For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? The Apostle Paul
Mind and Self, Will and Consciousness:
Structures of Identity
“Your Consciousness is a priceless tapestry. Each day you weave upon it a motif of the Spirit, which is forever, or a jagged pattern which must be meticulously disengaged and rewoven as heaven intends.” 1
We may well ask the question, Who is qualified to discourse on consciousness? Certainly only one who is conscious. But what does it mean to be conscious? If we can establish this, we must still determine what the highest state of conscious being is. We must then search out one who has attained this state and be content to sit at his feet and learn the truth about consciousness. “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal Life.” 2
The only one who possesses total consciousness is God himself, the One Source out of whom proceed all lesser manifestations of consciousness. All other forms of Life (forms of God) are evolving toward that supreme consciousness, but few have reached that state of awareness of Life which is to be found in the Godhead. “The Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” 3
As mankind ascend in the evolutionary spiral of being, they come to the place where they are no longer identified as humans, but they become truly God- men. In every age there have been saints and sages, avatars and holy men whose consciousness has been so attuned with the consciousness of the Higher Self that they have been able to impart to men of lesser understanding—of lesser attunement—a fuller awareness of the consciousness of God.
Many of these devotees of the Holy Spirit went through agonizing periods of surrender, experiencing darkness and aloneness prior to their soul’s illumination. But sooner or later their longing for Light received the response of heaven, such as that which was given to Saint Augustine, who poignantly recounted in his Confessions the precious moments when his soul made contact with the Spirit of the Lord:
“I cast myself down I know not how, under a certain figtree, giving full vent to my tears; and the floods of mine eyes gushed out an acceptable sacrifice to Thee. And, not indeed in these words, yet to this purpose, spake I much unto Thee: and Thou, O Lord, how long? how long, Lord, wilt Thou be angry for ever? Remember not our former iniquities, for I felt that I was held by them. I sent up these sorrowful words: How long, how long, ‘to-morrow, and to-morrow?’ Why not now? Why not is there this hour an end to my uncleanness?
“So was I speaking and weeping in the most bitter contrition of my heart, when, lo! I heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know not, chanting, and oft repeating, ‘Take up and read; Take up and read.’ Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words: nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking
the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other than a command from God to open the book, and read the first chapter I should find. For I had heard of Antony, that coming in during the reading of the Gospel, he received the admonition, as if what was being read was spoken to him: Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come and follow me: and by such oracle he was forthwith converted unto Thee. Eagerly then I returned to the place where Alypius was sitting; for there had I laid the volume of the Apostle when I arose thence. I seized, opened, and in silence read that section on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” 4
Forthwith Augustine devoted his life to God and abandoned his profession as a teacher of rhetoric. He had received a morsel of God’s consciousness through the intercession of Jesus Christ. Henceforth his life would no longer be his own. Such is the power of the Holy Spirit to transform the consciousness of man. Having touched the hem of the Lord’s garment, he was filled with enough of God’s consciousness to sustain him for a lifetime. His path was illumined before him and he exclaimed:
“O Lord, I am Thy servant; I am Thy servant, and the son of Thy handmaid: Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of praise. Let my heart and my tongue praise Thee; yea, let all my bones say, O Lord, who is like unto Thee? Let them say, and answer Thou me, and say unto my
soul, I am thy salvation. Who am I, and what am I? What evil have not been either my deeds, or if not my deeds, my words, or if not my words, my will? But Thou, O Lord, art good and merciful, and Thy right hand had respect unto the depth of my death, and from the bottom of my heart emptied that abyss of corruption. And this Thy whole gift was, to nill what I willed, and to will what Thou willedst. But where through all those years, and out of what low and deep recess was my free-will called forth in a moment, whereby to submit my neck to Thy easy yoke, and my shoulders unto Thy light burden, O Christ Jesus, my Helper and my Redeemer? How sweet did it at once become to me, to want the sweetnesses of those toys! and what I feared to be parted from, was now a joy to part with. For Thou didst cast them forth from me, Thou true and highest sweetness. Thou castest them forth, and for them enteredst in Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood; brighter than all light, but more hidden than all depths, higher than all honour, but not to the high in their own conceits. Now was my soul free from the biting cares of canvassing and getting, and weltering in filth, and scratching off the itch of lust. And my infant tongue spake freely to Thee, my brightness, and my riches, and my health, the Lord my God.” 5
Through such dedicated lifestreams mankind have been given insight into the nature of the soul, the purpose of life, and the science of Being. Once they had completed the task which the Father sent them to do, many of these holy men and women departed this earth plane, ascending into the Presence of God—into the consciousness of God. They are known as Ascended Masters precisely because through sacred communion and service to Life, based upon the complete surrender of their human identity patterns, their consciousness
became one with his prior to their reunion with the God Self. From this level of complete identification with God, these holy ones continue to illumine with an expanding awareness of God’s Mind their brothers and sisters who have not yet graduated from Life’s schoolrooms upon this and other planets.
Therefore, in our consideration of consciousness we shall look to these teachers who, while yet maintaining contact with mankind, live and move and have their being in the great sea of God’s consciousness; for they have approximated more of God’s consciousness than all who remain in the unascended state. We shall also examine the thoughts of some philosophers whose deliberations, in our opinion, have touched upon the Truth of the ages.
