I AM ONE WITH GOD
Listen to the words of Master Morya: “Would you hear what I would speak? Then seek within. Would you feel my Presence near? Seek within. Would you see and know the light? Would you find and hold the Path? Then seek within. Would you climb to greater heights? Kinder, truer, more courageous, poised, compassionate, nobler be? Would you learn and admit your faults and make them good by better living? Then seek within, I say. Mark and evidence you would have that I am with and near you, that I walk and talk with you. And you would have others know it too, for you would have them know you worthy. Again and yet again I say: Then seek within. Only so can you know me. Only so can you reach me. Only so can you reach others, prove and make plain to them that you and I are one, know one another, as they and I may also know and be, if they too seek within”.
We ask: “How?” There are literally thousands of books, tapes, videos, gurus telling us how from their point of view. The vocabulary is varied: prayer, meditation, visualization, self-imaging, self-healing, bio-feedback, transformation…..all are aspects of the total process of seeking within. Many techniques, many paths….how to find the one that is right for us? We are not born consciously knowing the best path, there is not a single path or technique that is perfect for everyone, no matter what the claims on the cover of the tape, book or video. However, there are a few foundation stones that are common to all techniques. If these are in place, it is easier to build the structure that is uniquely our own. We are fortunate, for all the instructions are contained in the Temple Teachings, if we will but look.
I suspect that the first stone would be the conscious decision to spiritualize one’s life. If one approaches problems with a problem solving base or mind set one may always be stuck solving problems. Approach them from a spiritual base and it’s possible to introduce new wisdoms, knowledge and solutions. That shift on our inner base is done inside of ourselves, by ourselves and it is done one small step at a time.
As we search within for new solutions to old problems we need the foundation stone, or technique, of visualization, image making, or using the imagination as a tool. We know, scientifically, that the human brain is without limit in its potential. We use or trust such a small segment of it. Our brains are really super-recorders that transcribe sights, sounds, feelings, smells, temperatures and tastes of every experience of our lives and if given the right trigger we can remember all the details. Some days we feel we can hardly remember our own names, or blame a failing memory on old age. What is needed is faith in the spiritual nature of that recorder, our minds, in its true agelessness, in its true knowing.
The Temple Teachings are filled with different aspects of these techniques. It is a real validation to read about these same techniques in different language in current magazines and books. They all teach that as we use our inner eyes, the more detail of form, color, smell, feeling and even taste we can add to the picture, the more effective will be the process. Using the tool of spiritual aspiration together with visualization moves us into closer communion with the Universal Spirit, Love, God. The Mind, like everything else in the Universe has polarity, and we must always strive to reach the point of balance between higher and lower mind. Thought creates form and love is the force that brings it into manifestation.
You might like to join me in a visualization right now. With inner eyes see yourself walking in a thick grove of pines trees—the ground beneath your feet is covered with a quiet, springy mat of pine needles. There is a soft breeze on your cheeks that is ladened with the smells of pine in the sun, of green and growing things. Suddenly you come out into a bright clearing that has been lovingly crafted by a Master gardener into a beautiful old-fashioned garden suspended in honey-colored sunshine. Flowers of all different kinds are everywhere: yellow daisies, golden galardias, pink and lavender stock, rainbow colored sweet peas, pungent honeysuckle, creamy orange blossoms and waxy gardenias delight your eyes and nose. You sit on a warm stone bench in the middle of the garden and slowly turn to examine each part of the garden in turn focusing on the perfection of each blossom, of each color so harmoniously blended by the Master Creator-gardener. As you soak up this feast through your eyes, your nose, your heart, you become aware that the golden notes of a lark are falling from the sky overhead. Soon you hear the dozens of birds that are flitting through the blossoms talking and calling to each other. The sounds thrill through your ears into the core of your being as you hear the soft cooing of the doves, the trill of the canaries, the call of the cock quail to reassure his family, the whir of the wings of the iridescent humming bird as he darts from flower to flower. You remain quietly sitting there in the warm sunshine, taking in the perfection of the sights, the sweet smells, the sounds—and you feel uplifted, alive and free. You see that all of this is a part of you and you a part of it and both are a part of God. Then you get up and walk slowly, gladly, back through that garden to the forest path, entering the aromatic dimness and walking softly through the trees to the present.
Whether this particular garden will become your special place of peace and restoration or whether you have, or will build some other place of your own with vivid detail for all the senses isn’t the important point. What is important is that we establish such a place for ourselves, within ourselves. When the pressures of stress in today’s world become more than we think we can bear, we can take a quick trip to that special place and from that golden “Within-ness” will come new solutions, new wisdoms and new tolerances. Proust once said that “the real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”
We develop those new eyes with practice. This practice is mental rehearsal for success and it really works. In Theosophical language we are building the form on the astral plane, where all action truly originates.
Master Hilarion specifically used visualization in 1899 when he gave us these directions for meditation: “Imagine the aura about yourself as a mass of iridescent color, globular in form. Try to lose sight of the personality in that aura. When the metal image of the aura has been fully formed in the mind, then begin to form a mental concept of the Great Spiritual Sun as a globe of pure white, scintillating light. Then realize as far as is possible, and you will find it growing easier as you make the attempt, that your aura is one atom of the Spiritual Sun, and that Spritual Sun is YOU. That you are identified with it and cannot be separated from it. Hold yourself in that Center, and go into the silence as much as is possible. Realize that the Spiritual Sun is the Christ, an Entity of which you are a part and It is, above all things, Love, pure Love. In attaining that realization you will, after a while, find a picture of that Sun rising before you, you will realize your identity with It more and more, and if your object be unselfish, pure and holy, you will find the Spiritual planes opening to you in a way they have never done before. You will realize little by little your oneness with all things, and with the Christ. From that vantage ground you are safe. What you see on the psychic and spiritual planes from that vantage ground will almost invariably be reliable.”
