lost, and only the dim light of Earth remained for his guidance.

Then the spirits of Earth mocked the Son, and said: “O child of Light, where are your vaunted powers? Where is your Father? Where is your Mother? Why came you among us?”

The Son had no answer to their questioning. He had forgotten his Father and Mother, and could no longer remember why he had come, nor from whence. Therefore, he was dumb before his tormentors. He sat in desolation like an orphan lost in a strange land, like a bird from heaven caught and caged in matter. He was cheerless and songless, for the music had gone out of him and the Rhythm of Life was lost.

One day, a Messenger from the Light Spaces passed through the realms of matter and saw the Son sitting in darkness, and heard him weeping aloud and saying: “I am lost in a wilderness and know not which way to go. The darkness overwhelms me. I am filled with fears of the unknown. I feel within me a power I cannot name, a hope I cannot define, but I am told that this hope is another of the great delusions of this badly tangled world.” Thus moaned the Son in his sadness, and then became silent.

Then, in a voice that was softer than silence, the Messenger from the Light Spaces whispered and said: “O Son of Light, know you not that you are the child of a King and a Queen, that by your Mother, the Queen, you were given the Light Robe by which you were to become invulnerable and immortal? In that Robe was woven the secret Name of the Most High. The Name, rightly uttered, will summon to your aid the rulers of the Light Spaces, be they at the end of the universe. Awake, O Son, from the slumber of forgetfulness imposed upon you by the spirits of Earth. Awake! Sleep no more.”

Then the Son awoke and remembered. Again, he knew that he was a child of the King, sent to earth on an important mission which was, as yet, unfulfilled. He turned his face to the Light and uttered the Secret Name, which was taken up by the Music of the Spheres and was carried to the very Heart of Infinite Love.

As the Rulers of the Light Spaces listened, they heard the Son cry to them and say: “O Light, I cry to Thee from the darkness. It has swallowed me up, and the terror of death is upon me. Send me Thy Light Power to deliver me from this world of chaos. I remember the King, my Father, and the Queen, my Mother, but I have lost the Light Robe given me by the Queen, my Mother, and I am no longer worthy to be called their Son. Let me return, I pray Thee, to be a servant in the household of my Father and my Mother.”

The King of the Light Spaces harkened to the cry of his Son, and sent his Messenger, with all speed, to give him aid and show him the way home. Then, said the Messenger to the Son: “O Son, where is the Light Power that was given thee at the beginning of thy journey?”

And the Son replied, “The rulers of matter, under whose domination I have sojourned, have stolen from me my Light Power. My strength, they have taken away, and they have robbed me of my inheritance. I am lost indeed.”

“Arise!” commanded the Messenger of the Light, “and put forth thy strength. Regain the Light Power that was to be a pillar of fire for thee during the long night of thy journey through matter. When thou canst hold it against the forces of darkness, more Light shall be given thee, for to him who retains his Light, more light shall be given.”

Then the Son began the search for his lost Light. He turned his gaze within his temple and saw that the creative fires which men call sex had taken his Light Power, and he said: “O fire, you have taken from me my Light Power. Give it to me again.”

The Creative Fire replied: “What is lost, is lost. All my substance has been wasted in the down-flowing stream that passed through thy temple. But I, who am ever creating the new, can re-create thy Light Power. I will show thee the way. Hold me ever sacred within thy temple. Turn not the essence of my Being to water which flows outward in the down-going channel. Then, in thy temple, within its holy of holies, I shall re-create thy Light.”

The Son put forth his energies to retain the Creative Fire within his temple. He checked the down-flowing stream and held it as a sacred trust within his own temple. Then the creative fire performed the mystery of its Being, and behold, a new Light shone within him, bringing a power and inspiration hitherto unknown to him.

With this new power surging through him, he turned again to the Light Spaces. “O Infinite Father and Mother, I have regained the Light Power I had lost, but the forces of matter still hold me; I feel their hot breath still pursuing me. Save me from their folly. I am Thy child. Forsake me not, but let me return to Thee.”

Again, the Messenger of Light stood beside him. “Son, that which thou hast regained is but a fragment of the Light with which thou were first endowed. The Light Power was lost in many streams. Gather all the broken fragments within thyself, then thou shalt become immortal.”

The Son began anew his search for his lost Light. He looked outward and around and saw that in his long sojourn through matter he had gathered to himself many possessions—lands, gold, silver, and precious stones. These things the Son had hugged tightly to his bosom, saying: “They are mine. I love them. I own them. No one can take them from me.” He had placed them under lock and key, to hold them more securely from all other souls.

With the new Light shining within him, he looked into his possessions and saw in them the shining of his own Light Power. “O possessions,” said the Son, “I have loved you as well as possessed you, and yet you have robbed me of my Light Power. Give it back to me.”

“We did not steal your Light Power,” answered the spirit of possession. “You invested us with it when you put into us the love of your heart. We became your treasures by the value which you placed upon Earth. We are bound to each other as long as you hold us to yourself against all other souls. Release us from your desire, and your Light Power will return to you.”

Then the Son renounced all desire for possessions which might not be held by all souls equally. The Light Power, thus released from many possessions, came streaming back to him, entered into his Being and merged with the already glowing Light Stream which then shone forth with greater beauty and splendor in the inner depths of his heart.

Made strong by this new power, the Son again turned his face toward the region of Light. “O Thou Eternal Radiance,” he cried, “see. I have regained my Light Power from worldly things. Give me, I pray Thee, of Thy greater Light, that I may enter into the Kingdom of my Father.”

“I cannot see thy Light,” answered the Lord. “It is hidden under a darkened reflector. Make clean thy Lamp so that all may see the Light shining there within.”

Looking within his temple, he saw that the Light was indeed shining dimly so that the world saw it not. He cried aloud to the workers within the temple, and said to them: “Why do you obscure the Light shining within me? Clear away the shadows so that my lamp may be made clean.”

“We cannot create a better body-temple with the food you send to us for the building,” the workers replied. “We are only the builders. Whether the walls of your temple transmit the Light within or whether they shut it out from the beholder’s eyes depends upon the materials you give to us for the structure. You have slaughtered God’s younger children and sent their flesh and blood to be built into the structure of your temple. Their cries of pain were worked into your own flesh and blood, resulting in discord and hatred. You lusted for the taste of blood; the burning of flesh was an incense to your nostrils. The transmitter of the inner Light must not be built of the cast-off and decaying materials of other bodies. If you would have a perfect lamp, send us the finest of materials, in their purest essence, taken from the storehouse of Nature.”

“You have taken the grain from the field and distilled from it soul-destroying intoxicants with which to delight the pallet, but they have destroyed your vision, diminished your Light Power, and made you a prisoner in your temple.”

“For the sake of sensation, you have inhaled perfidious fumes from poisonous weeds until all the workmen in your temple are in a state of semi-slumber and can no longer build on rhythmic lines. Blame us not, O Son, that the temple obscures your Light. Blame yourself, that you have not heeded the law of the building.”

Then the Son took thought to the building of a strong, beautiful structure. He learned to have compassion. He harmed no living creature, but left the herds to wander unharmed through the flower-girt valleys of Earth. No more did he crush the grain and pervert its natural use. He took his food, unspoiled, from Nature’s lavish hand. When eating and drinking, he remembered the Giver of Earth’s bounteous store. Thus, his temple began to grow in harmony and strength, reflecting beauty and purity in the outer form, while within it shone forth a radiant Light.

Again, the Son turned toward the Light Spaces. “Now is my temple purified and made clean. My Light is no longer hidden, but shines clear that all may see. Permit me now to enter into Thy Being and become one with Thee.”

From the Great Light came a voice, saying: “O Son, you cannot yet enter into rest. Much work is still to be done. Look about you and see.”

Again, the Son turned his gaze outward into the world, and with a new power of vision he beheld a host of souls struggling in the net of bondage. All were seeking the Light. They were walking in the wilderness and chaos of matter, following paths that led nowhere. They had missed their way home, and like lost children they wept in the darkness and loneliness.

Seeing their struggles, he took pity on them. He forgot his own quest and ran to their aid, lifting them from the pit into which they had fallen, and set them on the path and pointed them to the Light. The sick were healed, the blind were made to see, and the discouraged and hopeless were given loving comfort.

At last, the Son, weary with his labor, looked to the heights for more strength to carry on. Behold! The radiance of his Light Robe shone out into the Great Spaces, for while he had lost himself in sharing with others, he had found a secret gem and had become a King of Light in his Father’s Realm.

A Being in shining raiment stood beside him, saying: “Thou art indeed great in thy Father’s sight, for thou hast found Wisdom, the jewel which none can take away throughout the reaches of the universes. Thy labors on Earth are ended. Go no more into the realms of matter. That which was begun in thee is finished.”

 

That says everything—everything. It’s the most beautiful story I have ever read, and it tells the history of all of humanity.

 

Once, God was in His heaven, and still is, but He was in the stillness of His own being. And as He moved, He discovered Himself and He became curious. And as He became more and more curious, He wanted to explore Himself, and so He started moving. And as He moved, He expressed that which He was within Himself, and so the whole earth was formed. And it says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Now, it is said that Jesus, the son of man who became the Christ, was the Word of God. The Word is that Power, that Presence, that Wisdom which issued forth as God moved and expressed what He was inside. And that Word took on a garment of flesh, and it dwells among us. “He was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not.”

