Spiritual Contemplation
Spiritual Christmas - 14 - Awakening of the spirit-consciousness within you
Spiritual Christmas - English
04-01 Narrative 14 Chapters 58 et 59 of the Aquarian Gospel: The fundamental postulates of the seven sages
Narrative:
Narrative 14, for the evening of 04 January: The fundamental postulates of the seven sages
Reflection:
Reflection 14, for 04 January: Awakening of the spirit-consciousness within you
Narrative:
Narrative 14, for the evening of 04 January: The fundamental postulates of the seven sages
Chapters 58 and 59 of the Aquarian Gospel: The fundamental postulates of the seven sages
Now, when the sages were refreshed they opened up the Book of Life and read. They read the story of the life of man; of all his struggles, losses, gains; and in the light of past events and needs, they saw what would be best for him in coming years. They knew the kind of laws and precepts suited best to his estate; they saw the highest God-ideal that the race could comprehend.
Upon the seven postulates these sages were to formulate, the great philosophy of life and worship of the coming age must rest. Now Meng-ste was the oldest sage; he took the chair of chief, and said, “Man is not far enough advanced to live by faith; he cannot comprehend the things his eyes see not.
He yet is a child, and during all the coming age he must be taught by pictures, symbols, rites and forms. His God must be a human God; he cannot see a God by faith. And then he cannot rule himself; the king must rule; the man must serve.”
The age that follows this will be the age of man, the age of faith. In that blest age the human race will see without the aid of carnal eyes; will hear the soundless sound; will know the Spirit-God.
The age we enter is the Preparation age, and all the schools and governments and worship rites must be designed in a simple way that men may comprehend. And man cannot originate; he builds by patterns that he sees; so in this council we must carve out a pattern for the coming age.
And we must formulate the gnosis of the Empire of the soul, which rests on seven postulates. Each sage in turn shall form a postulate; and these shall be the basis of the creeds of men until the perfect age shall come.
Then Meng-ste wrote the first: All things are thought; all life is thought activity. The multitude of beings are but phases of the one great thought made manifest. Lo, God is Thought, and Thought is God.
Then Vidyapati wrote the second postulate: Eternal Thought is one; in essence it is two – Intelligence and Force; and when they breathe a child is born; this child is Love. And thus the Triune God stands forth, whom men call Father-Mother-Child. This Triune God is one; but like the one of light, in essence he is seven. And when the Triune God breathes forth, lo, seven Spirits stand before his face; these are creative attributes. Men call them lesser gods, and in their image they made man.
And Kaspar wrote the third: Man was a thought of God, formed in the image of the Septonate, clothed in the substances of soul. And his desires were strong; he sought to manifest on every plane of life, and for himself he made a body of the ethers of the earthly forms, and so descended to the plane of earth. In this descent he lost his birthright; lost his harmony with God, and made discordant all the notes of life. Disharmony and evil are the same; so evil is the handiwork of man.
Ashbina wrote the fourth: Seeds do not germinate in light; they do not grow until they find the soil, and hide themselves away from light. Man was evolved a seed of everlasting life; but in the ethers of the Triune God the light was far too great for seeds to grow; And so man sought the soil of carnal life, and in the darksomeness of earth, he found a place where he could germinate and grow.
The seed has taken root and grown full well. The tree of human life is rising from the soil of earthy things, and, under natural law, is reaching up to perfect form. There are no supernatural acts of God to lift a man from carnal life to spirit blessedness; he grows as grows the plant, and in due time is perfected. The quality of soul that makes it possible for man to rise to spirit life is purity.
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Apollo wrote the fifth: The soul is drawn to perfect light by four white steeds, and these are Will, and Faith, and Helpfulness and Love. That which one wills to do, he has the power to do. A knowledge of that power is faith; and when faith moves, the soul begins its flight.
A selfish faith leads not to light. There is no lonely pilgrim on the way to light. Men only gain the heights by helping others gain the heights. The steed that leads the way to spirit life is Love; is pure unselfish Love.
Matheno wrote the sixth: The universal Love of which Apollo speaks is child of Wisdom and of Will divine, and God has sent it forth to earth in flesh that man may know. The universal Love of which the sages speak, is Christ. The greatest mystery of all times lies in the way that Christ lives in the heart.
Christ cannot live in clammy dens of carnal things. The seven battles must be fought, the seven victories won before the carnal things, like fear, and self, emotions and desire, are put away. When this is done the Christ will take possession of the soul; the work is done, and man and God are one.
And Philo wrote the seventh: A perfect man! To bring before the Triune God a being such as this was nature made. This consummation is the highest revelation of the mystery of life. When all the essences of carnal things have been transmuted into soul, and all the essences of soul have been returned to Holy Breath, and man is made a perfect God, the drama of Creation will conclude. And this is all.
And all the sages said, Amen. Then Meng-ste said, The Holy One has sent to us a man illumined by the efforts of unnumbered years, to lead the thoughts of men. This man, approved by all the master minds of heaven and earth, this man from Galilee, this Jesus, chief of all the sages of the world, we gladly recognise.
In recognition of this wisdom that he brings to men, we crown him with the Lotus wreath. We send him forth with all the blessing of the seven sages of the world. Then all the sages laid their hands on Jesus’s head, and said with one accord, Praise God! For wisdom, honour, glory, power, riches, blessing, strength, are yours, O Christ, for evermore. And every living creature said, Amen. And then the sages sat in silence seven days.
Reflection:
Reflection 14, for 04 January: Awakening of the spirit-consciousness within you
Awakening of the Spirit-Consciousness within you
Man is a thinker. The word ‘man’ is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘manas’ meaning ‘thinker’. Unlike animals, the (hu)man-animal possesses a thinking faculty. That thinking faculty has played a crucial role in the development of humanity.