Using these foundation stones of spiritual aspiration and visualization leading into meditation, we must then begin to build our own unique structure through service. We can gather all these nifty techniques, attend all the workshops offered from coast to coast, intone mantras and affirmations, get all fired up to conquer worlds, and still get home to find the same old dirty dishes are in the sink, the same old face in the mirror, the same old weeds in the garden……then what? We hang onto our Faith, do the dishes, wash the face AND the mirror, weed the garden one weed at a time and then, one small piece at a time, we put what we have learned through the amplifier of our Faith and begin to participate in Creation.
Creation is Infinite Giving and we must become a part of that unending upwelling of Spirit. It has been said time and time again that Faith without works is dead. We cannot be a spectator in the game of Life. This game is not one like chess where we are moved around by a divine hand. We get handed the ball, as in a game of basketball, and we choose what we are going to do with that ball, pass it, dribble it down the court, or shoot for a basket; we choose the moves, but ultimately we must do it with our teammates, trusting in them, and they in us, in order to win the game. We are given the power of choice and we must trust that power both in ourselves and in others.
One modern philosopher suggests that WE short circuit that power in three ways: (1) when we break man’s laws, (2) when we break God’s laws, and (3) when we break the law of “Give and you shall receive”. This process of giving and receiving is the flow of Life, of Creation. If we have a fistful of money, unless we release our fist how can we accept more? If we are afraid to let go, to share and in the sharing, grow, we will shrivel and fade away. It is like the process of delegating authority–God has given, or delegated, his authority through everything in the Universe, from atom to star, and given us the power to chose, trusting us to eventually make the right choices. We must do the same, whether we are delegating power, jobs, chores, responsibilities, we trust the person to whom we are delegating to do the best he or she knows how and in the process learn and grow. Through that growing we all will grow and the power will continue to flow in golden streams through everyone.
Not only are we given the power of choice, God also gives us many choices and the trick is to recognize God in all the choices. We are apt to wait for our preconceived idea of how God is to fulfill our requests. Remember this wonderful story that illustrates the point? It was raining hard and the river was flooding. As the river surrounded a man’s house, someone came along in a rowboat and said, “Come on, I’ll take you to higher ground.” The man replied, “No thanks, I’m praying to God to rescue me and I’m sure He’ll do it.” The river rose higher and he had to move up to the second floor, praying all the while. Along came a motor boat and the guy said, “Come on, I’ll take you to safety.” The man replied, as before, “No thanks, I’m praying to God to rescue me and I’m sure He will do it.” The flood rose, the man had to go to the roof of his home. Along came a helicopter to take him to safety, again he refused. Shortly thereafter he met his watery transition. When he got to Heaven he asked God why He didn’t answer his prayers. God relied, “I sent you a rowboat, I sent you a motor boat, I sent you a helicopter! What more do you want?” We have to recognize that a gift of God, from God comes through the giver and we must be grateful for that expression of God in our lives.
Even though it is said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”, I feel as though this is really a plea for balance. If we are caught in the snare of always giving, giving, giving, we leave no time for receiving God through a gift from another. This is a time of replenishing, restoring, participating in Creation. This is why we should never demean a gift from another, even with, “Oh, you shouldn’t have.” To demean the gift is to demean God. All that is required of us is a heart full of gratitude.
All that we need for laying the foundation stones of our own unique structure, and for the building of that structure, we find within ourselves. As we build, we must move in and out of our structure, working in harmony with everything and everyone else in a Self-conscious, Self-dedicated way. God can only do for us what He can do through us.
In Beacon Fires we are told “No effort for good is ever wasted. It disappears from your view, but only to fall into the world of causes, into the soil of wisdom to be watered by love and again brought forth to bloom. . . . . . . . . .Learn to live . . Life is the intense, pulsating, vibratory acme of knowledge, truth, love, beauty and faith. Reach out and breathe it into your own soul, as a famishing man reaches for bread to sustain his fainting body.”
“One never finds outside one’s self what is not within, and as long as there is a wrong to be righted, a sufferer to be healed and comforted, a child to be taught, or in wiser terms, any string of the harp of brotherly love to be attuned to the vibrations of universal love lying right at your door, in the midst of your own family or your own social circle, your individual duty is right there. If your life, your strength, your influence, were needed elsewhere, you would have found yourself elsewhere.”
Individually and collectively our life, our strength, our influence are here in this place with the people we find about us. We are approaching Convention and the powerful Forces of the Great White Lodge are gathering to provide us once again with opportunity, which is the fuel for growth. But those Forces do not lie without, we find them within. If only we could truly know, and know that we know, that Light and joy and peace abide within us. What a wonderful time of year to consciously express it. Not necessarily by the gifts that we buy or make, but rather in a warm smile or heartfelt greetings, as an expression of the Christ within each of us reaching out to the Christ within everyone else.
Our most heartfelt, our most often repeated prayer or affirmation begins, “I believe that in me dwelleth every good and perfect Spirit.” It goes on to say, “Believing this, I will show forth this day, by thought, word and deed, all that perfection that dwelleth in me.” And then, again, “I am one with God and all Good. Evil hath no power over me. Though clouds and darkness seem to be about me, yet dwell I eternally in the Light.” We dwell always within the Light, at one with God and all good. We must learn to tune in to that oneness. I believe that this process is what is meant by that mind boggling phrase, “the evolution of consciousness.”
This is nothing more than learning, step by step, to seek within, for contained within every thing in the Universe is the ultimate consciousness, that is God. As we go through this process we will find that Presence, that Light, that Path that Master Moyra spoke of so simply, yet so eloquently.