Whether or not it is possible to define consciousness is a question that has been argued by some of the world’s greatest thinkers. Webster’s dictionary says that consciousness is the state of being conscious, the awareness of something within oneself, of an external object, state, or fact; the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition, and thought: mind. 6 The term consciousness comes from the Latin verb conscire, to know, to be cognizant of, and from the Latin adjective conscius, meaning sharing knowledge with another.
In his work The World as Will and Idea, Schopenhauer says that “consciousness is the mere surface of our mind, of which, as of the earth, we do not know the inside, but only the crust.” 7 “Under the conscious intellect,” Will Durant explains, “is the conscious or unconscious will, a striving, persistent vital force, a spontaneous activity, a will of imperious desire. The intellect may seem at times to lead the will, but only as a guide leads his master; the will ‘is the strong blind
man who carries on his shoulders the lame man who
’ ” 8
can see.
While many have sought to place consciousness within the confines of definition. Sir William Hamilton noted: “Consciousness cannot be defined; we may be ourselves fully aware what consciousness is, but we cannot, without confusion, convey to others the definition of what we ourselves clearly apprehend. The reason is plain. Consciousness lies at the root of all knowledge.” 9
Whether or not we can define consciousness, we do understand one thing; consciousness is the key to the integration of the whole man. Without consciousness in its various levels, the world and all that dwell thereon would not appear to us on the screen of manifestation; for unless conditions were made known to us through the five senses, which are the media of consciousness, we would have no knowledge of our environment, and for all practical purposes the world might as well not exist. Without the ego—be it the human or the divine—consciousness itself would be without a focal point; and without consciousness the ego would be without a platform of identity. Those who have attempted to define consciousness solely from the outer standpoint will either come up with a partial definition, such as that of Schopenhauer, based on the perspective of the lower self that perceives only the mere surface of the mind, or, like Hamilton, they will have to admit that from this limited view consciousness cannot be defined at all, simply because it cannot be circumscribed by the finite mind.
Like Saint Augustine, the devotee soon learns that he can discover the meaning of consciousness in terms of his own self-awareness only insofar as he discovers God’s consciousness. Like the pursuit of happiness, the joy of this discovery is his birthright; all of Life conspires to enhance the wonder of his quest— not even the Almighty will deprive him of it. Day by
day new facets of the universal consciousness unfold from within man’s subconscious awareness that which consciousness is.
Yes, consciousness must be defined by individual experience. Others may tell you what consciousness means to them, and we may place before you keys, fragments of identity, patterns of the giant fresco based on our personal experience in God’s consciousness; but only you can isolate the details that are meaningful to your soul until they become a unified whole, fulfilling in you the Real Image God has made. Only you can discover what consciousness is—both in the relative sense and in the absolute sense—for by its very nature it must be self-revealed. It can come from nowhere but from within—through your own personal experience in God’s consciousness. This does not mean that God’s identity is subject to man’s limited awareness; on the contrary, man’s identity is subject to his awareness of God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Your awareness of God as Life is your consciousness; if it be limited or perverted, then the narrow room of self must be expanded, purified, and brought into proper focus. If your concepts of God and Self, the universe and society are synthetic, then you will be bound by those concepts until you change them and evolve to a higher understanding. Your concept of God—good, bad, or indifferent—is all that you can know about yourself until you evolve your consciousness in an ever widening spiral to take in more of him even while he takes in more of you.
The consciousness of God is the integrating factor of individual man—even though man’s self-awareness seldom captures more than a fragment of this great unifier of his being. That portion of the universal Mind which God has bequeathed to you is your individuality
expressed both Above and below. It is the ultimate precipitation of your identity, and without it you have no identity. The universal consciousness must be defined from the individual viewpoint, from the personal awareness of the impersonal Mind of God. If we could put together each phase of individual awareness of God that has ever been experienced by all evolving monads in every state of their evolution Godward, we should begin to see the spectrum, albeit limited, indicative of the outreach in man of the universal Mind. This, of course, would tell us nothing of those unexpressed portions of Himself which the Lord has hidden from the foundation of the world and reserved for his angels and those whose God-awareness enables them to leave behind the confines of mortality, to soar to the center of his flaming heart, and to emerge dripping with the fires of his Cosmic Consciousness.
We begin, then, with the monad of self; we draw from the data of other monads. We record and discard until we come to the place where we have defined enough of God’s consciousness to provide a platform for our present explorations; for truly there is no reason to define more of God than we are capable of experiencing now and in the near future. Let our present definition of our own consciousness be the challenge that beckons us to come up higher to discover and be more of God’s consciousness. Then from each succeeding plateau our panorama will unfold a higher view and with it a higher calling in God.
Mind and self, will and consciousness—these are the structures of our identity which we know only in part. For who can know the Mind of God—or man? Who can know the Self of God—or man? Who can know the Will or Consciousness of God—or man? Inasmuch as we have but a partial knowledge of these basic components of ourselves, we must draw the
conclusion that they are only partially expressed; for that which is wholly expressed can ultimately be wholly known. We realize, then, that we are but partial expressions of the Real Self; and from this starting point, we must proceed to define, bit by bit, those other partial expressions of the Whole which, when put together, will enable us to induce and to express a still greater portion of the Whole that is continually transcending itself.
