"The Point of Light Within the Mind of God
Embodying in Himself the Wisdom of God"
And the Christ, the Messenger of Love for the West
Avatar of Love
"Two aspects, light and love, received full expression"
and their work for the entire world; we have also considered the unique opportunity with which Christ is today faced and the response He made in 1945 when He signified His intention to reappear and gave the "Great Invocation" to us as an aid in the preparatory work with which we are immediately confronted. It would seem appropriate at this point to consider the nature of the work He will do and also the teaching which He will probably give. The fact of the continuity of the revelation and teaching given down the ages entitles us to a wise consideration and spiritual speculation upon the probable lines which His work will take.
Over the years, much has been given out from many sources, schools of thought and churches about the Christ, the situation which He faces and the probabilities as to His reappearance. Disciples, aspirants, and men of goodwill have done much already to prepare the world for His so-called return. Today, the East and the West stand equally expectant. As we approach the theme of His work, it is essential that we remember that the Eastern Teacher embodied in Himself the Wisdom of God, of which human intelligence (the third aspect, ray of divinity) is an expression; that through Christ, the second divine aspect was revealed in its perfection; and to Him two aspects, the light and love, received full expression. It remains now for the highest of the divine aspects, the Will of God, to receive embodiment and for this the Christ is preparing. The continuity of revelation may not stop; and upon what other expressions of the divine nature may still later be revealed it is needless for us to speculate.
The uniqueness of the impending mission of the Christ and the uniqueness of His opportunity consist in the fact that the usable-in Himself-to give expression to two divine energies: The energy of love (3rd Ray) and the energy of Will (1st Ray), the magnetic potency of love and the dynamic effectiveness of the divine will. Never before in the long, long history of humanity, has such a revelation been possible.
The work and the teaching of the Christ will be hard for the Christian world to accept, though easier for assimilation in the East. Nevertheless, some hard blow or some difficult presentation of the truth is badly needed if the Christian world is to be reawakened, and if Christian people are to recognize their place within a worldwide divine relation and see Christ as representing all the faiths and taking His rightful place as World Teacher. He is the World Teacher and not a Christian teacher. He Himself told us that He had other folds and to them He has meant as much as He has meant to the orthodox Christian. They may not call Him Christ, but they have their own name for Him and follow Him as truly and faithfully as their Western brethren.
Let us look for a moment at the erroneous interpretations given to the Gospel story - an ancient story - presentation often presented down the ages, prior to the coming of the Christ in Palestine - has been twisted and distorted by theologians until the crystalline purity of the early teaching and the unique simplicity of the Christ have disappeared in a travesty of errors and in a mummery of ritual, money and human ambitions. Christ is pictured today as having been born in an unnatural manner, as having taught and preached for three years and then as having been crucified and eventually resurrected, leaving humanity in order to "sit on the right hand of God," in austere and distant pomp. Likewise, all the other approaches to God by any other people at any time and in any country, are regarded by the orthodox Christian as wrong approaches, as being practiced by so-called "heathen," and as requiring Christian interference. Every possible effort has been made to force orthodox Christianity on those who accept the inspiration and the teachings of the Buddha or others who have been responsible for pressuring the divine continuity of revelation. The emphasis has been, as we all well know, upon the "blood sacrifice of the Christ" upon the Cross and upon a salvation dependent upon the recognition and acceptance of that sacrifice. The vicarious at-one-ment has been substituted for the reliance which Christ Himself enjoined us to place upon our own divinity; the Church of Christ has made itself famous and futile (as the world war proved) for its narrow creed, its wrong emphases, its clerical pomp, its spurious authority, its material riches and its presentation of a dead Christ. His resurrection is accepted, but the major appeal of the churches has been upon His death.
Christ has been for two thousand years a silent, passive Figure, hidden behind multitude of words written by a multitude of men (commentators and preachers). The church has pointed us to the dying Christ upon the Cross and not to the living, working, active, present Christ Who has been with us in bodily Presence (according to His promise) for twenty centuries.
Let us, therefore, endeavor to get a truer picture of Christ's activities and life and - consequently - of our future hope. Let us try and realize the ever-present yet divine Person, laying His plans for the future helping of humanity, assessing His resources, influencing His disciples and organizing the details which will attend His reappearance. We need to awaken faith in the factual nature of divine relation, and galvanize the church of Christ into a truer appreciation of Him and of His work. It is the living, acting, thinking Christ with whom we must deal, remembering always that the gospel story is eternally true and only needs re-interpreting in the light of its place in the long succession of divine revelations. His Mission on earth two thousand years ago is a part of that continuity and is not an extraordinary story, having no relation to the past, emphasizing a period of only 33 years and presenting no clear hope for the future.
What is the hope held out today by the orthodox and unimaginative theologians? That at some distant date, known only to the inscrutable will of God the Father, Christ will issue forth from His seat at the right hand of God, and (followed by His angels and by the Church invisible) descending upon clouds of Heaven, to the sound of trumpets, He will make an appearance in Jerusalem. The battle raging at that time will then end, and He will enter the city of Jerusalem to rule for one thousand years. During this millennium, Satan or the principle of evil will be bound or imprisoned, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Further than that, we are told nothing; humanity hopes for so much more that the picture presented does not intrigue them.