Now, in the orthodox Christian sense we give all of that power, all of that glory, to the man whom we are told lived 2,000 years ago, Jesus the Christ, but in the first chapter of Colossians it says that he was the firstborn of every creature. And Jesus himself said that “ye are the temple of the living God.” [paraphrased from 1st Corinthians, 3:16-23] It is God Himself who lives inside of you. And in the beginning, just as this story tells, each and every one of us came forth in the purity of our created being and we knew only God, and we had the power to be co-creators with Him in all purity, in all light.

As I have told you before, Swami Ashokananda, when I stayed with him in the Himalayas at his ashram there, said that in the beginning man’s power was so great that it was not necessary to cohabit physically, but that rather the husband, being the master and the lord, was able to touch his wife on the forehead, on the breast, or just to think of her coming into the fullness of childbearing and it happened within her womb. There are many stories that are told about the origin.

You see, all great religions tell the same story. All of them have the idea of Spirit before creation. All of them have the One Father God. All of them, and you will see—I have a book, for instance, that it tells about the myths of the Bible, but in that book there are plates of Isis, who was said to be the Divine Mother, and Horus, the Christed One, her son. And that came out of Egypt.

And in India they have Krishna, their Christ. Devaki bore him, but then he was taken by Yashoda, his foster mother, because he had to be hidden away from King Kamsa so that King Kamsa would not destroy him. And in his effort to get the lord who would take over his kingdom, Kamsa also—Five thousand years before this Bible was written and the Hindu scriptures came into being, King Kamsa ordered the heads of all of the male children cut off in order that he might get that one lord that was to take over his kingdom.

Now, what is the inner meaning of this? King Herod and King Kamsa represent the passions, and in expelling those passions from your being you have forgotten that you are indeed the sons of God. And so, in order to get you to expel that one Christ seed, which comes from the sacred claustrum or cloister under your brain, the temptation to indulge in lust becomes so strong that you give in to it. You do not know how to control it. And therefore, you waste your seed upon the earth. And if, during the experience that the soul goes through when it is lifted up into the consciousness of God and wants to throw itself at His feet, this experience comes and your whole being burns with the fire of desire, and [Take this “and” out] you must resist that. You must retain that seed because if you do retain that master seed in your body it will go through the land of Egypt. It is carried by the Mother and the Father gland, the pituitary and the pineal gland within yourself. The Mary gland carries it (the pituitary gland,) and it makes the journey in back of the eyes, the nose, the throat, goes down, as it’s carried along the gangliar nervous system, and is deposited in a conical-like cave behind the stomach. And the word Bethlehem means “house of bread.”

And then, because in a dream Joseph was told what Herod’s intentions were, he and Mary took the Christ child into Egypt, or the “land of darkness,” and waited until King Herod was dead, or the passions had subsided. And then, he made the circuit and returned to Galilee. If you will look in your Bible dictionary, you will find that that is the true meaning of the word.

So, it ascends the spinal stairway. And when it comes to the point—the sixth center, which we call the Center of Christ-consciousness—then the incoming current meets that Christ seed, drives it into the throat. This is the “body and the blood” of the savior within you, and you partake [of] that in commemoration of the son of man because now you are going to explore the darkness of your own being. You’re going down into hell, or Hades, the place of ignorance, and meet all that you did while you were consciously doing all of these things in the body on earth.

And after you have gone through these three experiences, during which time you are released from your physical body, your electrical or astral body which controls the nervous system, and then finally the idea or the causal body (because everything is born in idea-form first) then you arise from the dead. And it is a glorious arising. And you appear to your “twelve disciples,” or the twelve powers within yourself, and you give them the power of the Holy Ghost.

Where before the human ego was the ghost of the Real Self, which is God within you—it’s the son of man, the animal nature—so also, when you are lifted up, you are filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, or the Divine Ego. And gradually as you ascend that spinal stairway from the heart center where the crucifixion takes place within every man when he is ready to go through that blessed experience, then it rises up gradually and you become one with your Father, heir with Christ. And the thousand-petalled lotus of the brain opens up and expands the light until your whole being is filled with light. But you have to earn it. You have to earn it, even as the Son of Light found out when he had descended into the kingdom of Earth.

Nobody gets God-realization for free. They may attain great heights, but until you are willing to pick up your cross, which is your body, and follow the Christ and emulate him even unto death, you will not go through that straight and narrow gate and arise again from the dead. And only those who have had the courage to go through the death state know that in truth there is no such thing as death, but only eternal life.

We shed our garments, but we take on a new garment. We sleep a little deeper sleep, and we arise to the dawn of a new life, a new day, a new opportunity. And we go on until we become one with that Light which fills the whole universe.

I have been told by God that it was my mission on earth to have gone through the total Mystical Crucifixion, and I paid the full price, even unto death. And I went through all of the various stages in order that I could come and tell you the Truth of that which is contained in every great scripture in the world.

We take it all on the exoteric level. We think of it as being history outside, and indeed history has repeated itself, but it has been sent forth from the idea or the inner mind of man. And only then, because it starts within every man, does it go forth and become history.

But you have to withdraw all of the things that you have done, unto yourself. You have to cleanse them, you have to purify them, and you do this through prayer and meditation. When you pray to God, you ask Him for things, but pray to Him only that He may reveal Himself to you. Meditate upon Him, and when you meditate upon Him you are totally absorbed in Him. You learn the methods of concentration in order that you may meditate, that you may close all of the doors of your temple and go inside that sacred sanctuary and see the great light.

Remember that in this [story], it told about the building of the human bodies, and the five windows, and it said that there was no light from above so that we could see the light of God. But that light is above, but it is hidden. It has been built over. It is the light of the spiritual eye. Jesus said, “The light of the body is the eye; therefore, let thine eye be single and thy whole body shall be filled with light.” [paraphrased from Matthew 6:22] So if you will close these two human eyes, which are constantly attracting you to the things of the senses, and fix your full attention at the point between the eyebrows, and keep your vision steady—

Look for the spiritual eye. It is beautiful, with the gold rim on the outside, the blue of the Christ inside of that, and the five-pointed silver Star of the East right in the center of it. This is the light of your body. And when you are able to penetrate that star, which is the gate to heaven within yourself, you will go beyond body-consciousness. You will be able to escape from the body and return to it at will.

Isn’t that a remarkable thing, that you have all of this power within you? And still, you waste it and put it out in all of the things of the senses. You destroy yourself, and you cry about it, and you wonder why you are so weak that you cannot use your will to do all of the things that you know you should be doing for the love of God. Why is it that we do these things, when we truly are Sons of God, children of God, made in His image and likeness?

Don’t forget that Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto myself.” And again, let’s put it on the universal basis, and also take it within ourselves where that really happens: “and I, if I be lifted up”. The “I” in you, the little I—this, the human in you—if that be lifted up and purified, you will draw all men unto yourself because you too will have attained Christhood. Because here, am I saying something which is against what the Christ said? No! “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.”  “As many who received him”—not just one, but “as many.” “Even to them that believe on his name.”

If you repeat the Name of God, that is the Word of God: Aum—A-U-M—which is pronounced Om. And the Christians have turned it into A[h]men or Amen, and they don’t get the real, full richness of that word of Aum.

If you will go inside of yourself, close your eyes, and listen very carefully, you will hear that high-pitched sound which came forth from God and which continues to come forth from God. It is that which is the dweller in your body.

Try it! Try it. You will find that I tell you the Truth. And then watch your breath. Be aware of the fact that you are breathing, and let your breath go and come as it will. But do not try to control it. “Breathlessness is deathlessness.” Breath is the cord which ties the soul to the body. And just think, you have the power within yourself to release yourself and travel to worlds unknown, and back again. You don’t need a rocket ship. You don’t need a spaceship. You can sit in the quietness of your own room, in your own special chair, on a woolen blanket, and you can travel all over this universe and far beyond it. I have done it. I know.

It is a tremendous thing when all of a sudden, through your meditation upon God, you are lifted out of body-consciousness and taken up among the planets and the stars and the sun and the moon, and you yourself are conscious of yourself but you’re seeing this tremendous spectacle. And you’re hearing the Music of the Spheres.

As you listen to this Music of the Spheres, you will know that that music is more beautiful than anything that ever came from man’s idea of music, from the consciousness within himself, from his voice, be it as great as it is. That Music of the Spheres is beautiful. It permeates your whole being. And once having heard it, you can go inside of yourself, in the silence of your soul, and you can again bring it into manifestation. All things are possible to the one who loves God, to the one who puts God first.

I ask you to come out of the darkness into the light. I ask you to do the few things that you have been taught, where if you will do them morning and night and keep the consciousness of God in your minds every moment, keep His name upon your lips, do everything for Him and not for yourself, that the day will come when you will know the Truth of what I tell you and you will come out of the darkness and the suffering which you have brought upon yourself. You will let go of it, and it will let go of you.

You know, when the fruit comes finally, the petals automatically drop off of the flower that was. It bears its own fruit.