God Self-Awareness through Christ Self-Awareness
Lord Lanto unravels the mystery of consciousness with such utter simplicity that we sense the gentle blending of his mind with the Mind of God; truly his wisdom proceeds from the very throne of the Almighty. “Man was created as a Spirit,” he says, “and consciousness and intelligence are a necessary part of the spiritual being that man really is. However, consciousness—which may be defined as God’s awareness of himself—not only functions in the domain of Spirit but also is able to project itself into the time-space continuum and thus to integrate the ever changing world of the finite into the magnificent real world of the Infinite.” 10
Consciousness—God’s awareness of himself! Now we see that wherever there is Life, there is God expressing his own Self-awareness. In the heart of the cell there is the flame that burst forth in answer to the great command “Let there be Light!” 11 How much more can we understand the fiat of creation if we substitute the word consciousness for Light and then declare with God, “Let there be Consciousness!” Even as we speak these words we feel the inrush of the Mind of God manifesting in the heart of every atom and cell that comprise our very mind and being.
Paraphrasing the teachings of the Master Jesus, we may consider consciousness in the following way: “I AM the way, and true Being [true consciousness] is the way. There is no division in true existence [in true consciousness]; therefore, there cannot he two ways. There is only one way; and that way is the indivisibility of the Spirit [of consciousness] that has of itself created many droplets of manifestation, but all of the same Spirit [of the same consciousness]. Those of you who, with me, would inherit the kingdom of God [of God’s consciousness] must understand, even in your outer minds [in your outer consciousness or physical awareness], that no outer condition has any power to alter the immortal God flame blazing on the altar of your heart.” 12
The consciousness of God exists outside the material universe as a preexisting or a priori cause. God’s consciousness, as it expresses through man, transcends sense experience even while it may be molded by his senses. The planes of God’s consciousness involve the subtle gradations that proceed from the infinite Mind of God to the confined and confining consciousness of man.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant was correct in his concept of space and time as organs of perception. He saw space and time as a priori because our experience presupposes them. 13 But we know that beyond space and time there is the higher consciousness of God that cannot be limited or prescribed by space or time. The dimensions of space and time provide a cup out of which men may drink a portion of the Infinite and thereby begin to approximate the total awareness of the consciousness of God that exists outside themselves.
Plato’s doctrine of ideas says that all things are preceded by (1) a general idea or classification, (2) a law which governs their manifestation, or (3) an ideal,
the ultimate that a particular thing is capable of reaching. This doctrine of ideas approaches the Masters’ teachings on the origin of the world of form in the world of the formless where there do exist the archetypal patterns of all manifestation, the pure ideas for conceptual realities, the law and the plan that must precede all manifestation.
As Will Durant explains it: “Behind the surface phenomena and particulars which greet our senses, are generalizations, regularities, and directions of development, unperceived by sensation but conceived by reason and thought. These ideas, laws and ideals are more permanent—and therefore more ‘real’—than the sense-perceived particular things through which we conceive and deduce them.”
The general idea of man, the pattern of man, he says, “is more permanent than Tom, or Dick, or Harry; this circle is born with the movement of my pencil and dies under the attrition of my eraser, but the conception Circle goes on forever. This tree stands, and that tree falls; but the laws which determine what bodies shall fall, and when, and how, were without beginning, are now, and ever shall be, without end.” 14
Perhaps without realizing it or even intending to do so, Plato touched the fundamental reality of the consciousness of God. His observations of life, when correctly interpreted, approach the higher critique of the Masters of Wisdom, who teach that consciousness as the Mind of God precedes all manifestation. The categories of God’s consciousness produce the classifications in the world of form. All substance, form, and manifestation are ordered by invisible laws and concepts, wholly pure, which are the antecedents of creation.
As we apply this understanding to the level of the individual, we find that man cannot bring forth in his own world that which he does not have within his
consciousness. Therefore, if he would create as God does, his goal must be to put on and become in consciousness the consciousness of God. When he attains this point of identification, he can realize in his own microcosm all that is contained within the consciousness of God that precedes and ordains the Macrocosm. Some may not believe that it is possible for man to appropriate the consciousness of God. If this be true, why did Paul admonish the Philippians, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”? 15
The appropriation of God’s consciousness is made possible through the Universal Christ individualized in man as his own Christ Self. As the Universal Christ is the precipitation of the universal God consciousness, so the individual Christ precipitates in man the individualized consciousness of God. As man is aware of, enters into, and becomes his Christ Self in action, he attains that consciousness or awareness of the Christ which we call Christ Self-awareness. Those who live and move and have their being in the plane of the Super Ego, at the nexus of the figure eight, do the works of the Father in Christ; for they are aware of his will through the congruency of their consciousness with that of the Divine Mediator.
When man attains the realization of himself in Christ, his mind as the Mind of Christ, his will as the Will of Christ, his self as the Self of Christ, then all of his consciousness is Christ’s; and if his works conform to the works of the Christ—his thoughts, his motives, his deeds—he is the Christ in action and can affirm with Jesus, “Behold, I AM alive forevermore.” 16 The awareness of one’s self as Christ is the first step in attaining Cosmic Consciousness; and it must be followed by the second—that consciousness or awareness of Good which we call God Self-awareness.