Behind this portrayal, if rightly interpreted, stands the human, the loving and the divine Presence of Christ, embodying divine love and wielding divine power, directing His Church and establishing the Kingdom of God on Earth. What is this church of Christ? It is constituted of the sum total of all those in whom the life of Christ or the Christ-consciousness is to be bound or is in process of finding expression; it is the aggregation of all who love their fellowmen, because to love one's fellowmen is the divine faculty which makes us full members of Christ's community. It is not the accepting of any historical fact or theological creed which places us en rapport with Christ. The citizens of the Kingdom of God are all those who are deliberately seeking the light and attempting (through self-imposed discipline) to stand before the One Initiator; this worldwide group (whether in the body or out of it) accepts the etching that "the sons of men are one"; they know that divine revelation is continuous and ever new, and that the divine Plan is working itself out on Earth.
There are those today on Earth who know that through the instrumentality, the inspiration and the instruction of those sons of men who have wrought out their divinity in the crucible of daily human living the Kingdom of God will come into being; these Knowers now work actively, under the direct impression of the Christ, in leading humanity from darkness to light and from death to immortality.
These are the great underlying truths which are distinctive of the Christ, of the Buddha, and of the Church of God, as it expresses itself in the East and in the West; these are the only truths which matter. In the future, the eyes of humanity will be fixed upon Christ and not upon any such manmade institutions as the Church and its dignitaries; Christ will be seen as He is in reality, working through His disciple, through the Masters of the Wisdom and through His followers who toil unseen (and usually unrecognized) behind world affairs. The sphere of His activity will be known to be the human heart and also the crowded market places of the world, but not some stone edifice and not the pomp and ceremony of any ecclesiastical headquarters.
Out study of the future work of the christ is necessarily based upon three assumptions:
1. That the reappearance of the Christ is inevitable and assured.
2. That He is today and has been actively working - through the medium of the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, of which He is the Head - for the welfare of humanity.
3. That certain teachings will be given and certain energies will be released by Him in the routine of His work and coming. People are apt to forget that the coming of the Christ necessitates a period of intensive preparation by Him, He too, works under law and is subject to control from various sources-just as are all human beings, but in a much lesser degree.
His reappearance is conditioned and determined by the reaction of humanity itself; by that reaction He must abide. His work is subject also to certain phases of spiritual and cyclic timing and to impressions from sources to be found on higher levels than those upon which He normally works. Just as human affairs have effects upon His action, so great "determinations" and 'Profound settlements within the will of God' also have their effects. The human side of nature of the Christ, perfected and sensitive, responds to the invocation and to the appeal of men; His divine side of nature is equally responsive to the impact of energies, issuing from "the center where the will of God is known." Between these two, He has to make adjustment and bring about right timing. The bringing of good out of human so-called evil is no easy task; the vision of the Christ is so vast and His grasp of the Law of Cause and Effect, of Action and Reaction is such that the arriving at right decision as to activity and time is no simple one. Human beings are apt to look at all that happens, or that could happen, from the purely human and immediate angle; they have little understanding of the problems, decisions and implications with which Christ is today faced. In these, His pledged disciples share. Their task is to develop "the mind that is in Christ" and as they do so, they will help make clear the way for "the coming of His feet," as the Bible puts it (Heb. XII.13). Seeing life and events in the light of the spiritual values, as He does, will facilitate at the giving out of the new teaching and will provide the skeleton structure of the new world religion, thus giving us a fresh view of divine intention and a living insight into the minds of Those Who implement the divine will and are the engineers of humanity's future. Let us, therefore, try and appreciate not only the opportunity which Christ has to help us (which is the usual presentation), but let us look also at the crises and problems with which He is confronted as He faces the work which He must do.
1. The Crises of the Christ
In the life of every disciples, particularly of those who face certain great expansions of consciousness, a point of crisis will come about. In that point of crisis, decisions are voluntarily or involuntarily made; having made them, the disciple then stands at a point of tension,with the decision behind him and the next step to be taken becoming clearer to his mental perception, and influencing his attitude to the future. When the work is done in the period of tension, then there comes what we might call the point of emergence. This is both an emergence from and also an emergence into a field of experience.
The Christ Himself is no exception to this threefold experience and-in order that we may understand more fully-let us apply these three phrases (inappropriate as they basically are) to the actions and the reactions of the Christ. There is no crisis for Him in the sense that crises exist for us; there is no train or stress attached to His point of tension; the parallel is, however, good enough to convey something to you of what has transpired within that state of awareness which distinguishes the spiritual Hierarchy; to this state of consciousness we can tie the name of "spiritual perception," in contradistinction to the mental perception which is the human counterpart. It must be remembered that the point of crisis, producing the point of tension to which the Christ may be regarded as voluntarily subjecting Himself is a hierarchical matter or event, because the entire Hierarchy is involved in the crisis. The reason for this is simple; the Christ and His workers know only the experience of group consciousness. A separative participation and attitude is unknown to Them. for Their state of awareness is inclusive and in no way exclusive.
Using, therefore, human terminology in order to interpret the divine reactions of the Christ and His disciples, it must be realized that the point of crisis which is responsible for hierarchical tension and for the eventual appearance or the emergence of the Christ, lies behind the Christ; it is in the field of long past experiences. The consequent point of tension is now controlling the affairs of the spiritual Hierarchy and its many groups of workers. The "point of decision," as it is called in all hierarchical circles, was reached during the period between the Full Moon of June 1936, and the Full Moon of June, 1945. The point of decision covered, therefore, nine years ( a relatively brief time); it resulted in the decision arrived at by the Christ to re-appear or return to visible Presence on Earth as soon as possible, and considerably earlier than had been planned.
