As the dawn of the morning breaks with the rising of the sun in the East, so will the first faint rays of truth reaching the heart herald the Soul's awakening.

While the Soul is still shrouded in the dark chambers of ignorance and deadening creeds that continue to lead it deeper and deeper into the darkness which ends in death, it is forced to hunger and thirst until such time as a ray of light from some source enters and begins to dispel the darkness.

The beclouded, far distant, supposedly unknowable God that orthodoxy has and is still teaching, is not the Father who will come and dwell with us in close kin and companionship once the Soul is awakened.

We are constantly urged to love God, but how is it possible for us to love that which we may not know, may not come in touch with, an entity too far distant and too good for even the most holy to know?

Creeds like this have given us a mighty, stern, majestic, but purely masculine being; one unable to accept our poor, humble, helpless, blundering love, irrespective of how deep and sincere it may be, because we have been taught that we are no more than "worms of the dust," and wholly unworthy of the notice of even great men much less of "he who is mighty among men." Under such conditions, how is it possible for anyone to attain perfection and the "peace that passeth understanding"?

How will it be possible for us to comprehend the heart of humanity, the needs of the many lowly creatures, if we are to turn away our gaze from the earth of which we are a part and whereon dwell our fellow creatures, the while we are searching among the clouds for something beyond our ken, for something that will not, cannot because of our "worm of the dust" status, respond to our heartbroken, woeful cry for help and guidance?

Man has been long and woefully misled. He has been doubly betrayed. On the one hand he has been taught that, being of earth, earthly, a "worm of the dust," he is too low to deserve or receive any notice, and on the other, he has been made to believe that by the mere observance of one creed or another, though he does not physically or spiritually change, he shall be miraculously saved. What a contradiction, and one as false as the other. Man has been misguided, lo, these eons of time. He has been, mostly as a result of fear, induced to accept the letter of a saving philosophy and as a result, has never received the spirit.

The Father, He who is the creator of all that is, including enslaved humanity, is not in a far-distant Empyrean sphere engaged in ignoring His humanity, lowly and degraded as it is. He is always near us, waiting for us to want Him to be with us.

The Creator dwells near His children, loves them, evil as they are, and to the degree they desire and deserve it, protects them, though these foolish creatures have long since ceased to look for Him other than in some far-distant realm beyond their reach.

The Love of the Father for His creation is far greater than all other loves combined, although akin to the parent's love for his offspring; for God is both the Father and the Mother of all; and as Father-Mother He is never far off, is ever in the midst of us, but we are too blind to see, too dense to feel His nearness.

To find God we must not look away from the earth or seek Him among the clouds. If we do, we are certain to miss Him. We must seek and find Him where He actually is, DEEP WITHIN OUR INNERMOST SELF. He is in truth "the Word made flesh," always dwelling among us. Only the Soul's deep sleep prevents us from being "one with Him."

All men bear more or less His likeness. Some men have journeyed so long and so far away and among such strange gods and accepted such false doctrines that they little resemble Him who made them in "His own image," yet despite this, somewhere within everyone is His abiding place. His spirit is the finer part of us; only that part of us which is better and nobler bears His likeness; even this may be but a very dim resemblance, nevertheless it is of sufficient strength to permit building an Immortal Soul.

This earth which we call our home and which is necessary to us, though it is gross and of heavyweight to us because we are under its dominion, nevertheless is God's body in the same manner and degree that our bodies are the homes of our Souls. "As above, so below" is the oft-stated Law of Hermes. The Soul within these bodies is the Spark from God and is a living, pulsating entity, though for the time being we are unaware of its existence. It is as deathless and as full of life as is the Sun arising in the East which gives life and light to the world.

At the moment that this Soul awakens sufficiently to aspire heavenward and recognizes something greater than that heretofore recognized as real, the conception of the Christ child occurs; from thence forward its growth will depend upon the help it receives, the effort made by us.

As it continues its search for more Light (enlightenment) it begins to grow and develop, to accumulate, to build a new existence and as this continues the time will come when there is a new birth, that of spiritual or Cosmic Consciousness.

As the Soul awakens it is the child in the manger; it is at last, possibly after long ages of dwelling in darkness, venturing forth into the Light, coming to man's estate, attaining Illumination.

As the Soul grows, as it becomes more and more conscious and meets with spiritual experiences, it gradually takes upon itself the likeness of the Creator. The Soul awakening seeks God in all things; nor does it lose sight of the fact that it is surrounded by others of its kind who are, like itself, seeking for the Fatherhood and the Brotherhood of man.