When man attains the awareness of his True Self
as God, he becomes, like his Creator, a pivot of creative power. Tethered to the divine will, he becomes the center of the initiative that proceeds from the Mind of God. Man is free to express God; and when he elects, by the exercise of his free will, to become one with God, he expresses his God-dominion over the earth.
When man identifies with the consciousness of God, or when that which is conscious in part enters into the consciousness of the Whole, then the law of cause and effect and the understanding that virtue is its own reward become clear. God Self-awareness in man is his reward for the virtue he has expressed by God’s grace, for through virtue man’s awareness of himself becomes his awareness of his God Self as his Real Self. When man becomes one with God as Cause, he, too, becomes causative of Good, God becomes effect through his manifestation in man, and Spirit becomes totally effective of Good in Matter.
“The sole purpose of life upon the schoolroom- planet earth,” says Lord Lanto, “is to develop in man, through consent by free will, those masterful cosmic qualities that are a part of the character and Being of God. The eternal Spirit is all-goodness. Man is intended to become that goodness. Of necessity, his intelligence has been limited both in ability and flexibility by his karmic pattern and by his response to the opportunities of Life. His power, likewise, has been restrained until such a time as the character of the individual might be developed in its divine similitude, whereupon his acts would become wholly divine, hence worthy of the divine power .” 17
Here we see that as man progresses on the evolutionary scale, putting on the character and Being of God, he becomes more worthy of the divine power; and so as consciousness expands in man, it becomes a
magnet that draws more and more of the divine consciousness unto himself until there comes a time when he slips into the sea of infinity and there is hardly a shade of difference between his individual self- awareness and the God Self-awareness of the Creator who is expressing through him.
Most people have a human self-awareness which amounts to nothing more than an awareness of the self as the ego. Their minds are centered in the intellectual pursuits of the ego that glories in its own logic rather than in the divine Logos; they know no other self, no other will, no other consciousness than that of the ego and its selfish desires to perpetuate a self-centered existence. Because the human ego is not sustained by any force outside itself, the goal of self-preservation becomes paramount, and all other considerations are secondary.
In attempting to lift the consciousness of his followers out of the socket of this vain existence, Jesus stretched forth his hand toward the horizon and tenderly said, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory [while he remained in the consciousness of his human personality] was not arrayed like one of these .” 18 (The lily is the symbol of the victory of the Christ consciousness in man. It tells us that purity and love have triumphed on Easter morn, that Christ has risen to the position of authority and reigns as the three-in-one in the consciousness of all who believe in the everlasting Life of the Son of God.)
Jesus therefore said unto his disciples who desired to be free of the consciousness of self-concern that prevents the true Christ from manifesting in each one: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is
more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Behold the fowls of the air [symbolizing the soul that has taken flight from the cage of the ego]: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest ?” 19
He explained that if they had not the mastery of consciousness to expand the forcefield of their self- awareness by taking thought of the consciousness of God, then they could not precipitate the abundance of every good and perfect gift until they had mastered the first precepts of the Law. Thus his final admonishment to the soul that desired to extinguish the ego in the flame of the Super Ego was “Seek ye first the kingdom of God [the consciousness of God], and his righteousness [the right use of his laws]; and all these things [both spiritual and material needs] shall be added unto you .” 20
To know one’s Self as God one must be clothed with the white raiment of heavenly virtue—so filled with Love that the energies of Love flow freely through the mind and heart as the very lifeblood of one’s being. Only when man has thus become the personification of God’s love does he impart love to all he contacts—as a universal unguent, a healing force, and a rhythmic release of the powers such as those of adhesion, cohesion, and magnetic attraction, originating in the Central Sun, by which creation in man and the universe is born and sustained. Each heavenly virtue with which man adorns his soul, lavishing his mind and heart with the myriad hues of the everlasting Life of the Christ consciousness, enables him to enter more fully into the consciousness of God and
to be that consciousness through his own God Self- awareness. By daily bathing his consciousness with the precious oils of mercy, justice, and righteousness and by imbibing the waters of living Truth and Freedom, he magnetizes a forcefield of energy qualified with the aspects of God’s consciousness that make him so much aware of God’s unlimited potential and so unaware of human limitations that he can unqualifiedly affirm with Jesus:
It is finished!
Done with this episode in strife,
I AM made one with immortal Life.
Calmly I AM resurrecting my spiritual energies From the great treasure-house of immortal knowing. The days I knew with Thee, O Father,
Before the world was—the days of triumph.
When all of the thoughts of Thy Being Soared over the ageless hills of cosmic memory; Come again as I meditate upon Thee.
Each day as I call forth Thy memories From the scroll of immortal Love,
I AM thrilled anew.
Patterns wondrous to behold enthrall me With the wisdom of Thy creative scheme.
So fearfully and wonderfully am I made That none can mar Thy design,
None can despoil the beauty of Thy holiness.
None can discourage the beating of my heart
In almost wild anticipation
Of Thy fullness made manifest within me.
O great and glorious Father,
How shall a tiny bird created in hierarchical bliss Elude Thy compassionate attention?
I AM of greater value than many birds
And therefore do I know that Thy loving thoughts
Reach out to me each day
To console me in seeming aloneness.
To raise my courage.
Elevate my concepts,
Exalt my character.