This decision was necessarily made in consultation with the Lord of the World, the "Ancient of Days" (Sanat Kumara, our Planetary Logos) of the Old Testament, and the "One in Whom we live and move and have our being" (meaning we live within this Universe which is a hologram of HIS the Planetary Logos or "The Ancient of Days" body and we, mankind, His children, are the cells within that body - mf). in the New Testament. He is the Custodian of the Will of God. It was also made with the full understanding and cooperation of the Masters and the senior initiates. This was inevitably so, because Their participation and help were imperative. They also necessarily had to be with Him in thought, and cooperating mentally, because His reappearance connotes a great hierarchical approach to humanity and a great spiritual event.
The decision was, nevertheless, the decision of the Christ and marked not only a point of crisis in His experience but a point of climax in His expression of divinity. With all reverence and within the bounds of our human understanding, it must be remembered that there is nothing static in the entire evolutionary process of our planet or of the cosmos; there is naught but process and progress, a moving on, an increasing attainment and a mounting achievement. To this great law of the universe, even the Christ Himself is subject. In all reverence again, let it here be pointed out that He too has moved on in His experience of divinity and is (if it may be so expressed) closer to the Father and to the One Universal Life than even before. His comprehension and His apprehension of the Will of God is deeper and His fulfillment of that Will is more in line with the divine Purpose that it was in Palestine two thousand years ago. There has necessarily been (on the part of Christ) a growing perception of the intention of the divine Mind, as it is embodied in that identity to Whom we give the name of God.
No longer need Christ, in agony say "Father, not my will but Thine be done"; He has today no personal will but only the will of His Father animates Him and the ability to make decisions which are a full expression of that divine Will. It is difficult to express His achievement in other words. Commentators have sought to explain away and gloss over the Gethsemane experience of the Christ, and to attribute what appears as weakness to an upsurging of Christ's humanity and, consequently, to a temporary submergence of His divine nature. They have been forced into this position because of the prevalent theological dictum as to Christ's divine perfection - an absolute, sovereign and ultimate perfection to which He Himself never made the slightest claim. He is today nearer than perfection than He ever was when before on Earth. It was this divine unfoldment which made it possible or Him to make right choice, not only for Himself; but also for the spiritual Hierarchy, during the years of decision, prior to June, 1945.
Under the divine will, He had to reappear on Earth in visible Presence. He had to preside over the materialization of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and He had to re-institute the Mysteries of Initiation in such a form that they would prove the basis of the new world religion. Above all, He had to reveal the nature of the will of God. That will is often regarded as a power by means of which things are done, situations are brought about, activities are instituted and plans are worked out, and often ruthlessly worked out. This general definition is the easiest for men to formulate, because it is understood by them in terms of their own self-will, the will to individual self-betterment. This type of will is selfish and misunderstood at first, but tends eventually to selflessness, as evolution tries out its beneficent task. Then the will is interpreted in terms of the hierarchical plan and the effort of the individual man becomes that of negating his original self-will, and seeking then to merge his will with that of the group-the group being itself an aspect of hierarchical effort. This is a great step onward in orientation and will lead eventually to a change in consciousness.
It is at this stage that most aspirants today find themselves. However, the will is in reality something very different to these expressions of it which exist in the human consciousness as men attempt to interpret the divine Will in terms of their present point in evolution. The clue to understanding is to be found in the words, "blotting out all form." When the lure of substance is overcome and desire dies, then the attractive power of the soul becomes dominant, and the emphasis (so long laid upon the individual form and individual living and activity) gives place to group form and group purpose. Then the attractive power of the Hierarchy and of the Masters' groups of disciples supersedes the lower attractions and the lesser focal points of interest. When these then assume their rightful place in consciousness, then the dynamic pull of the Will Aspect of divinity can be felt-entirely unrelated to form or forms, or to groups or a group.
In the light of the Will of God, Christ made certain basic decisions and determined to carry them out in the relatively immediate future-the exact date of His coming being known only to Him and a few of His senior workers; yet all of these future events lie hid in a certain fundamental decision of humanity itself. This decision is being arrived at through certain new trends in human thinking, and will be the result of a subjective human relation to the decision already arrived at by the Christ and the spiritual Hierarchy, the Church invisible.
The motivation for this reappearance is complete and settled. It is clearly perceived by the Christ. The work initiated by Him two thousand years ago must be completed; the new world religion must be inaugurated; the needs of a demanding, invocative humanity cannot be ignored; those steps which precede a stupendous hierarchical initiation in which the Christ is the leading Participant must be taken; the events which are symptomatic of the "time of the end" may not be delayed.
If one may venture to speak in such terms (reverent and symbolical) the reward accorded to the Christ, as He announced His decision as final and irrevocable, was the permission or rather the right to use a certain great invocation - never before granted-and to use it in two ways.
1. As a hierarchical invocation, directed towards the "center where the will of God is known."
2. As a world prayer, expressed in such phraseology that all humanity could intelligently use it.
The right to use certain great Words of Power of "Stanzas of Direction" is never lightly accorded. The decision of Christ to appear again among men, bringing His disciples with Him, drew forth this permission from the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, Sanat Kumara.
After this climaxing point of spiritual crisis and its consequent decision, a point of tension was reached and it is in this state of spiritual tension that the Church invisible is now working and planning, swinging the disciples of the Christ, active on Earth, into the same condition of spiritual tension. The success of Christ's return to visible Presence, as well as other factors (related to His reappearance), are dependent upon happenings and contacts which are now taking place within this period of tension. In any point of tension-no matter what at the time factor may be-energy is being generated, held for future use, and focussed in such a manner or condition that its force can be directed wherever needed and whenever called for. This is necessarily a statement hard to understand. A point of tension is, symbolically, a storehouse of power. Today the energies which will be uniquely distinctive of the Kingdom of God are gathering momentum and assuming direction through the agency of the Masters of the Wisdom, in cooperation with the will of Christ.