Your mind is like the elephant, that if it is let loose it runs rampant, and it digs up roots and trees. They call them the mad elephants, and some of them chase people, some of them chase cars or oxcarts or whatever. They go absolutely mad. But when the mahout takes his stick, or his little hook, and touches him on the head, he immediately becomes quiet. And this is the way you have to learn to control your mind.

A good suggestion is for you to start to keep a spiritual diary. Meditate every morning and every night upon Him. And as things come to you in the day, as you have a few minutes, close your eyes and listen to the voice of God for His direction. Write them down at the end of the day so that you will get them down in all of their purity. Or, stop for the moment and do it right then, because sometimes the most beautiful thoughts come and then they disappear, just like that; whereas, if you had whatever was necessary, paper and pen, to write them down, you would’ve captured them so that you could share them, and meditate upon them yourself. It is beautiful. It is wonderful.

Start a spiritual diary. And when you look back at it a year from now, look at the progress, or the lack of it, that you have made. And if you have progressed, then thank God that He has given you such grace. And if you have not, then get down on your knees and beg Him, just like this Son of God the Father and God the Mother did. And do the things that I have read you this morning, until finally your bodies and your minds and your souls are pure and are fit food to be set before the Lord. Remember that Gibran said that He grinds us until we are sacred food for God’s sacred feast. And that is the way it is.

We bring our own punishment, our own lack, our own suffering, upon ourselves because we refuse to place God first. We refuse to know that in truth we are the Word of God, that which came forth and took on a human form.

Let us make this temple radiant for Him so that all that walk the earth may see Him in the form which He created, and be drawn like a magnet to that Spirit so that you in turn can teach others and take them to Him, the Infinite Beloved.

[The audio stops here]

 

Transcript:

DATE: 19811004

TITLE: YOU ARE THE LIVING WORD OF GOD (Final Comments)

Next Sunday is our last Sunday together, and I imagine you will all be here. That is for a time. I’m not making it for eternity. But I’m going to be gone for some time, and I have tried with everything of God within me to serve you while I have been here, and to try to inspire you to get busy and do what you should about God. And I want you, while I am gone, to do the things that I have asked you to, with all sincerity.

Let your heart so be filled with the love of God that that is of paramount importance to you, that the whole part of your being—every part of it—is craving for union with Him. Believe me, you will lose nothing; you will give up nothing. But instead, you will have eternal bliss.

Remember the words that I have spoken to you. I want, when I come back, to see a whole group of shining faces. I want to see a lot of new people that you, through what you have accomplished in your search for God, have been able to offer someone else. Maybe we’ll outgrow the church, I don’t know. But it’s a wonderful place that we have here. The people that we share it with are very, very wonderful beautiful spiritual human beings, and I am indeed grateful to each and every one of them that we have this blessed privilege of being here with them. Reverend and Mrs. Towne, believe me, are true spiritual souls, and I love them very much. So support the work. Support it.

Many have asked me, “What shall we do about our tithe to God when you are gone?” And I mention this only because I’ve been asked this question. Just do as you always have. Write the checks in my name, and my daughter is going to take care of all my finances for me. And the work will be deposited and used for God, just the same. I’ve got a thousand dollars a month to meet and I won’t even be living in the apartment, so whatever you care to give, only give if God directs you.

I charge nothing. I never have. I never shall. As long as I live, I will never charge a penny for anything I do for God. What you want to give is directed by Him, from your hearts, that gift.

We have a baptism this morning, so if all… [Audio Ends abruptly]

 

Transcript:

DATE: 19810927

TITLE: MS BEYOND RELIGION

I’d like to read to you this morning from “Quiet Talks with the Master,” by Eva Bell Werber:

I AM at the center of your being. I AM at the center of all the universe. As this thought becomes alive in your consciousness, all the power of it will flood your life. Live, My child, in this consciousness today and you shall be ready to receive other truths and lessons I would give you shortly. Each day shall you receive a message which shall be as a guidepost on the Path of Life.

I AM at the center of your being. I AM the cause of all that comes into your life.  When sin, sickness or distress enter your being, it is because you have brought it there by ignoring My Perfect Law. You have followed a law of your own outward self, you have made it supreme, and so receive that effect. The more you become conscious that the outward is only the expression of the within, and as you know and realize I AM at the center of your being, and that the outward is only the house wherein I dwell, to that degree of realization shall I be able to bring My Perfect Effect into evidence into your life. Carry with you this day, this thought, I AM CAUSE, and the effects in your life shall be only such as glorify ME.

I AM ABSOLUTE! To see Me in the absolute in all lives, in your personal life, in the life of all things, whether plant, mineral, or animal is to come to the highest form of realization. Then you know that every cell, not only in your body, but in the universe, is a living, vibrant part of ME.

I AM ABSOLUTELY ALL THERE IS!

That which seems not of Me is only your mortal misconception. This full, complete realization is more than knowledge and does not come at once to you. So do not be dismayed if at times it seems only a hazy idea, but strive constantly to bring it more closely into your life’s daily practice. Practice MY PRESENCE at all times and you shall thrill with the mighty rush of MY SPIRIT through you as the canyon walls thrill and re‑echo to the rush of the mighty waters rushing down between them. Go forth into the duties of your day, knowing that I AM ABSOLUTE.

Our Bible reading today is from Colossians, Chapter 1, beginning with Verse 1.

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timotheus our brother,

2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4 Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,

5 For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;

6 Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:

7 As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;

8 Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

My subject this morning is entitled “Beyond Religion.” I’d like to read you something which I think is wonderful. The title of it is “Where is Heaven?” and it was written way back in 1935 by a man by the name of James M. Warnack:

“How would you describe the you that asks for immortality?” is a question attributed to Lord Buddha.

A good man died and appeared at the gate of the paradise of which he long had dreamed, asked for admission.

“How old are you?” asked the angel at the gate.

“Sixty years old,” replied the candidate.

“Do you want to walk about heaven with 60 years upon your shoulders?” asked the angel.

“Make me younger,” begged the man.

“Once, you considered yourself two years old,” said the angel, “Do you want to enter here as a being two years of age?”

“No,” answered the man. “A babe knows too little.”

“Would you come in as a youth?” asked the angel.

“No,” said the man. “Youth is not wise enough, and it is too full of fever.”

“Would you enter as the middle‑aged man you once were?” asked the angel.

“No,” he replied. “Middle age lacks enthusiasm.”

“Then what age of you desires admittance here?” asked the angel. “However, I cannot let you enter at any past age where all that was you in the past is gone forever, or at least the forms of you exist no more.

“Go back to earth and live again. Place your mind and heart upon the Eternal. When you come to realize that you are older than the oldest star and younger than the last assembled sun, then you will not need to ask admittance to Paradise, for you already will be there. If you enter here now, you will think that you have attained something, and you will not be satisfied, for you will wish to attain something higher. The truth is that there is nothing to be attained, for within yourself is all that is, has been, or is to be. Discover yourself and you will have discovered life and eternity.”

Always, we talk about going within and becoming acquainted with the real You, which is to say God through Christ in you.

There are many religious paths, and more are coming into existence all of the time. It seems that everybody wants to be a spiritual teacher, a guru, before they have even learned how to be a disciple.

The word, “guru,” as most of you know, is he or she who comes to lead you out of the darkness into the light. And such a one must have picked up his own cross, which is his body, and followed the way of the Christ, by whatever name they want to call Him, in order to realize their oneness with God. It cannot be attained in a moment, and so therefore, after every great teacher comes, a church, an organization, a particular teaching is built around them.

The master doesn’t do this, only the disciples who follow afterward. And gradually, as time goes on, the disciples feel that they can change what the master said, and maybe make it a little more beautiful, a little better, cut out a little here, add a little someplace else. And in doing so, they make it sterile. They strip it from the real Truth.

Everything that is in this chapter in Colossians is the Truth of God, and the apostle Paul realized that because he had taken the teachings of the Christ and he had gone within his own body and he had found the Christ within himself so that he had union with Him.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody can go to the Father except through me,” said the Christ. [paraphrased from John 14:6] And it says here, “And he is the head of the body,”—this body, which is the church, and as he said, “the temple of the living God.”  “…who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

Now, you will notice it also says that he is the “firstborn from the dead,” and this means that man in his human state cannot realize his oneness with God. He is too involved with the things of the senses. He is too involved with all of his desire-nature: “I want this. I want that. Give me something else. Lord, please take away this illness. Please take away this trouble.”

Everything in the world you are thinking about is in the sense of duality, and your full attention is not upon that One who has all of the answers, all of the help, all of your prosperity, all of your love, all of your forgiveness, all of everything, and He is to be found, as the Christ said, only within yourself. “Ye are the temple of the living God.”

So, without that Living God, there is only a body here. It has all of its component parts, it goes about, it does things. But who directs it? Who gives it the strength? Who gives it the power? Who gives it the intelligence?

God is beyond all of these things, and yet He contains within Himself all that there is. And until you really decide that you are going to be a disciple of Christ and follow Him, and give up all of the things that you have been in the habit of doing, of thinking, of saying, and fix your full attention upon Him, you will never realize the fullness of what you can be, what you are.