Flood my being with virtue and power.
Sustain Thy cup of Life flowing over within me,
And abide within me forever
In the nearness of Thy heavenly Presence.
I cannot fail,
Because I AM Thyself in action everywhere.
I ride with Thee
Upon the mantle of the clouds.
I walk with Thee
Upon the waves and crests of water’s abundance. I move with Thee In the undulations of Thy currents Passing over the thousands of hills composing earth’s crust.
I AM alive with Thee
In each bush, flower, and blade of grass.
All Nature sings in Thee and me.
For we are one.
I AM alive in the hearts of the downtrodden, Raising them up.
I AM the Law exacting the Truth of Being In the hearts of the proud,
Debasing the human creation therein And spurring the search for Thy Reality.
I AM all things of bliss To all people of peace.
I AM the full facility of divine grace,
The Spirit of Holiness
Releasing all hearts from bondage into Unity.
It is finished!
Thy perfect creation is within me.
Immortally lovely,
It cannot be denied the blessedness of Being.
Like unto Thyself, it abides in the house of Reality. Nevermore to go out into profanity,
It knows only the wonders of purity and victory.
Yet there stirs within this immortal fire A consummate pattern of mercy and compassion Seeking to save forever that which is lost Through wandering away From the beauty of Reality and Truth.
I AM the living Christ in action evermore!
It is finished!
Death and human concepts have no power in my world!
I AM sealed by God-design
With the fullness of that Christ-Love
That overcomes, transcends, and frees the world
By the Power of the three-times-three
Until all the world is God-victorious—
Ascended in the Light and free!
It is finished!
Completeness is the Allness of God.
Day unto day an increase of strength, devotion.
Life, beauty, and holiness occurs within me, Released from the fairest flower of my being,
The Christ-consecrated rose of Sharon Unfolding its petals within my heart.
My heart is the heart of God!
My heart is the heart of the world!
My heart is the heart of Christ in healing action!
Lo, I AM with you alway, even unto the end.
When with the voice of Immortal Love I, too, shall say, “It is finished !” 21
This communion, this claiming of the consciousness of God as his very own, this fiat of our Lord offered upon the cross spells the end to the spell of mortality and death and dying. It is the affirmation of
the soul as it enters the portals of immortal Life nevermore to go out. It is the scientific statement of Being in Cosmic Consciousness which must be claimed and acclaimed in order to be God Self-realized. Jesus’ words reveal the infinite measure of God’s Cosmic Consciousness which the son of man can attain right while he dwells in veils of flesh; and when he attains this consciousness, his flesh, no longer a veil, becomes the crucible of cosmic transformation and Be-ness— “the nearness of Thy heavenly Presence.”
Heart, Head, and Hand
Man must begin to realize the goal of attaining Christ Self-awareness and God Self-awareness by balancing the action of heart (the center of Christ- awareness) and head (the center of God-awareness) in order that his actions might reflect the perfect balance of communion between Father and Son as he walks the Middle Way of the Holy Spirit. Truly it is the Golden Rule consciousness which understands the first precept of the Law, “Do unto God as you would have him do unto you,” and the second which is like unto it, “Do unto man as you would have him do unto you”— which is to say, do unto the manifestation of God as you would have the manifestation do unto you.
The key to the motivation of man’s consciousness is in the underlying will—the will of his mind, which we call his motive or intent, and the will of his heart, which we call his desire. Most people do not realize how often these motivating factors are in opposition to each other—like two horses pulling in opposite directions, causing a tug-of-war within the forcefield of their own consciousness. Rather than be torn apart, individuals succeed in suppressing one or the other, either forbearing human pleasure for the sake of higher
value and reward or forgoing the latter for the sake of human indulgence.
On the other hand, if the motivating factors of mind and heart be aligned with the will of God as instruments to propagate virtue and all Godly expression in fulfillment of the divine plan, man’s entire consciousness will be tethered to and led by a power greater than himself. This power of Good is focused in man the unknown—in the subconscious mind, in the iceberg that is beneath the surface of his awareness— when he surrenders his mind and will to the Mind and Will of God and his human ego to the Divine.
The subconscious mind, like a transformer, affects man’s energies as they are distributed to the four lower bodies. Man’s will and his desire are the switches that direct these energies into the motors of his lower vehicles. If the will and the desire are to do God’s will, man becomes a dynamo of power, wisdom, and love, the energies of God are released to him in unlimited quantity to fulfill the divine plan, and he sees the effects of the vital force of God’s Spirit permeating his entire consciousness. If, however, the gears of his lower vehicles do not mesh with the divine pattern and the distribution of energy to his four lower bodies is unequal due to an imbalance of will and desire, the performance of the motors will be less than optimum.
If the will and desire are based upon ego motivation, the distribution of energy to the four lower bodies will be uneven and the action of mind and heart will not be balanced in the Christ. In some people the motor of the physical body is supplied with the greatest percentage of man’s daily allotment of energy, which it spends on the gratification of physical desires and the development of the form. In others the physical body is weak and sickly and the motors of the mind and emotions run overtime. In some older
people the memory body dominates the other three, stealing the energies of man’s being in order to revolve the memories of the past and to recapture those experiences of which the physical, emotional, and mental bodies are no longer capable.