Whilst this energy has been accumulating or mounting in potency ever since the Full Moon of June 1945, three events of great moment in the living experience of Christ ( and, therefore, of the Hierarchy) have taken place and their effects are in process of consolidation. I can only make reference to them, for it is not possible to prove the factual nature of what is here said; only possibility probability and the Law of Correspondences can indicate the rightness of these events. Their effects will be noted, especially after the moment of emergence. These three events can be described as follows:
1. The Spirit of Peace descended upon Christ. The New Testament bears witness to a somewhat similar event when, at the Baptism, we read that "he saw the Spirit of God,descending like a dove and alighting upon Him." (St. Matt. III.16.) This Spirit is a Being of tremendous cosmic potency and is today overshadowing the Christ in much the same manner as Christ (two thousand years ago) overshadowed or worked through the Master Jesus. This Spirit of Peace is not a sum total of an emotional and static calm, bringing to an end the turmoil on the Earth and instituting an area of peace. He is , in a mysterious sense, the Spirit of Equilibrium; He works with the Law of Action and Reaction and the inevitability of His activity will be recognized. His work will demonstrate in two ways - fully when the Christ appears among men and slowly and gradually until that time:
a. The chaos, turmoil, emotional disturbance and mental unbalance found in the world today will be (under this Law) balanced by a corresponding cycle of calm, emotional quiet and mental poise, thus releasing humanity into a new phase and experience of freedom. The adjusted peace will be commensurate to the experienced disturbance.
b. The hate which is so dominant in the world today will-through the life of the Spirit of Peace, working through the Christ, the Embodiment of the love of God-be balanced by an expressed goodwill. The guarantee of the appearance of that goodwill is the excessive expression of hate p a hate which has been slowly mounting in the minds of men since the beginning of the 19th century, and which is reaching a new high at this time. A proportionate measure of the energy of love will demonstrate later as the result of the activity of the Spirit of Peace, working through the Prince of Peace, as Christ has sometimes been called (IS.IX.6) This spiritual Being will not descend from the high place whereon He works and from whence His energy is directed, but the Christ will act and serve as the channel for His directed potency. The inflow of His divine energy (extra-planetary energy) is destined to bring peace eventually upon Earth, through the expression of goodwill. This goodwill will bring about right human relations. Humanity registered (unconsciously, of course) the first impact of this energy in May, 1936, and again in June, 1945.
2. The evolutionary fore to which we give the name "the Christ consciousness" (a term largely used by the metaphysical groups in the world today) focussed itself in the person of the Christ in a manner hitherto unknown. This is the potency, latent in every human heart which was described by St. Paul as "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col.1.27) and is that which under evolutionary law, brings a man eventually into the Kingdom of God and "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. IV.13) Of this potency and glory, Christ has ever been the symbol. During the present period of hierarchical tension and as a result of His decision to reappear, Christ became the Embodiment of this energy and thus entered into a closer relation to humanity. Other great Sons of God are channels for this energy in relation to the subhuman kingdoms, but the Christ holds a unique place in relation to humanity. To express the idea symbolically, this energy creates a living bridge from the human kingdom to the Kingdom of God, from the fourth kingdom in nature to the fifth. The Christ is the custodian of this energy, but only temporarily an for the period of this human crisis. He can, because of this, stimulate the responsive gator in the hearts of men, enabling them to recognize and know Him for Who and what He is, when He reappears. This channelling of energy began at the close of the world war and is still going on; it is responsible for the trend towards betterment everywhere to be sensed, for the growth of the principle of sharing, and for the undeniable soundness of men's hearts and thinking today-the soundness of the masses (when informed), far more than of their leaders.
3. As you are well aware, human history has been essentially the history of great spiritual Messengers Who-from time to time, in the hours of human crisis-have come forth from the secret place of the Most High to aid, inspire, reveal, lead and direct. It is the history of the presentation of ideas, brought to the attention of humanity and gradually developed into civilizations and cultures. Such is the urgency of human need at this time, and such is the opportunity, that one such Son of God is - during this cycle of tension-seeking to cooperate with the Christ.
As a result of Christ's decision and His "spiritual fusion" with the Will of God, the Avatar of Synthesis has become, for the time being, His close Associate. This is an event of supreme and planetary importance. His relationship and planned help date from the time of the pronouncing of the great Invocation and its use by men everywhere. Owing to the stupendous task confronting Christ, the Avatar of Synthesis will be buttressed by this "Silent Avatar" Who (to speak symbolically) will "keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath Him and His heart in unison with His."
This Being is closely related to the Will Aspect of divinity, and His cooperation has been made possible through Christ's Own attainment along the line of the highest, spiritual will. He works under the great natural Law of Synthesis, producing at-one-ment, unification and fusion. His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate spiritual will in humanity the will-to-good. His potency works in three fields of activity at this time:
a. Within the spiritual Hierarchy itself, revealing the nature of the divine will-to-good which the Kingdom of God must express, and the nature of divine Purpose.
b. Within the Assembly of the United Nations, though not within the Security Council; He is there generating a slowly growing will-to-unity.
c. Within the masses of men everywhere, fostering the urge to a general betterment.