The awakening Soul is able to grasp the deeper truths as it slowly unfolds to the glory dwelling within itself. As this development progresses the Soul becomes conscious of the Indwelling Fire, the Light which is "neither on land nor on sea."

Unfoldment must be gradual. It is like the rose unfolding its petals and bursting into glory. For this reason the Nazarene was called the Rose of Sharon, and sometimes the Rose of Calvary.

Slowly, naturally, serenely the rosebud responds to the warm, subtle, penetrating light rays of the sun. It yields to the sun's influence as it draws to itself mother earth's magnetism. Symbolically speaking, within the center of the rose is the white light of purity. Surrounding this, as if to shield it, is a circle of golden glory, the petals of white borrowing their crimson flush from the blending of the colors. Thus it is with the Soul as it attains its Illumination.

The Soul, like the rose, courts the rays of Light; seeks to bask in the rays of the sun's heat; utilizes the Cosmic rays that gradually bring about the change and is guided by the rays of kindliness, gentleness, loveliness and forgiveness, to mention but a few of the heart's emotions, all of which help in the process of transmuting the gross into the refined, without which the Soul's transition and Illumination would be impossible.

Let your Soul unfold gently, slowly, naturally. Hasten not, but be patient and you shall know the secrets of thy innermost being. Know that the knowledge of the ages is stored within your Soul and by its unfoldment the mystery will reveal itself and it will be an easy task to decipher the scroll - the writing of the ages.

Far too many are impatient, and once on the Path, attempt to force the growth, foolishly believing that they will be able to "take the kingdom by storm." Impatience retards the Soul's growth, sometimes preventing it altogether, while mistrust is a poison that destroys.

Free the mind of all evil thoughts and desires; do this by replacing these thoughts and desires with pleasant memories of the past, memories of things which then caused the heart to pulsate in rhythm of joy. Change the undesirable by planning for a greater future, a life worthier and more desirable.

Instill the thoughts with desires that are pure and ennobling, desires that are constructive in their nature and elevating and exalting in their influence.

Free the body from illness and those weaknesses that are the direct result of such passions as malice, hatred, resentment and others of like nature. All of these are destructive and their tendency is: To bring about your destruction; both body and Soul.

Always have in mind the one potent Law: "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see [know] God."

Know, feel within your heart, that it is not necessary for you to wait for an imaginary, far-distant universal resurrection day, one terrible to behold, in order to see God. Come to understand that your resurrection will be at hand the moment your Soul is able to rise from its long sleep under the debris of all of you that is earthly and thus attain its Consciousness - its Illumination.

The Soul's awakening is its resurrection day; never permit that thought to escape you for a moment. When the heart has become pure, that is, free from the evils born in hatred and malice, the exalted life will be part of such a state of being and these will feel God. Job understood this well at the time he gave utterance to the thought: "In my flesh shall I see God." This bears witness to all that the Science of the Soul teaches. Like Job, all may see God though still in the flesh, if they will become pure in mind, noble of heart. The flesh itself is not evil, it is the thoughts and desires that dominate the flesh and cause it to be evil. All flesh is of God, for did not the "Word, which was God, become flesh and [so that it might] dwell among us"?

God is in the awakening Soul. God is in, part of, our thoughts; in our minds and hearts when our thoughts are free from those evil passions that all of us have learned to recognize as degrading and destructive in their tendencies. Until such time as we free ourselves of these evils we cannot be a fit abiding place for either God or our own Illuminated Soul.

In our thought-desire world we associate with mental companions most agreeable to us, just as on the physical plane we choose friends from among those who are generally most like us. We have both the right and the power of choice and if we would travel toward a world of Cosmic Consciousness we must clean our own house and throw out all that is of no value in the construction of a new realm within, where we are to find our habitation.

When the seeking individual reads the scroll that is his own Soul and gains an understanding of all that he owes to himself and to the world in general and then accepts the responsibility, he is well on the Path that will lead to Manhood. This is the first step toward world Brotherhood. The Brotherhood of Man will be attainable only when men universally accept this responsibility and their personal accountability to men and the Law, and then begin to harmonize their thoughts, their desires and their actions with this Law.

The most exalted being in the Elysian fields cannot be entirely happy so long as there is one Soul living in "sin" and suffering the agonies resulting therefrom. Love is the golden chain that holds all humanity together. Man has no right to hate another even though that other is the cause of loss or harm; but it is not written that he must make friends with those who live a carnal or destructive life.