There are many people that waste their times. They forget the vows that they have taken. This is particularly true in marriage today. When you take that holy vow before God, you agree to forsake all others and cleave only unto each other. This is for better, for worse, in sickness, in health, adversity or prosperity, and it should be adhered to.

To break a vow made before God is a very serious thing, and then it puts you in the stream of cause and effect, which the Hindu religion calls karma. And that karmic pattern continues on until your debt is paid out. And every time you do something which is not in accordance with the law of God, then you pay a price for it, and you cry out to God to relieve you of the misery which you yourself have brought upon yourself.

Now as all of you know, I require a very few things, and I keep repeating them: no drinking, no smoking, no drugs (except for medicinal purposes) and no living together without benefit of marriage. These are very simple things, and yet they seem very difficult for some people to maintain. And yet, it has to be done because if you are going to realize God within yourself there must be, in the first place, faith, hope and charity.

I think hope should come before charity because in the beginning we hope for something, and we hope for it until finally that hope builds into a higher power, and gradually we obtain faith.

Now, we know that charity has been transposed into love because God is Love, and without the love of God we can go no place.

Why do I ask these things of you? They seem so difficult for some people. I ask them because this is the temple of the Living God. He is entitled to have it pure and holy. And you cannot expect to get your God-realization from a pill, a shot, or whatever they are taking in the way of drugs today, because it will not work. It is a thing to be earned. “Unless you pick up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple,” he said. [paraphrased from Luke 14:27] And to pick up your cross and follow him means to emulate him in every detail.

Now, it speaks of Jesus drinking wine, but he drank of the wine of the Spirit. We are so prone to take everything literally because our mind is constantly dwelling on the things of the senses. But he gave us, and he drank the wine of the Spirit, and he showed us how to drink that wine. He gave us the food of Spirit and he showed us how to attain that by his own wonderful, living example.

So this body must be pure, absolutely pure, before you can really realize God. “No man has seen God at any time.” So it is only when man has given up his humanhood and has gone through the crucifixion on his own cross; when he has gone into the depths of the hell of his own being, that which he has created, and gone through the experiences which are necessary, then, after the “third day,” or having gone through the experience of having the consciousness released from the three bodily jars: first the physical because that was formed last, then the light body which controls all of the energy in your body, the nerves and whatnot; and then the first cause, which is the idea body—The consciousness must be released from all of it and you must die. You must descend into hell, and then you must arise from the dead.

And it says,

20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, (not “on,” but “of”) by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

So man must go through this tremendous experience. And it is not an easy experience, but if Christ went through it, then why not we follow his example?

We say how much we love God the Father, we say how much we love Jesus the Christ; yet, is anyone willing to pick up his cross which is his body and follow him and emulate him in every detail?

He was no namby‑pamby, no Caspar Milquetoast, as he is sometimes pictured. He was a man who had strength and power beyond anyone’s belief. Why? Because he had come to serve God in man. He had come to establish a new order. He had come to show man what he was like inside and what must be done, and he showed us the way, in every way. And yet, it has been misinterpreted. The parables are not understood, the truth behind the parables.

In the beginning, man goes to whatever individual, whatever church that his consciousness is able to receive, and it is good that he has put his foot upon the path—very good. But in order to progress, you must take the first step from where you are, and you must keep climbing the ladder until finally you get your God‑realization. So you go from religion to religion, from church to church, from individual teacher to individual teacher, until at last you realize that you have not really found the truth in all that has been given to you, because it is given to you as being historical. It is not given to you as the living truth of that which happens within every man when he is ready to receive it. It is not given you to know that you must “be still and know that I am God,” as it says in the 46th Psalm, that you must go into that holy of holies, that inner sanctuary of your own soul.

You must close the doors of the senses, forget all of the things of time and space, the word, and the atom, which are the “four beasts before the throne,” and fix your full attention upon Him. If you will do that, all of your troubles will disappear. You will not be gravitating between: “Shall I do this? Shall I do that? Shall I do something else?” And your ego is at play because what you’re doing is to find out what is the best thing to enhance what you, the human self, wants to do, the human ego, and you’re not looking inside to find out what God through Christ wants you to do.

You have to listen. You have to go into the stillness of your own being and you have to listen. I keep emphasizing this. Listen for God. There is a great deal of difference between prayer and contemplation because we are always praying to God for something, and very seldom, if ever, for the realization of our oneness with Him. But when you are meditating through contemplating God alone, then He listens to you. He lifts you up into His arms and He tells you, He whispers in your ear, the wonderful truths. He gives you revelations of the truth behind the parables. He puts you through what is necessary.

He is sorry that you have to suffer, because He is a God of love, but you have brought that suffering upon yourself. And just as you go through pain when you give birth to a child, so also you go through pain when you give birth to the Christ Child within yourself when the transformation takes place from the human to the Divine. So then, you too can become an heir with Christ. You too can become a master. You do not supersede or supplant anyone else. It means that you have become master of yourself.

I call the great spiritual teacher that I studied with, “Master.” He was not my personal possession, my master in that sense, but I called him Master because he had gone through what was necessary to find his union with God. And from this great man in India, I heard the truth of the Christ as I have never heard it in any orthodox church at all. For the first time, I knew that heaven, hell and purgatory were not something outside of myself, but they were inside of myself—inside; that God was inside; that Christ was inside; that I didn’t have to wait until I died a physical death in order to find Him, to go to heaven, hell or purgatory. Very few would go to heaven, in the first place. Some might reach purgatory if they were particularly angelic, but most of us would be in the hot place. And that is totally what we have to look forward [to] from these dogmatic teachings that are given to us.

We make our own heaven and hell, because if heaven is within us, so also is hell, or the place of darkness. If you will look it up in the Bible dictionary, you will find that hell or Hades is a place of darkness, a place where man is still in ignorance of his own being. And he has to do what is necessary to rise out of that hell, to arise from the dead and to be reborn. And that is the second birth. It is the second coming of Christ.

It is not just going up before an altar and saying, “I accept Christ as my savior,” and think that you are reborn again. Delude yourself not. It is not that easy. You cannot ride on the coattails of Jesus Christ who lived 2,000 years ago if you’re truly going to be his disciple. You cannot. You must find the Christ. You must find him within yourself because he said, “Lo, I’m with you always.” He is in every atom of space. He is in every form that has been created, and beyond. He is everything there is, was, and always will be.

That is my Christ, and he is universal. And I love him with all of my heart, my mind and my soul. But, I listened to the injunction of this great Master and I went within myself. And he taught me how to do it. He taught me the true meaning of the parables. And my love for God in this man was so great because he had finally taken me out of the darkness into the light, that I was willing to do whatever he asked me to, whatever was necessary in order to attain that tremendous goal which he had set before me: union with God the Father.

Remember that the Christ said: “I of myself am nothing. It is my Father who doeth the works. [paraphrased from John 14:10] So he came to lead us not to himself, but through the example of truth which he set before us, to the Infinite Father who is the Father of us all.

Our religious differences must cease. We must stop putting new names to an organization which we have created in his name because every time we do, we make a new division in Christ, and Christ is One. It says so in this book which we say contains the truth. Christ is One. He is everywhere equally present. And so, we must know that. We must stop this division. We must learn that each man is entitled to worship God in the way that God directs him. And he is speaking of the same Father God regardless of what language, what religion he belongs to, because there’s only One.

Would God be so discriminating? How dare we be so egotistical as to think that we as Christians are the only ones who have the truth? How dare we?

I have seen souls of other religions that were so beautiful, so dedicated to God that their whole bodies shone with His light; where there was nothing for them but God. And the power of God was within them so greatly that they could raise the dead, heal the sick, walk on water. They had the power of bilocation. You name it, they had it.

I had the privilege of sitting and smelling the perfume of the presence of God within them. I had the very great privilege of sitting at their feet and listening as truth poured forth from them—not any dogma, not in forms of parables, but truth which they have had the courage to do what was necessary to experience within themselves. And they were holy men, make no mistake about it. They were very holy. Their whole lives were dedicated to God. They lived Him, they breathed Him. They spoke His name, or they remained in silence to help a suffering world. But they gave of themselves freely in every way. They went beyond churchianity.

As I’ve told you before, and you know well, we have no organization, we have no name, because only God’s Name is important. Only the way of the Christ is important, by whatever name you call him. And I never want an organization formed around the things that I have taught you. I have paid the price for knowing the truth which I have taught you, but I do not want an organization formed around it. Rather, go out, and through what you become yourself in God, attract others like a magnet.

Be a candle, a light on a hilltop to serve God, to light the way for others, but do not ask them to join an organization. And never charge them anything for the service which you render them; but rather, do it for the love of God, because if you will do this, if you will give yourself and everything you have to Him, you will have no wants, no needs. You will be wondering how you can give away of the tremendous bounty that comes to you so that you can help and raise a suffering world.

We have to get our minds off of our little selves. We have to forget churchianity. It is good to go to church. I am not denying the good that all of the churches do, and the people who get up there and serve. I’m sure that most of them are tremendously sincere, and they work with people and they do good for people, and they lift people up at the level of consciousness which they are at that particular point. But there comes a time, just like when you graduate from the university, you have to decide whether you want the truth, whether you want your master’s degree, whether you want your doctor’s degree, whether you want to become one with the Supreme Master, whether you want to become one with the Supreme Physician. And then, this body which He made, this body not made with hands, will be used in the service of God through Christ to lift a suffering world out of the darkness into the light.