His activity if necessarily a mass activity, for He can only channel His energies through the mass consciousness or through a group conscious entity, such as the Hierarchy, the United Nations or Humanity. The focal point of His effort and the Agent through which distribution of His energy can be made is the New group of World Servers; this group is uniquely related to this Avatar of Synthesis. The bringing together of all the agents of goodwill (who are responsive to the energy of the divine will-to-good) constitutes the major objective of theNew Group of World Servers and always has been. Their work can now be constructively and creatively intensified through the association of the Avatar of Synthesis with the Christ. Their task is to usher in the New Age, in that New Age, the five Kingdoms in Nature will begin to function as one creative whole. Their work falls into the following parts, functions or activities:
a. The production of a human synthesis or unity which will lead to an universal recognition of the one humanity, brought about through right human relations.
b. The establishing of right relations with the subhuman kingdoms in nature, leading to the universal recognition that there is One World.
c. The anchoring of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, in open expression on Earth, thus leading to the universal recognition that thee sons of men are one.
These objectives the Avatar of Synthesis will foster and aid and for this purpose He has associated Himself with the Christ, working through the Hierarchy, under instruction from the "center where the will of God is known." These three related events and distributing points of energy have all come into activity during the point of tension in which Christ and the Hierarchy are at this time h eld. They all serve to re-direct and focus energy in relation to humanity, for all are the result of the decision made by Christ after His point of crisis, and are all connected with the hierarchical preparation for Christ's reappearance.
II. Christ as the Forerunner of the Aquarian Age.
People are very apt to overlook the fact that though Christ recognized His function as Teacher and spiritual Leader of humanity during the age which is so rapidly drawing to a close, He also recognized the work which He would do when that age came to an end and the new astronomical cycle came into existence.
The average Christian is singularly unaware of the times and cycles through which our planet passes, under influence of solar progression. The at present dubious science of astrology has sidetracked the legitimate interest of humanity in the astronomical teaching and its spiritual interpretation of the passage of the Sun through the signs of the zodiac. Yet, in the New Testament, that recognition is clearly revealed and colors the presentation of the entire gospel story. It is found also in The Old Testament. What was the sin of the Children of Israel in the desert but a reversion to the old Mithraic worship which distinguished the time when the sun was "in the sign of Taurus, the Bull," as it is technically called. They fell down and worshipped the golden calf and forgot the new teaching of the age of Aries, the Ram, into whig they were entering, the teaching of the Scapegoat which colors Jewish history.
What is the hope held out today by the orthodox and unimaginative theologians? That at some distant date, known only to the inscrutable will of God the Father, Christ will issue forth from His seat at the right hand of God, and (followed by His angels and by the Church invisible) descending upon clouds of Heaven, to the sound of trumpets, He will make an appearance in Jerusalem. The battle raging at that time will then end, and He will enter the city of Jerusalem to rule for one thousand years. During this millennium, Satan or the principle of evil will be bound or imprisoned, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Further than that, we are told nothing; humanity hopes for so much more that the picture presented does not intrigue them.
Behind this portrayal, if rightly interpreted, stands the human, the loving and the divine Presence of Christ, embodying divine love and wielding divine power, directing His Church and establishing the Kingdom of God on Earth. What is this church of Christ? It is constituted of the sum total of all those in whom the life of Christ or the Christ-consciousness is to be bound or is in process of finding expression; it is the aggregation of all who love their fellowmen, because to love one's fellowmen is the divine faculty which makes us full members of Christ's community. It is not the accepting of any historical fact or theological creed which places us en rapport with Christ. The citizens of the Kingdom of God are all those who are deliberately seeking the light and attempting (through self-imposed discipline) to stand before the One Initiator; this worldwide group (whether in the body or out of it) accepts the etching that "the sons of men are one"; they know that divine revelation is continuous and ever new, and that the divine Plan is working itself out on Earth.
There are those today on Earth who know that through the instrumentality, the inspiration and the instruction of those sons of men who have wrought out their divinity in the crucible of daily human living the Kingdom of God will come into being; these Knowers now work actively, under the direct impression of the Christ, in leading humanity from darkness to light and from death to immortality.
These are the great underlying truths which are distinctive of the Christ, of the Buddha, and of the Church of God, as it expresses itself in the East and in the West; these are the only truths which matter. In the future, the eyes of humanity will be fixed upon Christ and not upon any such manmade institutions as the Church and its dignitaries; Christ will be seen as He is in reality, working through His disciple, through the Masters of the Wisdom and through His followers who toil unseen (and usually unrecognized) behind world affairs. The sphere of His activity will be known to be the human heart and also the crowded market places of the world, but not some stone edifice and not the pomp and ceremony of any ecclesiastical headquarters.
Out study of the future work of the christ is necessarily based upon three assumptions:
1. That the reappearance of the Christ is inevitable and assured.
2. That He is today and has been actively working - through the medium of the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, of which He is the Head - for the welfare of humanity.
3. That certain teachings will be given and certain energies will be released by Him in the routine of His work and coming. People are apt to forget that the coming of the Christ necessitates a period of intensive preparation by Him, He too, works under law and is subject to control from various sources-just as are all human beings, but in a much lesser degree.