Science, art and religion flow forth from the human mind. The thinking faculty has brought man to the greatest heights but also led him to the deepest depths. Although the development of the thinking faculty of the human being has been limited, now it is ready to grow further and serve humanity in its next step.
But, presently the human being’s thought process is fed largely by what can be observed by the senses. The Aquarian Gospel says:
The senses were ordained to bring into the mind mere pictures of the things that pass away; they do not deal with real things.
The senses were only meant to examine the transitory, but we human beings have become so fascinated by the sensory perceivable world that we still lose ourselves in it every day. Our thinking is largely degenerated and directed to the outer world, to the knowledge of this world.
An automatic and chaotic process
Moreover, the thinking of the human being is mostly an automatic and chaotic process. We are generally not conscious that we are thinking. One thought calls up another one through association, which then again calls up another thought, etcetera.
We are not able to observe the exalted truth of the soul with our senses and our thinking faculty. That is why in the beginning the super-natural life announces itself via the heart.
Inner development is possible only on the basis of pure thinking that is nourished by the living soul. Pure thoughts do not relate directly to the sensory world but arise from inner images that well up from the heart. Pure thinking does not happen on its own but requires attention and training.
Books describing the history of Western philosophy usually begin with the philosophers of Greek antiquity. These sages presented classic examples of pure thought and laid down the foundation for the development of science in the western hemisphere. That is why Jesus says to the Greek masters in Athens:
Yea, all of Greece is blest. No other land has been the homeland of such mighty men of thought as grace your scrolls of fame. A host of sturdy giants of philosophy, of poetry, of science, and of art, were born upon the soil of Greece, and rocked to manhood in your cradle of pure thought.
A preoccupation with science can lead to a certain purification of thought. Such scientific thinking can deflect the fascination with what is perceived with the senses, even though images will always play a role in thought.
For example, pupils in the Greek mystery school of Pythagoras occupied themselves with what we now call mathematics and physics. Attempts were made to elevate thinking to the higher life which could then express itself in the sensory and observable lower life. In this way, according to the plan, human thinking could develop itself into a ‘vehicle for higher truth’.
Socrates and Plato
That approach, whereby spirituality and intellectual thinking go hand in hand reached its pinnacle in the schools of Socrates and Plato around the third century before Christ. By the time of Jesus, these thoughts were no longer alive in Athens.
For example in the beginning of our era, the philosophy of Epicurus was in vogue. It was taught in that school that happiness was to be found especially in the experience of sensory enjoyment, in ‘carpe diem’ (seize the day).
The Stoics, on the contrary, valued pure thinking above emotions. Feeling was of minor interest. The lack of true inspiration from the purified heart centre led easily to dogmatism and crystallisation.
And thus through history, the human thinking facility developed via all sorts of thought-schools into a means for finding happiness, unity and truth. And as in our individual lives throughout the ages, every path had to be explored in order to arrive at a border, a border where a new path announced itself.
Living experience
Both science and philosophy deal with the phenomenon of perception. There is always a question of a duality in perception, a differentiation between the perceiver and the perceived. Spirituality deals with experiencing. There is unity in the living experience, an immediate and unshakable knowing that does not come from reasoning. The living spiritual experience rises above thought. Therefore Jesus says to the Greek masters:
But all your high accomplishments are but stepping stones to worlds beyond the realm of sense; are but illusive shadows flitting on the walls of time. But I would tell you of a life beyond, within; a real life that cannot pass away.
In science and philosophy, there is no power strong enough to fit a soul to recognise itself, or to commune with God. I would not stay the flow of your great streams of thought; but I would turn them to the channels of the soul. Unaided by the Spirit-breath, the work of intellection tends to solve the problems of the things we see, and nothing more.
The senses were ordained to bring into the mind mere pictures of the things that pass away; they do not deal with real things; they do not comprehend eternal law. But man has something in his soul, a something that will tear the veil apart that he may see the world of real things. We call this something, spirit consciousness; it sleeps in every soul, and cannot be awakened till the Holy Breath becomes a welcome guest.
The Greek masters are a symbol for our own thinking which follows a dead-end path if we want to reach the soul life. Therefore, Jesus brings them a wisdom greater than their own and a completely different meaning of happiness.
The senses endow us with a life that is incomprehensibly great, profound and of high value, but the life of the soul provides the only possibility to elevate the thinking to what is ‘above’. Listening to the suggestions of the soul is the only way to rend the veils that thinking pulls over our eyes.
However, as the Chinese sage Lao Zi wrote in the Daodejing, the ‘above’, the realm with eternal values, cannot be spoken nor studied in books or writings. Tao, the Way, can only be lived consciously and inwardly through the cooperation of heart and head.
The poverty of our current knowledge and reason, the limitations of our present comprehension and our brain consciousness all stand before us in their nakedness. We are not able to know anything that is worth knowing, nor possess anything that is worth possessing, until the purified heart elevates our thinking.
Light message
Many sages from all cultures have shown us the universality of this light-message. The great sage Shankara of India said it thus:
The human being is pure spirit, free from attachment. The thought misleads him. It binds him with the shackles of the body, the senses and the breathing of life. It creates in him the feeling of ‘I’ and ‘mine’. It makes him endlessly wander in the midst of the fruits of the actions it causes.
The thought-shell therefore cannot be the Atman, the ‘true one’. It has a beginning and an end and is susceptible to change. It is the sojourn of pain.
Therefore the seeker of liberation must apply himself carefully to the purification of the thought. When the thinking is purified, the liberation is as easily to grasp as the fruit that lies in the palm of your hand.