You have to go beyond religion as we know it because God made man and man made religion. Remember that. God made man, and man made religion. And he has made it his god, instead of going beyond religion to the Source of everything there is. You have to do this.

You have to be steadfast. You have to gather your strength, from the four corners of the world, that you have dissipated in your attachment to all of the things, and withdraw it into yourself. You have to cultivate loyalty, honesty. You have to become pure in thought, word and deed. You cannot do otherwise and expect to attain your goal. Look at the things that are required of you in this worldly service that we give.

You have to take the first step, as I have said, before anything starts to happen. You have to take it in faith and hope that you will accomplish your goal. But unless you go in the consciousness of God, it isn’t going to be as great as it could be otherwise. But you have that goal set and you are willing to spend long hours going to school, studying at home, thinking about it, night and day, waking up from sleep to think, “Well now, how can I promote my business? How can I do this? How can I run that? How can I get more money?” It goes on all the time. And yet, all of these things build up into one thing, and that is to keep you bound to the things of the flesh; to keep you worrying all the time, instead of setting you free.

If you will go beyond religion and fix your mind upon God alone through Christ, you will find that you are free. And you don’t need to care what the world thinks as long as you are one with your Father God. As long as you are listening and following His voice of direction alone, you don’t need to care if the whole world is against you. If it rises up and tells you that you are so awful because of what you have thought, said and done, that it wants to kill you, you need not care because remember, it says that “Ten thousand shall fall by your side,” in such a case, “but not one hair of your head shall be touched—not one hair. [paraphrased from Psalm 91:7]

I have walked through the fire. I have dealt with things that are beyond human conception. I have fought with entities. I have gone through the Mystical Crucifixion and gone into the depths of hell within my own being and fought all of the demons that were there of my own making. I have risen from the dead and I have ascended and been given tremendous revelations; and still, I of myself am nothing. And yet, conversely, I AM THAT I AM because I have paid the price for knowing. And when you pay that price for knowing, you know that you know. But when man says that he knows and he has not paid that price, then he is just giving lip-service and it will never work. Think of it!

Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto myself.” [paraphrased from John 12:32] Look at the world today, and if you want to take it from the orthodox standpoint, he didn’t make it, because the world has not been lifted up. It has never been in such a shape, in all of the history of the world, as it is today. It’s brutal. It’s terrible. It’s so filled with the sin of separation from God that it is unbelievable. We aren’t safe in our homes, on the street, in the parks, at our business. No place are we safe, except within the sanctuary of our own soul. So it means that when you have lifted up the son of man within yourself, when you have had the courage and the love of God sufficient to give up your humanness—

You do not really give it up forever, because God is both human and divine, but you become, regardless of whether you’re a man or woman, male and female totally balanced, the male and female parts of every person: the soft part, the love part, and the part that is governed by reason. And then, also, you are still human and divine because you’re still living in a human body. And as long as you’re on this earth teaching, speaking the truth, you will be living in a human body, you will have to use your five senses, but the difference is that you are not controlled by them. You are not the slave. You are the master.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to think if each one of the people here in this congregation would pick up their crosses, which is the body, and follow the Christ, and emulate him in every single detail until they became one with God through Christ, and that they could go forth and spread that light throughout the world and change this world? How is it going to change if we don’t change ourselves first?

So, all that is spoken of in here happens within yourself. The virgin birth happens when that which is within you is given the power of the Holy Ghost. And that Christ Seed, that body and blood of Christ, actually comes down from the sacred claustrum under your brain, goes the journey, and returns to Galilee, and passes up through what we call the Christ Center here, and then comes into your throat. And this is the body and the blood of Christ; this is what was imbibed at the “last supper,” of the humanness within us, of the humanness within us.

Then, we are given the second birth. We are given the second baptism, and it is the Baptism of the Spirit—not of the water, not of flesh. But it is through the Baptism of Fire, through the Baptism of Blood, that we attain this final Baptism of the Spirit, and we are lifted up and we become, instead of just the sons of man, the Sons of God.

We respect our fathers, our mothers, because they gave us the blessed privilege of having this human birth, but our full attention, the all‑ness, the wholeness of our being is on God the Father, and we are absorbed in Him, His beloved child, forevermore.

 

Transcript:

DATE: 19810311

TITLE: MS MARRIAGE WITH THE BELOVED

I have a funny that I’d love to share with you. John and Edith and I were talking one day not too long ago, and they reminded me that I had written them a letter about my experiences with trying to have my back taken care of on my last trip to Europe. And I didn’t believe all that I wrote afterwards, but every word of it was true. We all are so fortunate here to have Dr. John and his gentle way of treating us, and I thought, “If any of you think he isn’t gentle, then listen to this.

In the first place, I slipped when I was in the airport out here and put my back out completely, and I was just in agony. This was on the beginning of a three‑month trip. And so Dr. John was at the airport, and so he lay me across four seats and tried to give me an adjustment in front of God and everybody. And he really couldn’t very well take care of me, but he did the best he could and that. But I was still in trouble.

I said,

I really did myself in with that fall I took at the airport and have been having a real rough time getting around. My body has been tied up in knots, and the pain has been excruciating. I went to a Mr. Perry, an osteopath, in London, and he was good in his particular field, but I should have had another treatment in order for it to hold, but had to leave, so I couldn’t.

The osteopaths there are purely anatomy men, no medical training. They are similar to the older method chiropractors. Even the medical men do not have the title of “Doctor,” only the surgeons, and they are looked down upon as the men hanging on the fringe of the medical field. Strange.

This was written from Vienna, Austria: Today, I had an appointment with a Dr. Corbler, who was, I guess, an osteopath. Brother! Never in my life have I had such treatment. He had me undress, except for panties and stockings, no gown provided, and then stand. Then I was made to move my body from left to right, backward and forward. Then he punched all the sore places.

Next, I was asked to lie face down on the table, while he poked some more on the sore places, after which he called his nurse to help him get me into the most peculiar position I’ve ever been in. I don’t know whether or not my feet were wrapped around my head, while my body was contorted in the form of a snake while he pushed from one side.

To add insult to injury, he told me to relax. How in God’s teeth can anyone relax in a position like that? However, I summoned my best yoga techniques to my rescue and thereby saved myself from having my bones broken in little bits.

But there was more to come. I was then taken into another room and they put me under an electric massage machine for about 10 minutes, after which time a woman came in and massaged my body with her hands. What a workout! She was not gentle.

When she finished, she told me to get off the table (I could scarcely move by that time) and go into another room and get on another table. They wrapped a blanket around me, strapped my legs to a swinging board—the strap was so tight it impaired circulation—and then hoisted my body in the air until the weight rested on my shoulders. I was left that way for some time, I assumed for the purpose of stretching the spine. And then, after all feeling had ceased, I was lowered and unstrapped.

Next, the doctor came back and gave me a shot in each hip, the part that always feels like a boil about to erupt anyway. I don’t know what the shots were, but he assured me I would feel better by tomorrow. I live in hope.

Then finally, they put another type of electric machine gadget on my back, with wet sponges attached, and away we went again. By that time, I was too exhausted to care and I found that I had pain in places that I didn’t even know existed before.

Finally, I was released and told I could get dressed. When David, (David Ranney, that is) had called to make the appointment with the doctor, he was told it would cost 500 shillings, or $30, American money, for the first visit. They presented me with a bill for 1,002 shillings, which amounted to $60. When I objected, they said that the 500 shillings was just for the doctor. The treatments were all extra. Wow! I couldn’t afford any more of those.

I hope you will forgive me for rambling on this way, but I thought you might be interested in the details.

So just think what a boon we have in Dr. Dittman, by comparison. My sense of humor always has to come to the fore, you know, with all of these things. But it was just like that.  I’d never had treatment like that in my life.

I’d like to read to you this evening from the “Vision,” an article entitled “Love Shall Prevail,” by Swami Ramdas:

The power of love and harmony shall prevail in the end, either in the life of an individual or humanity at large. God or Truth must triumph over the evil forces that seek to dominate over human lives. However dark the prospects of the world harmony and peace appear to be, a clear vision of the future reveals the goal of world union and brotherhood as an inevitable consummation of the titanic struggle and strife through which mankind is passing. The glimpses of the Cosmic Spirit can be caught through all the apparent turmoil and chaos of the present day, so there is absolutely no reason to despair and apprehend that all will be lost.

India is the land of spirituality, a land which gave birth to saints and sages who have reached the peaks of Divine Consciousness, who have plunged deep into the mysteries of life and found the Immortal Source from which the worlds have come forth. Their spirit and message will check and put down the forces of the lower nature that have caused the present highly disturbed condition of the world. In fact, in all  the spheres of action, in all the modes and movements of nature, in all the turns the world’s affairs take, there is one sole Universal Power at work.

The individual gradually rises from the lower plains of existence, where he meets with conflict and discord, to the supreme state where he realizes spiritual harmony and peace. Just as it happens in the life of an individual, so in the life of the world a critical stage has come. A decided turn for a better order of things is bound to take place.