His reappearance is conditioned and determined by the reaction of humanity itself; by that reaction He must abide. His work is subject also to certain phases of spiritual and cyclic timing and to impressions from sources to be found on higher levels than those upon which He normally works. Just as human affairs have effects upon His action, so great "determinations" and 'Profound settlements within the will of God' also have their effects. The human side of nature of the Christ, perfected and sensitive, responds to the invocation and to the appeal of men; His divine side of nature is equally responsive to the impact of energies, issuing from "the center where the will of God is known." Between these two, He has to make adjustment and bring about right timing. The bringing of good out of human so-called evil is no easy task; the vision of the Christ is so vast and His grasp of the Law of Cause and Effect, of Action and Reaction is such that the arriving at right decision as to activity and time is no simple one. Human beings are apt to look at all that happens, or that could happen, from the purely human and immediate angle; they have little understanding of the problems, decisions and implications with which Christ is today faced. In these, His pledged disciples share. Their task is to develop "the mind that is in Christ" and as they do so, they will help make clear the way for "the coming of His feet," as the Bible puts it (Heb. XII.13). Seeing life and events in the light of the spiritual values, as He does, will facilitate at the giving out of the new teaching and will provide the skeleton structure of the new world religion, thus giving us a fresh view of divine intention and a living insight into the minds of Those Who implement the divine will and are the engineers of humanity's future. Let us, therefore, try and appreciate not only the opportunity which Christ has to help us (which is the usual presentation), but let us look also at the crises and problems with which He is confronted as He faces the work which He must do.
1. The Crises of the Christ
In the life of every disciples, particularly of those who face certain great expansions of consciousness, a point of crisis will come about. In that point of crisis, decisions are voluntarily or involuntarily made; having made them, the disciple then stands at a point of tension,with the decision behind him and the next step to be taken becoming clearer to his mental perception, and influencing his attitude to the future. When the work is done in the period of tension, then there comes what we might call the point of emergence. This is both an emergence from and also an emergence into a field of experience.
The Christ Himself is no exception to this threefold experience and-in order that we may understand more fully-let us apply these three phrases (inappropriate as they basically are) to the actions and the reactions of the Christ. There is no crisis for Him in the sense that crises exist for us; there is no train or stress attached to His point of tension; the parallel is, however, good enough to convey something to you of what has transpired within that state of awareness which distinguishes the spiritual Hierarchy; to this state of consciousness we can tie the name of "spiritual perception," in contradistinction to the mental perception which is the human counterpart. It must be remembered that the point of crisis, producing the point of tension to which the Christ may be regarded as voluntarily subjecting Himself is a hierarchical matter or event, because the entire Hierarchy is involved in the crisis. The reason for this is simple; the Christ and His workers know only the experience of group consciousness. A separative participation and attitude is unknown to Them. for Their state of awareness is inclusive and in no way exclusive.
Using, therefore, human terminology in order to interpret the divine reactions of the Christ and His disciples, it must be realized that the point of crisis which is responsible for hierarchical tension and for the eventual appearance or the emergence of the Christ, lies behind the Christ; it is in the field of long past experiences. The consequent point of tension is now controlling the affairs of the spiritual Hierarchy and its many groups of workers. The "point of decision," as it is called in all hierarchical circles, was reached during the period between the Full Moon of June 1936, and the Full Moon of June, 1945. The point of decision covered, therefore, nine years ( a relatively brief time); it resulted in the decision arrived at by the Christ to re-appear or return to visible Presence on Earth as soon as possible, and considerably earlier than had been planned.
This decision was necessarily made in consultation with the Lord of the World, the "Ancient of Days" (Sanat Kumara, our Planetary Logos) of the Old Testament, and the "One in Whom we live and move and have our being" (meaning we live within this Universe which is a hologram of HIS the Planetary Logos or "The Ancient of Days" body and we, mankind, His children, are the cells within that body - mf). in the New Testament. He is the Custodian of the Will of God. It was also made with the full understanding and cooperation of the Masters and the senior initiates. This was inevitably so, because Their participation and help were imperative. They also necessarily had to be with Him in thought, and cooperating mentally, because His reappearance connotes a great hierarchical approach to humanity and a great spiritual event.
The decision was, nevertheless, the decision of the Christ and marked not only a point of crisis in His experience but a point of climax in His expression of divinity. With all reverence and within the bounds of our human understanding, it must be remembered that there is nothing static in the entire evolutionary process of our planet or of the cosmos; there is naught but process and progress, a moving on, an increasing attainment and a mounting achievement. To this great law of the universe, even the Christ Himself is subject. In all reverence again, let it here be pointed out that He too has moved on in His experience of divinity and is (if it may be so expressed) closer to the Father and to the One Universal Life than even before. His comprehension and His apprehension of the Will of God is deeper and His fulfillment of that Will is more in line with the divine Purpose that it was in Palestine two thousand years ago. There has necessarily been (on the part of Christ) a growing perception of the intention of the divine Mind, as it is embodied in that identity to Whom we give the name of God.
No longer need Christ, in agony say "Father, not my will but Thine be done"; He has today no personal will but only the will of His Father animates Him and the ability to make decisions which are a full expression of that divine Will. It is difficult to express His achievement in other words. Commentators have sought to explain away and gloss over the Gethsemane experience of the Christ, and to attribute what appears as weakness to an upsurging of Christ's humanity and, consequently, to a temporary submergence of His divine nature. They have been forced into this position because of the prevalent theological dictum as to Christ's divine perfection - an absolute, sovereign and ultimate perfection to which He Himself never made the slightest claim. He is today nearer than perfection than He ever was when before on Earth. It was this divine unfoldment which made it possible or Him to make right choice, not only for Himself; but also for the spiritual Hierarchy, during the years of decision, prior to June, 1945.
Under the divine will, He had to reappear on Earth in visible Presence. He had to preside over the materialization of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and He had to re-institute the Mysteries of Initiation in such a form that they would prove the basis of the new world religion. Above all, He had to reveal the nature of the will of God. That will is often regarded as a power by means of which things are done, situations are brought about, activities are instituted and plans are worked out, and often ruthlessly worked out. This general definition is the easiest for men to formulate, because it is understood by them in terms of their own self-will, the will to individual self-betterment. This type of will is selfish and misunderstood at first, but tends eventually to selflessness, as evolution tries out its beneficent task. Then the will is interpreted in terms of the hierarchical plan and the effort of the individual man becomes that of negating his original self-will, and seeking then to merge his will with that of the group-the group being itself an aspect of hierarchical effort. This is a great step onward in orientation and will lead eventually to a change in consciousness.