Man should not hate another though that other may be the very embodiment of carnality. In the first place, man has no right to feel hate for anything. Hatred is a destructive passion and even though it were actually justified because of great wrong, it would hurt the one feeling the hate more than the one hated. It is man's duty to bring the criminal to judgment, to see that justice is meted out, and that he and his fellow men be protected, but this must be done without hatred or malice, in an impersonal manner and out of a pure sense of justice. The father does not feel hatred or malice toward his son when he finds him doing mischief or in the act of destroying something, nevertheless he metes out punishment in order to teach the Law of Retribution. In the same sense and with the same feeling must we bring the wrongdoer to justice and see that judgment is meted out.

It is written that the Nazarene taught: "Love they neighbor as thyself," and that His followers questioned: "Who is my neighbor?" The person living next door to us is not always neighborly, while the person living at a distance is friendly. The Master-Teacher no doubt wished to convey the idea that the neighbor living next to us would necessarily receive greater consideration than the person at a distance. The thought was, however, that we should have love for all men, because that is the only emotion that reacts to our benefit. Irrespective of what either our neighbor or anyone else might do, if we have other feelings than love and kindliness toward them, it will react to our own loss or harm. In all His teaching the Nazarene had the individual in mind and sought to convey the idea that it did not matter what others might do, all that really concerned or affected us were our own thoughts, desires and actions. These alone reacted upon us, either to our benefit or to our loss.

As with the man traveling Jericho's road, so is it with all of us. A compassionate heart is an ever constant need. With the Soul's awakening is also born the desire to benefit all mankind wherever or whoever they might be, and to forgive others that we in turn might also be forgiven.

Man is forever, though mostly unconsciously, governed by the secret desires of his heart. These desires are often so subtly hidden that they remain unrecognized for what they are. Ugly thoughts bear fruit of like nature. Man is sometimes horrified to learn that what he thought to be an innocent act proved to be most destructive.

Thoughts and the desires that follow in logical sequence are invisible to the as yet slumbering Soul. They are often our betrayers; the betrayer of our better self, much as Judas Iscariot betrayed his friend and Master. They are the enemies within our own household that work like a thief in the night, stabbing us in the back when we least expect it and when wholly unprepared to protect ourselves.

When the Soul awakens from its long sleep, it will begin to be on guard and to watch the thoughts, desires and actions of the mind lest it be betrayed. Admittedly, great and constant effort is essential to subdue the wayward Will and turn it into channels of constructiveness, but do we not as carefully guard material possessions against the thief who would take them from us? Why, then, not give the same protection to things spiritual, the things that concern the Soul, our real self?

Good and evil constantly pass in a vast procession before us. We are able to recognize all but the most subtle for what it is, know the true from the false and are able to choose as we wish. We can work in harmony with the spiritual, or we can ignore our Godly knowledge and select that which we think will yield us the greatest profit or deepest pleasure irrespective of the harm it may bring us.

Our thoughts are with us every moment of the waking hours and as constantly make their demands upon us. While some of us live to be eighty or more, there are many who have never been conscious of this important fact. GIVE IT CONSIDERATION NOW; IT IS THE KEY TO YOUR ENTIRE FUTURE. The material has its legitimate requirements; the carnal demands attention and satisfaction; all this is normal but must be limited. But the spiritual and constructive must also be given consideration. Gradually, as we try and keep on trying, we may gain control of our thought world, eliminating the base and undesirable and substituting that which our better self recognizes as more desirable.

The ear is to be trained to listen only to that which is fitting for the welfare of the whole man; the eyes to see only that which is beautiful and elevating and of which there is no cause for angels to blush; the tongue, that most unruly member, must be taught to speak only words of life and power.

Kindliness becomes more than merely being kind; the Soul's awakening will bring us a full comprehension of the power of kindly acts.

We will cease to demand of others once we begin to know and understand. We then begin to realize that receiving depends upon giving. If we offer but little, what right have we to ask for much? If the sun's rays were less strong and penetrating it would draw less moisture and magnetic (life) force from the earth, vegetation would suffer, and so would man for lack of food. The more we give understandingly and wisely, the more shall we receive; that is the eternal Law. We draw to ourselves in exact proportion to our willingness and ability to give. Reaction is in perfect ratio to action.