Humanity is guided by the Divine to consolidate all its various units into one federation founded upon freedom and equality. We may respect the power of love, and goodwill must triumph over the disruptive forces. Men have come to realize that the petty ambitions of life are the bane of world’s progress and evolution.

An insensate hunger for material power and glory has been the cause of widespread distress and misery in the world. It is rank pride, false prestige and sheer perversity that have stood in the way of unity of all nations of the earth. God’s light will dispel the present darkness.

He who watches with eyes that look into the future, having a heart enlightened with the light of Love Divine, and leavened with faith that stands unshaken amidst the most violent storms of life, knows that God’s will alone is supreme and it works always for good. Let us therefore face boldly the existing state of things and adapt ourselves with a composed heart to the great changes that are envisaged in the near future.

Change is the law of nature or the law of God. Let us ride on the crest of a new world wave that is rising to submerge all differences and create an atmosphere of peace and harmony.

Life is immortal. Life is glorious. Life is a positive expression of the Divine. Know that this is the truth about your life.

Let us shed our weaknesses and fears. Let us live nobly, taking a firm stand upon the consciousness of our immortality and act in such a way as to hasten the day of the liberation of humanity from the clutches of destructive forces. This is the mission of every human being. Let us wake up to it.

Let our individual interests, outlook and attachments transform into welfare of humanity, universal vision and equal love for all peoples on the earth. Nothing short of our elevation to this height can help the evolution of humanity to its spiritual heritage. Truly the salvation of an individual cannot be possible unless he identifies himself with the world consciousness, unless he realizes his oneness with all lives and beings. Hence, it behooves us to eradicate from our minds all thoughts of hate, jealousy and ill-will of every kind.

Let Divine love and peace have sway over us. Let us view all people in the world as the manifestations of the same Divinity. Let us always think, speak and act in terms not as mere individuals, not as communities, not as races and nations, but as members of the same world family, as children of the One Divine Parent, and as embodiments of the One Divine Power.

That gives us hope in these troubled times.

So many people ask me when this terrible thing is going to happen to us, when the earth is going to open up and swallow all of us. I don’t know. It opens up and swallows each one of us in its own way every day. But I don’t worry about it, as I’ve told you before, and, strangely enough, so many have moved here to be with me.

And I many times think it says in the Bible, “But for the elect no flesh shall be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” [paraphrased from Matthew 24:22-24] So, either we will have become the elect by that time, and we will live, or we all go down together. And if so, being together, why, we still arise again together. So we’ll always be together anyway, so what difference does it make?

Well, obviously togetherness is what we’re after.

Okay. The Bible reading tonight is from St. John, Chapter 2 beginning with Verse 1:

2 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:

2 And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

4 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.

6 And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.

9 When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

10 And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

The more I get into the esoteric nature of the Bible, the more wonderful it becomes because I realize that every single thing in here happens inside of us. It’s written on a historical basis, in parables if you will, so that man may understand in the outer sense that which happens within himself. But the more you get into it, the more you meditate and God reveals each little tiny thing to you, and verse by verse, chapter by chapter it unfolds, you realize the magnificence of this body.

I have chosen for my subject tonight, “Marriage with the Beloved.” Marriage is a holy state. It is holy in the human sense, if we make it that way. And, of course, the holiest of all marriages is our marriage with the Bridegroom, or Christ, who is to be found only within ourselves.

I think that people take marriage far too lightly these days. They do not try hard enough. They go into marriage wearing rose‑colored glasses, and as all of us know, today there is merely a contractual agreement from the outer sense and no spiritual marriage at all. That is so that you can try it out and if you don’t like it then you can go on to the next one. And that’s rather terrible to contemplate because really, when you stop to think about it, it is tearing down the whole social structure of man and putting him in a position of complete, and I mean complete—What is the word I want? Anyway, he doesn’t feel—lack of security, insecurity.

Think of the children that are born into this sort of a situation. Many times, one or the other leaves and the child has to be raised by one parent. And the parent has to go out and work, and the child is put around from pillar to post and he has no security whatsoever. Then we wonder why they go wrong, as we say, why they use drugs, why they drink, why they smoke, why they have sex at a very young age, and all the rest of it. We have forgotten the laws of God.

I want to read to you also from Romans, beginning the first chapter, beginning with Verse 15, where Paul says:

15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

I think that is pretty clear, and that takes care of homosexuality, it takes care of bisexuality, and applies to both men and women.

Marriage is a holy state, as I’ve said. It is a holy covenant, a holy sacrament. And when you stand before a priest, a minister, a rabbi, a swami, whatever their title might be, you take a vow to get along together until death shall you part. We have forgotten all about that today. The divorce courts are filled and the calendars are filled with people asking for a divorce.

There are exceptions to be made to every rule. And as I’ve said before, I don’t believe in two people staying together when they’re destroying each other, or, if there is adultery on one side or the other. Certainly, that is the one thing that is given as the reason where a man may lawfully get a divorce—only that one reason, and no other. And yet, I feel that that isn’t totally right either, because there are extenuating circumstances where one or the other, for some karmic reason, perhaps, or the two of them have come together and one or the other is actually, through whatever they’re doing, really killing the individual inch by inch. And so if they were separated, then they have the opportunity to go to God, to be God‑realized souls; whereas, if they stay together they will destroy each other, or one would be destroyed, and that is not right. And in here someplace, it says that once in a while make an exception. So I go always by what God tells me.

I’ve had many couples who have come to me, who are living together without benefit of marriage, and most of them are now married. There are times when I make exceptions to this rule because I don’t feel inside, as God directs me, that they were meant for each other at all. And to ask them to get married under those circumstances, I feel would be totally wrong. So I counsel them. I tell them not to live together. I talk to them about the Ten Commandments and what has been said in this chapter, and we go on from there.

In most every case, it has worked out beautifully because when you have once attained the realization of your Oneness with God, then you have transcended all laws, I have told you many times. You become the manipulator of the law. You are no longer subject to it. And you go by the direction which God gives you inside of yourselves. And so because of these things that existed before, which have now changed, there are many, many beautiful people not only in this group but in other groups in other cities as well.

Marriage is a very important step. Many times you meet many people and are attracted to them, and in most cases, particularly today, there’s a physical attraction. But once in a while, once in a great while, perhaps, you meet somebody and you know instantly that you belong to that one; they belong to you. And you look at the reasons that man gets married: because he wants to belong to a person, and he wants to possess the person. This is true of both man and woman.

When you get married and you take what you call love, you feel that you belong together. You don’t want anybody interfering with that wonderful private relationship that you have. And so, you decide that you’re going to get married. So after a time, you see the little idiosyncrasies in each other and you don’t like some of them, because you haven’t ever lived together. No matter how long you’ve gone together, how closely you’ve been associated, you haven’t lived with a person, and many people reveal things about themselves after marriage that they never do before. And so you become unhappy, you become unfulfilled. But you’ve got to remember that each one comes with his own right of being, that no one has the right to take anyone’s liberty away from them.

Now, this doesn’t mean that it gives license to any individual to go out and commit adultery or to go with any other individual except for the wife or the husband, whichever the case may be. There must be fidelity if the marriage is to work out. And if you will each sit down and look at yourselves and decide what you can do to change that which is wrong within yourself—”Change yourself and you will change thousands,” as the Master said. And I’ve repeated it I don’t know how many times, perhaps thousands, but that is the truth.

And if you’ve come to the point where you’ve done everything you know how and still it isn’t working out, at that moment you have no place to go but up. So you say to God, “Well, Lord, I’ve done everything I know how, so if any change is to be made, then You must help me, You must make the change.”

And at that moment when you give up trying and doing things, then God comes in and He does the work. And you may come to a point, because you’ve been abused physically, mentally, emotionally, where you cannot take any more, and all of a sudden you just go inside of yourself and you surrender to God and something happens to you, and you come out of that experience totally different.

You have a wealth of love to give, whether you’re a man or a woman, and perhaps your love is not reciprocated. And so, that person misses so much when they don’t acknowledge the love of the individual they’re married to. They miss so much, because it’s given with all of the fullness of the heart in the beginning, if the marriage is what it should be. And they’ve missed a great deal.

But something happens to you, and you find that you have risen above the power to be hurt. You’ve risen above the power for anyone to influence your life and hold you in bondage. All of a sudden, without having moved out of where you are, you are free. You’ve escaped from your prison house. And you find that you can love and serve the person you’re married to impersonally, but not be affected by anything they think, say or do with regard to you. And that’s a very interesting thing.

Marriage, human marriage, is given to us for the purpose of growth. And if you will sit down and talk to each other sanely, not in anger, and then try to change yourselves—You don’t have to change yourself into the image of someone else, but if there are little things that don’t make too much difference, change! Be considerate of the other person. Think of how you would feel if you or someone were to talk to you, perhaps, as you talk to someone else sometimes. Each one has his own standard and he has his own feelings, and in the beginning the ego is very, very sensitive. It’s also very clinging. It’s very possessive and all.

The true marriage is that marriage where there is so perfect a love that there is also perfect trust, that you know that you can trust that person no matter where they are or who they are with because you know deep in your heart that their love is solely for you, in the human sense, and nothing can change it. And you feel a security. It’s a wonderful thing.