We find, then, that when the lower vehicles are out of alignment due to an imbalance in their frequencies, man’s energies are dispersed in vain effort and he himself is literally pulled apart—all of this because the will and desire of the ego are at war with the inherent will and desire of the soul to fulfill its native God-identity. Under these circumstances even man’s outer consciousness is a house divided, and he is miserable until he eliminates one or the other of the opposing factions. Again we are reminded of Jesus’ words “No man can serve [entertain within the force- field of his consciousness] two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other .” 22 If, therefore, the will of God is not made the lodestone of the subconscious mind, the divine magnet of his energy system, man’s motors will not run efficiently and he will be unable to realize his individuality in and through the great motor and motivating power of God’s consciousness.
Schopenhauer said that the will is the only permanent and unchangeable element in the mind. It is the will which gives unity to consciousness and holds together all its ideas and thoughts, accompanying them like a continuous harmony. He saw will as the essence of man and as the determining factor of his consciousness; and he understood will as causality, as the universal cause in ourselves and in all things . 23 We may w r ell conclude that this will must be one-pointed if it is to be effective—like the eye that must be singl e-mindeci if man’s body temple is to be full of Light . 24
Since God is always conscious of man’s individuality, even as His eye is on the sparrow, if man pursues the goal of making his consciousness one with God’s, he will thereby be making his will one with God’s, for God’s will and his consciousness are one and the same; and he will find that God-awareness of his True Self for which his soul longs. It is, then, to man’s greatest advantage to pursue the consciousness of God as the will and desire of God and to make them his own; for thereby he discovers his own Reality and he himself becomes the author and finisher of his own destiny as it evolves in and through God’s consciousness.
“Create unto yourself the new sense of the ownership of God’s will!” says the Lord of the First Ray of God’s Will. “You have long thought of God’s will as a thing apart from yourself. Now new longings and a fresh perspective can re-create the best gift you have ever had. The memory of his grace can come alive within you as you accept the infinite care of the Eternal One for you. His blessed consideration of your lifestream must be contemplated and made a living, vital part of your whole consciousness....
“Why, God can be made so central, so real, and so intimate to the very being of any man who diligently seeks his will (tutoring both inwardly and without) that he will scarcely remember his former state of unbelief! It merely awaits an opening, a twinkling of the eye of being, for the last trump of mortality to sound and for the power of immortality to change the lesser image into the Greater Image of his glorious divine Reality! This can be, for it already is!” 25
Indeed, the will of God precedes consciousness as the molding factor in every form of Life. Whether in plants or in planets, whether in animals or in men, in granite or in a grain of sand, one can see that the stamp of the divine will predetermines the function, the
pattern, and the existence of all creation. The philosopher might argue that Matter is unconscious; but the Masters teach that since all substance is formed of Spirit’s own essence coalesced as Matter, it is impregnated with His consciousness of cause and effect, of premise and conclusion. Therefore the destiny (the behavior patterns) of the elements and of organic and inorganic life forms is preordained and sealed within the geometric matrices reflected in molecular structures and cellular designs that are duplicated again and again in Nature according to the inherent will of God.
In lower forms of life we call this will instinct. The term instinct implies the existence of an overall plan which remains unknown but toward which a total organism may move or strive. The will that precedes consciousness is the will to live, the will to expand the Life that is God. This will is the core of God’s consciousness. It is the motive behind universal manifestation. It is the structure and the foundation of Life. It is the pivot of consciousness in God and in man. It is the propelling force, the very impetus of creation.
Henri Bergson, in his works Creative Evolution, Matter and Memory, and Mind-Energy, shows startling insight into the truth and reality of consciousness. He says: “Consciousness seems proportionate to the living being’s power of choice. It lights up the zone of potentialities that surrounds the act. It fills the interval between what is done and what might be done.... In reality, a living being is a centre of action. It represents a certain sum of contingency entering into the world, that is to say, a certain quantity of possible action .” 26
Thus he sees man as the center of creative evolution. Although he may not realize the implication of his statements, we would immediately respond and say, “Indeed! It is through man that God evolves himself and the universe, for man is the focus for the
creative evolution of God’s energy.” Whether or not Bergson and other philosophers of our time acknowledge the source of creativity and energy as God. they have glimpsed the process upon which hinges the function of consciousness.
Bergson distinguishes between the consciousness of an animal and the consciousness of man. He says: “In the animal, invention is never anything but a variation on the theme of routine. Shut up in the habits of the species, it succeeds, no doubt, in enlarging them by its individual initiative; but it escapes automatism only for an instant, for just the time to create a new automatism. The gates of its prison close as soon as they are opened; by pulling at its chain it succeeds only in stretching it. With man, consciousness breaks the chain. In man, and in man alone, it sets itself free .” 27 Since we know that animals are incomplete or limited expressions of the Word, having neither free will nor conscience, but only a group soul or awareness, we can agree with Bergson’s observations.