It is at this stage that most aspirants today find themselves. However, the will is in reality something very different to these expressions of it which exist in the human consciousness as men attempt to interpret the divine Will in terms of their present point in evolution. The clue to understanding is to be found in the words, "blotting out all form." When the lure of substance is overcome and desire dies, then the attractive power of the soul becomes dominant, and the emphasis (so long laid upon the individual form and individual living and activity) gives place to group form and group purpose. Then the attractive power of the Hierarchy and of the Masters' groups of disciples supersedes the lower attractions and the lesser focal points of interest. When these then assume their rightful place in consciousness, then the dynamic pull of the Will Aspect of divinity can be felt-entirely unrelated to form or forms, or to groups or a group.
In the light of the Will of God, Christ made certain basic decisions and determined to carry them out in the relatively immediate future-the exact date of His coming being known only to Him and a few of His senior workers; yet all of these future events lie hid in a certain fundamental decision of humanity itself. This decision is being arrived at through certain new trends in human thinking, and will be the result of a subjective human relation to the decision already arrived at by the Christ and the spiritual Hierarchy, the Church invisible.
The motivation for this reappearance is complete and settled. It is clearly perceived by the Christ. The work initiated by Him two thousand years ago must be completed; the new world religion must be inaugurated; the needs of a demanding, invocative humanity cannot be ignored; those steps which precede a stupendous hierarchical initiation in which the Christ is the leading Participant must be taken; the events which are symptomatic of the "time of the end" may not be delayed.
If one may venture to speak in such terms (reverent and symbolical) the reward accorded to the Christ, as He announced His decision as final and irrevocable, was the permission or rather the right to use a certain great invocation - never before granted-and to use it in two ways.
1. As a hierarchical invocation, directed towards the "center where the will of God is known."
2. As a world prayer, expressed in such phraseology that all humanity could intelligently use it.
The right to use certain great Words of Power of "Stanzas of Direction" is never lightly accorded. The decision of Christ to appear again among men, bringing His disciples with Him, drew forth this permission from the Lord of the World, the Ancient of Days, Sanat Kumara.
After this climaxing point of spiritual crisis and its consequent decision, a point of tension was reached and it is in this state of spiritual tension that the Church invisible is now working and planning, swinging the disciples of the Christ, active on Earth, into the same condition of spiritual tension. The success of Christ's return to visible Presence, as well as other factors (related to His reappearance), are dependent upon happenings and contacts which are now taking place within this period of tension. In any point of tension-no matter what at the time factor may be-energy is being generated, held for future use, and focussed in such a manner or condition that its force can be directed wherever needed and whenever called for. This is necessarily a statement hard to understand. A point of tension is, symbolically, a storehouse of power. Today the energies which will be uniquely distinctive of the Kingdom of God are gathering momentum and assuming direction through the agency of the Masters of the Wisdom, in cooperation with the will of Christ.
Whilst this energy has been accumulating or mounting in potency ever since the Full Moon of June 1945, three events of great moment in the living experience of Christ ( and, therefore, of the Hierarchy) have taken place and their effects are in process of consolidation. I can only make reference to them, for it is not possible to prove the factual nature of what is here said; only possibility probability and the Law of Correspondences can indicate the rightness of these events. Their effects will be noted, especially after the moment of emergence. These three events can be described as follows:
The Spirit of Peace and/or
Holy Spirit or Dove
1. The Spirit of Peace descended upon Christ. The New Testament bears witness to a somewhat similar event when, at the Baptism, we read that "he saw the Spirit of God,descending like a dove and alighting upon Him." (St. Matt. III.16.) This Spirit is a Being of tremendous cosmic potency and is today overshadowing the Christ in much the same manner as Christ (two thousand years ago) overshadowed or worked through the Master Jesus. This Spirit of Peace is not a sum total of an emotional and static calm, bringing to an end the turmoil on the Earth and instituting an area of peace. He is , in a mysterious sense, the Spirit of Equilibrium; He works with the Law of Action and Reaction and the inevitability of His activity will be recognized. His work will demonstrate in two ways - fully when the Christ appears among men and slowly and gradually until that time:
a. The chaos, turmoil, emotional disturbance and mental unbalance found in the world today will be (under this Law) balanced by a corresponding cycle of calm, emotional quiet and mental poise, thus releasing humanity into a new phase and experience of freedom. The adjusted peace will be commensurate to the experienced disturbance.
b. The hate which is so dominant in the world today will-through the life of the Spirit of Peace, working through the Christ, the Embodiment of the love of God-be balanced by an expressed goodwill. The guarantee of the appearance of that goodwill is the excessive expression of hate p a hate which has been slowly mounting in the minds of men since the beginning of the 19th century, and which is reaching a new high at this time. A proportionate measure of the energy of love will demonstrate later as the result of the activity of the Spirit of Peace, working through the Prince of Peace, as Christ has sometimes been called (IS.IX.6) This spiritual Being will not descend from the high place whereon He works and from whence His energy is directed, but the Christ will act and serve as the channel for His directed potency. The inflow of His divine energy (extra-planetary energy) is destined to bring peace eventually upon Earth, through the expression of goodwill. This goodwill will bring about right human relations. Humanity registered (unconsciously, of course) the first impact of this energy in May, 1936, and again in June, 1945.