But marriage is given to you for the purpose of developing, and the human marriage is made after the marriage of the Divine: God the Father, God the Mother and God the Son. And just as in the spiritual marriage, so also in the human marriage there is a son or a child brought forth in many instances. But even if it isn’t brought out in the human sense, there comes a day when that Christ child must be born in each and every one of us, and that marriage must take place.

And that’s what it is talking about in here because the individual soul, when the love of God becomes so great that the soul reaches out in longing for its true mate, or Christ within itself, whether it be man or a woman, that one is lifted up and put into various spiritual experiences.

So many questions are asked. This journey of the soul is a strange one. There is this electrical coil at the base of the spine, and the energy contained within it, the electricity contained within it, the intelligence contained within it, is beyond belief. It is greater than anything that you can cognize or recognize in the outer sense. And you must remember that.

So, instead of abusing [?] this life force—spending it, depleting your body, getting rid of that sacred fluid within yourself—learn to retain it gradually, through the methods which have been taught you, so that you may have that coiled serpent, instead of going outward and downward, releasing substance from your body, that you may retain it and take it up the spine.

Now there are seven spinal centers. In the metaphysical sense, there are said to be 12 orifices or openings to the body. The Jewish religion and some of the other ancient religions talk about the “nine gateways of the body,” and of course that refers to the two eyes, the two ears, the two nostrils, the mouth, and the rectum and the genital organs, so that that makes nine. But there are three additional ones in the metaphysical sense, and one is the navel, and one is the medulla, through which the life force enters the body, and then there is the one through which this kundalini force, as it goes up the spine, goes through the brain and then is coiled on top of the head, as you see, as I’ve told you before, the pictures of the Mother Kali and the God Shiva.

The spine is called the Sushumna Passage. But this “serpent force” doesn’t start to really make an inroad on the experiences which the devotee goes through until the second center. And then it goes up, and there’s an Ida gland on the left (and it’s spelled I‑D‑A) and a Pingala on the right, (and that’s P‑I‑N‑G‑A‑L‑A.) These are two nerves. And the course of the kundalini follows up, and these nerves must come to the sixth center. And then they spread through the brain before the Sushumna current starts to rise in the spine. And then, when it has risen—when the individual soul has gone through the seven states of consciousness, or the seven worlds within themselves, all of which are described, the things that they meet, in parables again in Revelations—as it goes up each spinal center, you are taken into the hell of your own being and into the heaven of your own being.

Each one has a different number of petals in it, which are called lotus petals. And of course, the bottom ones are the four square, the four petals. And it goes up like this and you go through each one of these worlds. Each one has a different appearance as you see the spinal center, each one has different colors in it because it has different minerals, various things in it, and each one produces a different taste in the mouth. Now, not everybody goes through this. And close to the end of the first experience, you taste just like bitter almonds in your throat. That’s at the cervical center.

It is at that time, in my own experience, where I lost body-consciousness. And when I awakened, I found out that there was a male and female organ within myself, and that the “manna from heaven” was that substance which came down from the brain when the erect tongue was made to go into the throat and touch the certain little part in there that made this fluid come down. And that is the manna from heaven, and you can exist on it, subsist on it for days on end. Now this is the truth within your own being, and isn’t it wonderful that all of these things happen?

It is quite a battle, quite a journey, and of course when people go through these things, they’re asking questions constantly because they’re experiencing something within themselves that they have never experienced before. They’re driven to run wild, so to speak. They want to get away from the everyday life. They want to do strange things, because don’t forget that the good thief on the cross directs them to think of God, it gives them revelations, it acts as a magnet to take them to God, and the opposing force, the bad thief, is constantly putting obstacles in the way.

There are four main parts to the body, and that’s the brain, the heart, and the navel, and then the lower region. Now, this lower region, if you have lived as so many of the young people, and some of them not so young today, are living, gradually you lose your moral standards, and this fourth world doesn’t come into existence until after the death of the physical body. But this is really hell. It is the place of the dead, where the person exists but yet they are morally dead.

And some of these people come back with, they return with the consciousness, but they are evil, and yet they are morally dead and you cannot find God in them. And these are ones that have misused their powers. They have been into black magic, they have been into sorcery. They have indulged in sex to the degree, and in other things of the senses, to the degree that it has destroyed their whole spiritual being. It is not a good state to be in. And people better realize that they may live it up today, but there’s going to come a day when there’s going to be a payment for it, a payment for it.

Now, in Revelations it speaks of the body as being a cube. And amazingly enough, if you unfold that cube—unfold first the two flaps on the side and then take that from the top and bring it down—that cube is in the form of a cross. And again, the cross is the human body. And it tells about all of the different things that you meet: the dragons and the white horses, and the red horses and the red dragon. All the rest of these things have to do with certain nerves and currents within the body, and the unfoldment as the soul makes its spiritual journey up the spine and through all of the realms which it has created within its own being.

You have created your world within, and you will continue to be in trouble as long as you think, say and do the wrong things which it is told about that are against the law of God.

As I’ve said I don’t know how many times, you can change the laws of man but you can never change the laws of God. They are immutable! And yet, man today is totally disregarding them. We have it all over: in the newspapers, in the television, out in broad daylight. It’s terrible. I even read an article the other day where it told about a picture that is to be shown where the man and woman actually have intercourse and it is shown in the picture, the whole thing. What are they thinking of? It’s indecent. It’s ugly. It is everything that shouldn’t be, when man has within himself the power to rise above his humanness and to be gods on earth.

In Revelations, it tells about “I am the alpha and the omega.” And the word “alpha” is used for that one who is pure, who descends into heaven. [Delete “descends into heaven”]He is pure and he descends into matter. And the more he descends into matter, then he is called “Lucifer,” or the fallen morning star.

If you have God and the Christ within you, then the Satanic force is also there, and you have created him yourself. And yet, that Satanic force is believed in to such a degree in the outer sense that man, through the power of his mind, can actually see the form of what has been envisioned to him, put into his mind as Satan, appear before him, and many have done this.

It’s an amazing thing, but it is true. You have that mark of the beast within you. You have the number of the beast, which is 666. And I have explained to you before that this is the six spinal centers below the seventh, and the positive and negative forces, and each one of the three bodily jars are attached to the spine and these six centers. And then we have the “seven churches,” the “seven candlesticks,” and the lights within them. This is the universal current that is within every man. What a tremendous story this unfolds to be.

In the beginning, when you have lived in the human sense God knows for how many incarnations, and finally your eyes are raised to the hills and you feel within yourself the desire for union with your Infinite Beloved, then all of these tremendous things start to happen and your whole world changes. You go through the fire, believe me. You go into the hell of your own being. You go into the heaven of your own being eventually. But you will notice that at this wedding of Cana, first the man’s name was Jesus. And the mother of Jesus was there. “And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.”

Now, all of your 12 powers or “disciples” are called into play when this marriage is going to take place between the soul and the Christ within him, who is the bridegroom.

3 And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

And he said to her,

….Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

because he knows that it isn’t time yet for this transition to take place within himself. And yet the mother (or the spirit of motherhood that comes within each one. It can be the Mary gland) knows that that must happen, so she tells the servants to do whatever he tells them to do.

And so, then there were “six waterpots of stone.” Again, we refer to the six spinal centers,

…after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

7 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.

8 And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it.

And so when he tasted it, the water had been turned into wine.

Now, this tells about the transition between the human ego, which is likened unto water. When the Spirit, the real Spirit of God, starts to take place, then the transition takes place in the body. When the consciousness is released from the physical or the gross body of the five senses, then this “Baptism of Blood”—

So many of the orthodox Christians, particularly the Pentecostal, will say, “Have you been washed in the blood of Christ? Are you a true believer in Jesus? Have you been washed in the blood of Christ?” And they don’t even know what they are saying because this is an inner experience that comes to you when God lifts you up and puts you through it.

And in my own case, it came towards the end of the first experience, when I was in India, and I could hear the gurgling of the blood going in my veins as this transition took place. And the pain that accompanied it was beyond belief. And as I’ve told you before, it is said in India that there are very, very few people who ever go through the Baptism of Blood, and of the few who go through it, very few live to tell the tale. It is the most painful thing in the world. And as each circulatory tract is finished and the blood is transferred from the gross to the psychic or the astral body, then the navel is depressed. It is sewn up, so to speak. And you feel this very definitely, and it keeps on, and the pain continues, and you can hear all of this going on inside of yourself.

And I remember asking God, “Will it be very long now?” And He said, “No, not very long.” And I asked Him why my navel was being depressed like this, and He told me that at the time I was born, that my body was attached to my mother’s body in her womb by the umbilical cord, and at the time I was born the cord was cut. But that was the center of the nerve and blood supply. And it made sense. And it does, doesn’t it? It makes sense.

And so, when this transition takes place and the new birth is going to come into being, then this also has to happen. And the navel is depressed and it has to be sealed, so to speak, when the consciousness is transferred from the physical to the psychic or the astral body.

Now, when that happens, then your consciousness—you, what you call “you”—is transferred from that gross body and you are living in your astral or your psychic body.

