Mary said to Jesus, “Whom are your disciples like?”
He said, “They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Let us have back our field.’ They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them. Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialize. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Not only must disciples recognize the Divine presence and power in the apostle of God who is their holy tzaddik, but they must recognize their inner connection to the apostle, that within them is the same Divine presence and power awakening, and so hear the call of the Holy Spirit to the great work of redemption. The disciple is a child of Light in whom the Light is awakening. In this knowledge is the beginning of enlightenment and liberation. The disciple has humility in the presence of the master and also has divine pride, knowing him- or herself as a brother or sister of the Son of God and seeking to identify with the Christ-self within.
Entering into the continuum of the Light-transmission you must know who you are. No longer can you live according to a limited self-identity with superficial consciousness and mortal name and form. Rather, you must dissolve this ignorant self-identification and instead generate a new self-identity with fully evolved and enlightened being—hence a new self in Christ.
The gnostic initiate does not wait upon the Second Coming of Christ, continuing to live in ignorance. In faith, the initiate seeks knowledge of Christ within, labors actively to bring the Christ-self forward, and lives according to that Truth and Light revealed. To gnostic initiates, the attainment, the image of the Lord, is the path. Practicing and living the attainment, they bring forth the fruit of the attainment and so embody something of the Christ-Spirit.
Now what does this mean? It means they understand the way of holy meditation through which they unite themselves with the Spirit of the Messiah, merging their heart with the enlightened heart of the Master, their mind with the gnosis mind of the Master, their soul with the Soul of the Messiah, and their life with the holy name of the Anointed One. Entering into mystical union with the Lord, they seek to extend the Light into the world and to labor for the redemption of the sparks, living in the world as the Lord himself.
How shall you practice this mystical union? To enter into such a continuum of spiritual practice, you must be received by an apostle of God and so receive teachings, instruction, and initiation. The way is different for each soul and so the way for you cannot be written in a book. Only a living tzaddik can guide you in this way. Yet, surely, the interior church and college of the Holy Ghost is open to anyone who desires to enter. Therefore, such a practice can be shared in a general form. If practiced with faith, this practice may establish the conditions necessary for an apostle to come to you.
Gather your consciousness inward behind your heart, as though into a Spiritual Sun shining there. Let your attention be directed inward and upward and so attune yourself to the Divine presence and power. Then envision the glorified image of the Lord magically appearing in the space before you, his body formed of translucent light. Let yourself see, feel, and experience the presence of the Lord as fully as you can. Open your mind and heart to the Holy One of Being. Holding the image of the Lord in your mind, pray to the Lord for a blessing, for his Grace to pour out upon you. See the Lord answer your prayer. See light streaming from his sacred heart and body pouring over you and into you, transforming your own body into a Body of Light. As your body becomes a Body of Light, intone the holy name of Yeshua Messiah. While you chant the holy name, see your body rise, dissolve into fluid light, and pour into his resurrection body, merging yourself completely with the image of the Lord. When you stop the chant, abide in the state of union as long as you can. Then let the Lord be praised and the blessing received be grounded in your own body and environment. Practice walking in the world with this awareness.
This is a practice that is good for conscious living and conscious dying. It is a practice our teachers would give to anyone willing to practice it and so it is given here to you, with the prayer it might bring knowledge of the Lord and good fruits. In this way, you might gain insight into the nature and way of a mystical union, although, indeed, such a practice is but one part of the way.
The power of this practice is that it is a practice of the Truth of yourself and, over time, leads to the realization of that Spirit and Truth. You are not a spirit of this world, as in ignorance you might believe. Rather, you are a child of the Light, a bornless spirit of the world of Supernal Light. The ignorance from which you suffer is a forgetfulness of who and what you are. Spiritual practice is remembering and awakening and so setting yourself free. The disciple is one who is awakening, just as the master is one who is awake. The disciple is a child of the Light, a brother or sister of the Son of God; hence a son or daughter of the Living God.
Now listen carefully. If you practice and realize this Truth, you will not experience death. On that day of reckoning, you will simply undress, shedding the material body, the garment of this world, and put on a new garment, the Body of Light. In joy, you will leave the world to the powers of the world. Entering into the world of Supernal Light, you will enter into perfect peace. Yet, there is a further secret to this attainment. Those who realize the Christ-self in life know the world of Supernal Light within and all around them, here and now. Resurrection is not an attainment in death but rather an attainment in life. Therefore, even before the enactment of the mystery of crucifixion and resurrection, our Lord and Savior could proclaim, “I am the resurrection and life.”
Who is the thief that would steal the Divine Life from you? It is ignorance and forgetfulness and the cosmic forces that support the Darkness that has dominion over this world. While in this world, you must be on your guard and not be distracted, lest you fall asleep, lose yourself in forgetfulness again, and so fail to awaken and set yourself free. Indeed! You must keep a constant vigil, a constant continuum of spiritual practice and spiritual living. Such a holy continuum consists of study and contemplation of the Holy Scriptures and spiritual teachings, most especially those of the secret wisdom, mystical prayer and meditation, sacred ritual and actively living the Divine Life. All of this is what is meant by living from within.
Just as much as labor for enlightenment and liberation for yourself, you must labor to extend the Light to others. There is ultimately no such thing as personal salvation. We are all interconnected and interdependent and love and compassion does not allow only personal salvation. Our salvation is a self-transcendence, not a personal and egoistic deliverance. As long as any living soul is bound to ignorance and the holy sparks remain trapped in klippot, the body of Adam Kadmon is as yet incomplete in redemption, which is to say, the mystical body of the Messiah is missing some part of itself. Not only are you called to labor for the fruition and harvest of your soul, you are called as a laborer in the field for the greater harvest of souls. It is such a holy vigil or continuum that gives “great strength,” the spiritual powers of a righteous warrior or holy tzaddik.