Further on he says that “the movement of the stream is distinct from the riverbed, although it must adopt its winding course. Consciousness is distinct from the organism it animates, although it must undergo its vicissitudes .” 28 For the student of Ascended Master law, this statement is found to be startlingly accurate in the light of the knowledge of the Christ and the influence of the Word that affects all creation without being tied to the creation. Nevertheless, the Word is molded by the cup of consciousness into which it is placed. “The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets .” 29
Bergson says that by no means is the brain indispensable to consciousness; and as proof of his theory, he cites the fact that “the lower we go in the animal series, the more the nervous centres are simplified and
separate from one another, and [that] at last they disappear altogether, merged in the general mass of an organism with hardly any differentiation. If. then, at the top of the scale of living beings, consciousness is attached to very complicated nervous centres, must we not suppose that it accompanies the nervous system down its whole descent, and that when at last the nerve stuff is merged in the yet undifferentiated living matter, consciousness is still there, diffused, confused, but not reduced to nothing? Theoretically, then, everything living might be conscious. In principle , consciousness is co-extensive with life.” 3 '
We who acknowledge Life as God and God as permeating his entire creation find no fault with this logic. According to our understanding, it is Truth. But few among mankind would be willing to go one step further and accept the idea that there is conscious awareness within the heart of a rock, a tree, a flower, a mountain, a flaming bush, a drop of rain, or a wave upon the sea.
Some may remember Luke’s account of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. His disciples were rejoicing and praising God “with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;. . . And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him. Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them. I tell you that, if these [the disciples] should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out [in praise of the Christ ].” 31
Jesus was referring to the electron charged with the intelligent energies of the Creator and to the white fire core of the atom, w hich are indeed manifestations of the consciousness of God. These could not refrain from acclaiming the presence of the Christ, for even the rocks are composed of the very substance that proceeds out of the Mind of God. Thus the Master
himself acknowledged the universal Presence of God as Life, as the All-in-all.
However, that portion of God’s consciousness of which he was speaking as being expressed in the stones is what we would call elemental consciousness; it is not the equivalent of the Christ consciousness, although it is capable of acknowledging the Christ by the affinity of His vibratory rate to that of its own white fire core. The beings and forces of the elemental kingdom sense the presence of a concentrated action of the Christ Light; they are harmonized thereby and act as conductors of that Light to mankind. In the presence of man’s discord, his disobedience to natural law, and his rebellion against God, Nature is disturbed and becomes unbalanced, resorting to cataclysm to restore the harmony of the universal order.
The Christ consciousness is the integration in man of the consciousness of God. Elemental consciousness expressed in animal life, in the vegetable and mineral kingdoms, and in the forces of Nature is an incomplete manifestation of God; it is a reflection of an aspect of the Almighty: of faith and hope, as in domestic animals; of beauty and grace, as in the flowers and the birds; or of power and majesty, as in storm and wind and fire. The group soul of animals is the cumulative consciousness of the species. An animal always senses itself as part of the herd rather than as an individual identity. Animals do not have self- awareness. They cannot say “I AM,” nor are they balanced in the love, wisdom, and power of the Trinity; therefore they remain incomplete manifestations of God’s consciousness.
Man, having the gift of free will, is given the opportunity to master his consciousness by entering into the mastery of God’s consciousness. Only man can become God, because only man has free will.
Going one step further in the teachings of the Masters, we find that animal and mineral life are simply lesser expressions of man’s consciousness. In fact, the real identity of man as it is found in God’s consciousness must include all Life, all substance, all identification of the animal and mineral kingdoms. That which does not properly represent the Divine Image must be transmuted. That which is incomplete must be replaced by that which is complete. Animal life must give way, or evolve, to the Life of God as it manifests in man. In the eternal coexistence of God and man there is no lesser creation; but during the period of transition, when man is still in the state of becoming God, his consciousness is aware of and does perpetuate forms of animal life and various incongruities that have no place in the world of Spirit.
Speaking of consciousness as Life, the Master of Galilee said: “Those who seek to save their lives may well lose them , 32 but all who let flow of the native stream of God’s own consciousness and infinite love through the aperture of self become as radiating points of light in time and space. These shed that eternal light upon the passing scene of mortal creation and find thereby their eternal Home in the realities of heaven which are our portion .” 33
Thus is born in man the realization of heart, head, and hand as the balanced action of the Trinity; he knows that this is his unique opportunity to become a Son of God and to establish a fount of grace on behalf of millions yet unborn to Life in Christ. Knowing this law of opportunity whereby child-man can be crowned with divine sonship and ultimately with God- hood, Moses reminded the recalcitrant Israelites of their divine origin and destiny: “I have said, Ye are [potential] gods! and all of you are children of the Most High [in your present stage of development ].” 34
Consciousness: The Magnet of Individuality
The consciousness of God is the Cause that precedes the effect which man beholds as the Macrocosm; the consciousness of man is the cause that precedes the effect which he beholds as his microcosm. Man’s consciousness is the magnet of his individuality; all that is contained in either the conscious or subconscious mind-all records, patterns, and impressions that he has written with the pen of heart, head, and hand during thousands of years of soul evolution—determines that which he shall experience and that which he shall be.
Man can attract only that which he already is and has. If the conditions in which he finds himself are foreign to his soul, he can change them. He can declare himself to be the Image of Reality; and by the power of the spoken Word, I AM, he can purify the magnet of his consciousness through the affirmation of his true Being until he magnetizes that which his Real Self already is in the Macrocosm, that which he desires to become in the microcosm. He can acclaim the magnitude of his Christ Self as his very own and call to the beloved Mediator to make his consciousness congruent with the magnet of God’s consciousness. In the midst of all evidence to the contrary, he can be still and know that I AM God , 35 allowing the Greater Magnet to repolarize the lesser magnet and restore it to its original God-design.