2. The evolutionary fore to which we give the name "the Christ consciousness" (a term largely used by the metaphysical groups in the world today) focussed itself in the person of the Christ in a manner hitherto unknown. This is the potency, latent in every human heart which was described by St. Paul as "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col.1.27) and is that which under evolutionary law, brings a man eventually into the Kingdom of God and "unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." (Eph. IV.13) Of this potency and glory, Christ has ever been the symbol. During the present period of hierarchical tension and as a result of His decision to reappear, Christ became the Embodiment of this energy and thus entered into a closer relation to humanity. Other great Sons of God are channels for this energy in relation to the subhuman kingdoms, but the Christ holds a unique place in relation to humanity. To express the idea symbolically, this energy creates a living bridge from the human kingdom to the Kingdom of God, from the fourth kingdom in nature to the fifth. The Christ is the custodian of this energy, but only temporarily an for the period of this human crisis. He can, because of this, stimulate the responsive gator in the hearts of men, enabling them to recognize and know Him for Who and what He is, when He reappears. This channelling of energy began at the close of the world war and is still going on; it is responsible for the trend towards betterment everywhere to be sensed, for the growth of the principle of sharing, and for the undeniable soundness of men's hearts and thinking today-the soundness of the masses (when informed), far more than of their leaders.
3. As you are well aware, human history has been essentially the history of great spiritual Messengers Who-from time to time, in the hours of human crisis-have come forth from the secret place of the Most High to aid, inspire, reveal, lead and direct. It is the history of the presentation of ideas, brought to the attention of humanity and gradually developed into civilizations and cultures. Such is the urgency of human need at this time, and such is the opportunity, that one such Son of God is - during this cycle of tension-seeking to cooperate with the Christ.
As a result of Christ's decision and His "spiritual fusion" with the Will of God, the Avatar of Synthesis has become, for the time being, His close Associate. This is an event of supreme and planetary importance. His relationship and planned help date from the time of the pronouncing of the great Invocation and its use by men everywhere. Owing to the stupendous task confronting Christ, the Avatar of Synthesis will be buttressed by this "Silent Avatar" Who (to speak symbolically) will "keep His eye upon Him, His hand beneath Him and His heart in unison with His."
This Being is closely related to the Will Aspect of divinity, and His cooperation has been made possible through Christ's Own attainment along the line of the highest, spiritual will. He works under the great natural Law of Synthesis, producing at-one-ment, unification and fusion. His function (in unison with the energy of Christ) is to generate spiritual will in humanity the will-to-good. His potency works in three fields of activity at this time:
a. Within the spiritual Hierarchy itself, revealing the nature of the divine will-to-good which the Kingdom of God must express, and the nature of divine Purpose.
b. Within the Assembly of the United Nations, though not within the Security Council; He is there generating a slowly growing will-to-unity.
c. Within the masses of men everywhere, fostering the urge to a general betterment.
His activity if necessarily a mass activity, for He can only channel His energies through the mass consciousness or through a group conscious entity, such as the Hierarchy, the United Nations or Humanity. The focal point of His effort and the Agent through which distribution of His energy can be made is the New group of World Servers; this group is uniquely related to this Avatar of Synthesis. The bringing together of all the agents of goodwill (who are responsive to the energy of the divine will-to-good) constitutes the major objective of theNew Group of World Servers and always has been. Their work can now be constructively and creatively intensified through the association of the Avatar of Synthesis with the Christ. Their task is to usher in the New Age, in that New Age, the five Kingdoms in Nature will begin to function as one creative whole. Their work falls into the following parts, functions or activities:
a. The production of a human synthesis or unity which will lead to an universal recognition of the one humanity, brought about through right human relations.
b. The establishing of right relations with the subhuman kingdoms in nature, leading to the universal recognition that there is One World.
c. The anchoring of the Kingdom of God, the spiritual Hierarchy of our planet, in open expression on Earth, thus leading to the universal recognition that thee sons of men are one.
These objectives the Avatar of Synthesis will foster and aid and for this purpose He has associated Himself with the Christ, working through the Hierarchy, under instruction from the "center where the will of God is known." These three related events and distributing points of energy have all come into activity during the point of tension in which Christ and the Hierarchy are at this time h eld. They all serve to re-direct and focus energy in relation to humanity, for all are the result of the decision made by Christ after His point of crisis, and are all connected with the hierarchical preparation for Christ's reappearance.
II. Christ as the Forerunner of the Aquarian Age.
People are very apt to overlook the fact that though Christ recognized His function as Teacher and spiritual Leader of humanity during the age which is so rapidly drawing to a close, He also recognized the work which He would do when that age came to an end and the new astronomical cycle came into existence.
The average Christian is singularly unaware of the times and cycles through which our planet passes, under influence of solar progression. The at present dubious science of astrology has sidetracked the legitimate interest of humanity in the astronomical teaching and its spiritual interpretation of the passage of the Sun through the signs of the zodiac. Yet, in the New Testament, that recognition is clearly revealed and colors the presentation of the entire gospel story. It is found also in The Old Testament. What was the sin of the Children of Israel in the desert but a reversion to the old Mithraic worship which distinguished the time when the sun was "in the sign of Taurus, the Bull," as it is technically called. They fell down and worshipped the golden calf and forgot the new teaching of the age of Aries, the Ram, into whig they were entering, the teaching of the Scapegoat which colors Jewish history.
To be Continued: End of Lesson 7, Vol. 1 Chapter 4 will continue
9/28/15
9/28/15
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