As I’ve told you before, in Ecclesiastes, Chapter 10, it speaks of this where it says, “A fool’s heart is on his left.” [paraphrased from Ecclesiastes 10:2] That’s man in his gross-consciousness state. “And a wise man’s on his right.” [paraphrased from Ecclesiastes 10:2] So you’ve earned the right to that much wisdom then. And when that happens, then that which was water within you—transparent. Sometimes it’s been very muddy in the past.—is changed into wine, the wine of the Spirit.

And that is where the wedding takes place, where the “son of man,” Jesus, the son of man, has given up the ghost, given up the human ego. And then the marriage is going to take place with the Divine. And so the water—Then Jesus does whatever he does; he makes the supreme sacrifice and changes that which was human within himself to that which is Divine. It’s a tremendous thing!

But after you have gone through these three states, then there comes the time when the human death occurs. You go down into the hell or the subconscious of your own being. You experience the things that you have thought, said and done, not only in this incarnation but others. And then the time comes when the heart center is opened. The Gordian Knot, which is spoken of in metaphysical terms, unties itself in a very painful way. And then, the one who was dead, that which was Jesus, the son of man, arises out of the tomb of his humanness and goes forth to rise into the spiritual world.

And that is the birth of the Christ within you. But it is also the marriage of the human and the Divine. And that’s why the wedding feast, so that this can happen. And so, instead of having the two, eventually, if that one continues on—

And you must continue on. You cannot go backwards. You cannot fool with Mr. In-between. You must keep your mind on God and not go back and do the things that formerly interested your mind, your intellect, but you must keep your mind on God. You must use the techniques which were given to you, and spend the time—which many times you don’t want to spend. You want to be, again, attracted to the things of the world and the things that interested you before— and you must keep on disregarding those things, put your mind on God, and go the rest of the way.

Now I’ve told you about the Holy Eucharist that comes up to the throat, that seed which makes the journey from the brain, down through all of the source, [?] and goes again up the spine, and returns to Galilee. I’ve told you about this. And it comes to the cervical center, or the throat center.

Now, in my own case, as I’ve told you so many times, I’ve held that in my own hand. I’ve seen it. I know what it looks like. But there are those who go through that and they feel the sensation of this small seed or capsule, whatever it is that appears, this Christ within you, and they swallow it without having it come out of the throat into the mouth so that they can take it out in their hand and look at it. That doesn’t mean that they haven’t swallowed it and that they haven’t risen to that same height. God put me through all of this in a very graphic way so I could tell you the truth of it.

And then, the risen Christ goes through that sixth center. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody can go to the Father except through me,” through that state of Christ-consciousness. Then you go into this tremendous blazing light of God within yourself. Heaven is within your own being.

The marriage has taken place between the soul and God who is within him. And then he becomes the Omega, the Arisen One, again, and it’s beautiful and it’s wonderful. Then you are filled with the bliss, with the joy, with the happiness of God. And yet, depending on your destiny, many times having paid the price on your own cross you still continue to pay because you are packing a certain amount from the crosses of the many who follow with you to God.

Now, I’m teaching you the truth of what happens inside of yourself. And if you want to take this as being historical, that’s fine, but I tell you that everything that is in every scripture in the world is describing what happens within man himself. And the people, the names of the people, the cities, the waters, the powers, the animals, all the rest of it, in the outer sense, are used to express what happens within man. So if he wants to live in his animal nature, then he has to take the consequences. But why should he do that when he has the power to raise himself out of the deadness of darkness, and of matter, and his animal nature, and raise it into the heaven of his own being and become filled with the light and the love and the power and the intelligence of God. It is certainly a stupid thing to keep yourself in that lower [?]state. And if you try, you can do it.

There was a man once who was riding on a train, and he had been through a great many things. He had never gotten very far because he was always afraid. He was afraid he wasn’t going to be successful, he had a poor self‑image, he was afraid he couldn’t do this and people wouldn’t like him, and all the rest of it.

Well, he happened to go into the dining car and he was seated at the same table with a man who was a minister. (This younger man was about 35 years old.) The minister noticed that the young man was very, very disturbed, so he said to him, “You aren’t happy, are you, my son?”

He said, “No, I’m alright.” He said, “I’m a little disturbed.”

He said, “Well, would you like to discuss it with me?”

So the young man discussed with him all of his fears and everything. He said, “I’m just too afraid to go forth and do anything.”

And the man [the minister] said a very strange thing to him. He said, “You have not been afraid enough.”

Now, isn’t that a strange thing to say? “You have not been afraid enough.”

The young man said to him, “What do you mean?” He said, “I’ve lived in fear all my life.”

He said, “You have not been afraid enough,” he said, “to let go of all of the negative things in your life and reach out for all that is good.”

If you have sufficient fear of not reaching your goals, then something has to be done about it. You don’t have to live in that negative state, be so afraid that you won’t make what you want to out of your life, that you won’t attain your goals, that through the sheer fear of not making it, that you get busy and do it.

You’ve got to stay with it. You’ve got to make yourself a program. And if you slip back, you’ve got to pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get going again, and go and go and go, no matter how many times you fail or fall, until you make it. And this doesn’t take your humanness away from you.

Those of you who are with me, more perhaps than some others, know that my life is filled with fun. Sure, it’s the toughest job in the business because I am trying, with everything I have, to help each and every one of you to become perfect in God. So, I bear a part of your cross on my own back. And I try and I try, and you slip and you slip, and you are stubborn and you are stubborn. And then sometimes, I get the blame for it, and I think, “My God, why do I get in the middle of this?” because I work with every part of the individual.

I’m always involved in something. And yet, I get results by that very involvement. Where other gurus sit still and they speak about God, and the people come and bow their heads on their feet, and they listen and occasionally ask questions, and they go back, and it takes them the snail’s pace to get where they’re going, I get involved in every part of it. But it takes it out of me—physically, mentally, emotionally—to try to help you to do it. But I can’t pack the whole load on my own back. You have to do your part.

And it’s not just a sometime thing. I would like the consciousness of each and every one who is here to be firmly fixed upon God, and for them to think about Him every moment of their lives, regardless of where they are, what they’re talking about, or what they’re doing. And you can do it because there’s never a moment in my life, regardless of what I am thinking, saying or doing, that I am not conscious of God’s presence within me. And it’s because the human that was within me is John, the witness, witnessing what the arisen Christ is doing, and he does whatever is necessary for whoever stands or sits before me. And I’m always conscious of every thought, word and deed that goes forth, on that basis.

This is what God is doing. I’m not doing it; He’s doing it. But people misunderstand. They see me having fun. They see me cracking jokes and being hilarious sometimes, or some other ways, and they think, “Oh, well, she can’t be God‑realized or she wouldn’t be acting like that.”  They expect me to be holier-than-thou, sanctimonious, wear sackcloth and ashes—no makeup, you know; no permanent in my hair, and starve the body, and all that sort of thing. And I think, as I’ve told you many times, that that is dishonoring the Christ in this temple which is His.

I have the right to be myself, even as you do, and I am both human and Divine, even as you are. The only difference between us, (and that difference is fast disappearing because there are many who are going through spiritual experiences now) is that I know that I have realized my Oneness and you yet do not realize that you have a whole universe inside of yourself; that if you will only use your human marriage to help you to take you to the Divine, that you will have accomplished the purpose for which you are together, and not otherwise, because if each of you try, and each of you serve God in one another—if each of you is patient with one another, if you’d see the good points and not the faults—then the day will come when that love that you had, which was sort of a euphoric thing and seen through rose‑colored glasses, will become a vital living thing that will give you a richness of love and a richness of love in God that you have never even dreamed possible.

And you will feel fulfilled! You will do things together, but yet each of you will fulfill your own destiny. You will bring forth your own gifts, and you will complement each other. You don’t have to be alike in every way, because each one—sometimes the very difference makes all the difference. But stick with it. Hang in there, unless there is one of the reasons that I spoke of.

I may have told you this before, but I remember one girl that I met one time who was very disturbed mentally, and yet she wanted to be on the spiritual path. She was married to a man, and God told me that if she didn’t leave him, that he would kill her. And I told her this.

“Oh no, no, no.”

He was a big 7‑footer. The very next day, he came and pushed the front door in like it was a match box, and took out after her. She went out the back door and over to the neighbor’s house. And [he] told her, each inch of the way, that he was going to kill her. She got rid of him.

Now these are cases that are unusual, and certainly you can’t suggest that somebody stay with somebody who is apt to take their life, or who tries to, or who does such terrible things to them that they are killing them inch by inch. To me, that would be a crime. It would be a sin to keep people like that together. But that is not so in the average marriage.

So, everything in the human marriage that happens is but a preparation for that Divine marriage, when you attend that wedding and the water within your being, the humanness within you, is changed into the wine of the Spirit and you will have found your Christhood. And when you realize your Oneness with God, then all the meanings gradually unfold, as God directs, within yourself. And you see, you can go through this whole book [the Bible] and you can liken it to everything that has happened within yourself, because you know, you were there.

It isn’t a faith through belief, but it is a specific and definite knowledge through experience. It is a thing that you have earned. You have earned the “pearl of great price” which sits in the midst of the thousand-petaled lotus of the brain, and your whole body is filled with light and you know indeed that you are in heaven.