The Soul's awakening confers upon us the power to discriminate between good and evil, right and wrong. The Conscious Soul does not often commit error in giving love, tenderness, goodness, mercy and kindliness. We offer these virtues only as we ourselves possess them; and the most difficult for all of us to give is of the self to which we have become so closely bound.

Renouncing the old and accepting the new fills us with agony, and a great melancholy seizes us as we finally bid farewell to the many illusions of the flesh and the self, the things that have held us in bondage for so many ages and of whose glamor we had been so completely enchanted.

We cling to the old until we finally realize the utter impossibility of its conforming with the applicability of the new, the requirements of the newly awakened Soul. We begin to see, despite all former darkness and misconceptions, that the thoughts we think, the desires we hold, are in truth the moulders, the makers and the creators of our destiny. When we are at last able to comprehend the truth that to attain Illumination, we must continue our labors and remain faithful to our newly born consciousness, we will find it considerably less difficult to renounce all the desires and passions; passions usually thought to be love, whose influence is destructive not only to the Soul, but ultimately to the body itself; irrespective of the fact that we for so long and so desperately clung to them and thought them to be the only reality.

Restlessness, uncertainty and dissatisfaction with everything we formerly thought most certain and permanent are the first warnings of a new experience on the mental-material plane and this may bring a degree of actual suffering.

This is equally true of the new birth on the spiritual planes because man is seldom able to change opinions long held as sacred without a struggle accompanied by sorrow and disappointment. Though we comprehend that we are actually giving up only that which we know is no longer either of use or desirable for our welfare, it appears to us like a sacrifice and is much in the nature of being deprived for some reason or another, of a long friendship. As a matter of fact, we are giving up a part of ourselves; we are performing an act of surgery.

The re-birth or awakening into understanding and a new life has its pains and the travail is as deeply felt as is the birth on the physical plane, because it is so difficult to mold our former self into the new existence. When the dawn is breaking and understanding comes upon us, when we view old beliefs as we would parting clouds, we will be able to hail the new birth and the Soul's awakening as we would a gloriously colored rainbow in the summer sky, foreshadowing as it does a new day and sunshine which is potent of renewal of life.

Peace, the archangel of eternal life, will be ours once we fully accept all that is a part of the Soul's rebirth. We will then understand and appreciate this feeling of inner harmony. Then we will comprehend what the Master-Teacher tried so often to explain to his followers - that every struggle brings with it the full reward of the effort made, and "as ye sow, so shall ye reap" carries a new meaning. We alone can and must make the great fight, but we should fully appreciate the fact that we are not alone, that multitudes of others are likewise traveling the same Path and are burdened with an equally heavy load.

With the Soul's awakening we are able and privileged to cast aside the crown of thorns - that heavy load of undesirable things - and accept the halo of Light and understanding - freedom from these burdens - while also
recognizing the reasons for these many experiences. We comprehend why we and others have failed and we find a reason in life's daily tasks.

The awakened Soul is an understanding Soul.

It comprehends that right here on earth there is a duty for us to perform and until we perform this duty we cannot be free men.

We know then that we came upon this earth plane for a purpose and that we will be literally bound to this earth until that duty is performed. This is the reason for our being here and no man can evade the Law.

There is also God's work here for us, a Divinely appointed duty which we owe our fellowmen due to the fact that we have found that which they are still seeking and the knowledge that until they are free we cannot be entirely at peace.

We must willingly labor day after day if we would continue on the Way. Having entered the Path we dare not turn backward; gradually, though perhaps slowly, the darkness that enshrouds us will fade away and give place to Light; the Consciousness will expand and we will begin to recognize God's likeness everywhere and in everything. We will realize that God's creature, man, is here creating and fulfilling his destiny, not with sighs, moaning and complaining, but in sincerity, goodness and earnestness.

No longer will the Soul be unworthy of being called the child of a King, the Son of God, for it has become the Conscious inheritor of all that is truly worth while.

The Awakened Soul attains to happiness because it is at peace, knowing that all is well. It is a peace that is not lost even in the midst of loss or sorrow. It speaks joy and happiness to the self-being as it progresses onward and upward. All negative morbidness is cast out of the Soul and a spirit of optimism takes its place.

Why should it be otherwise? Is this not the destiny of man? Is he not here for the sole purpose of working out his own destiny? Would the manly man have it otherwise? Why should not the Awakened Soul advance with a song, the hymn of cheer and good will? There is no lasting sorrow, pain, suffering, and certainly no death to the awakened, responsive, receptive Conscious Soul.
|Top|