When we consider the fact that the magnet of God’s consciousness is focused in the Central Sun as the great dynamo that holds universes in orbit around this hub of creation, we are singularly impressed with the unlimited opportunity with which God has vested man’s consciousness, endowing him with the authority to magnetize orbs of creativity. His total consciousness totally God’s consciousness, man is preordained
to be. like God. the center of his own expanding universe. Individual consciousness is the greatest power in the universe because it is a crystal fragment of God's Mind, a drop in the ocean of his consciousness. The man who can establish his consciousness as a forcefield of Christ-power, Christ-intelligence. and Christ-love in perfect balance has within himself a divine magnet that will attract more of God. more of Good: and when he controls the forcefield with God- dominion. he has unlimited potential to have and to be whatever is his God-desire.
In his Studies in Alchemy, Saint Germain referred to the understanding of consciousness (meaning God’s consciousness) as the alchemist’s “supreme ingredient”: “With God all things are possible! 5 ^ If you possess his consciousness, then it is now so for each of you—all things are. in fact, immediately possible to you in manifestation. If this is not your instantaneous experience, then you need more of his consciousness! ‘So far. so good.' you say; ‘but how do I go about acquiring that nebulous commodity called consciousness?’
“Beloved ones, what and where is your consciousness? The minute specks of physical matter or energy, atomic in nature, are composed of particles of light held within orbital paths, prescribed and imbued with intelligent action. This spiritual magnetism, infused with creative intelligence, power, and love, is a flux whose density permeates the entire sphere and realm of each atom, extending outward into molecular and cellular composition and thence through the elemental phases of Nature, manifesting unto planetary scale: and when correctly understood, these particles shall be known to be whirling in infinitely fantastic orbital paths through solar, galactic, and universal densities.
“Relative size has enabled mankind to feel that his consciousness is body-confined or cell-confined, as
the case may be. This concept of the ghost chained within the human machine is a total mistake. Although the flow of interacting forces may become more complex, still the concept of an expanding consciousness, simultaneous with an expanding universe, must be reckoned with if man will correctly master his affairs.
“Man is no more confined to his body than he is to an atom of substance within it or within his brain. Neither are the atoms of physical matter composing that body confined to it and limited in expression by that body or matter-mind density. The power of reaching outward and becoming a part altogether conscious of a whole in a marvelously spiritual manner is the gift of God to all. No one loses any part of that which is already his own by so doing, and no one takes anything away from anyone else through this sharing of the glories of God .” 37
Here the prodigal son ponders the problem of returning to the immaculate conception which framed his beginning; and he finds that his only hope of restoration to the original ideal is through the grace of God that has made provision within the framework of His laws for man to return to the realm of God’s will and its perfect outpicturing.
The electronic pattern of the individualized God consciousness is energized in man through the individualized Christ consciousness. This blueprint, as we have said, is the magnet whereby man draws unto himself the resources of God’s energy available to all. But in order to become the powerful magnet for Good that God intends him to be, man must also master the art of expanding the forcefield of his mind in ever widening concentric rings. He must train the energies of his consciousness to flow outward in infinite circles from the center of his individual awareness to the periphery of his God Self-awareness, thence to return to the point of identity within. As a small boy throws a
pebble into a pond with complete abandon, man must be willing to throw himself into the sea of God’s Being. Immersed in the energies of Light, Life, and Love, he feels his consciousness ripple in ever expanding waves, taking in more and more of the consciousness of God until the waves are no more, the sea is still, the merger is complete: God and man are one.
If the reader will pause to experiment with this exercise, he will find that at first it is not easy to expand his mind in all directions. This is because man’s physical eyes do not have peripheral vision. Not so with consciousness, which expands in all directions at once; for consciousness is that part of man which is limited neither by the physical senses nor by time, space, body form, or circumstance. It is free to come and go at will; but if it is to remain flexible, it must be exercised.
If man would reach for the stars and gather immortelles from Elysian fields, he must begin by expanding the concentric rings of his awareness, each day taking in a little more of the world he sees into his microcosmic circle; and by and by he will find that it is not difficult to meditate upon the stars and to allow his consciousness to take flight and probe the Infinite. Just as the devotee has mastered the going-out phase of his meditation, he must also learn the art of going within. He must be able to reverse the process and draw into the epicenter of his being all that he has realized through the expansion of the rings of his conscious awareness.
Wherever man’s consciousness flows, it retains the stamp of its identity pattern; and all that it breathes in of the universal essence of God’s consciousness coalesces around that pattern to widen the borders of his individuality. As man expands his consciousness, God expands His infinite awareness of Himself through man; thus God the Father and God the Son enhance
the flow of macrocosmic energies to all parts of Life evolving within the macrocosmic sea.
The key to success in this experiment is to release unto God the entire forcefield of the circle of consciousness which you have expanded—whether the circle (actually a sphere) of your awareness be the dimensions of the room you occupy or those of the earth, the solar system, or the Milky Way. At the moment you feel expansion at its peak, at its maximum outreach, surrender the entire span of your awareness unto God in the twinkling of an eye. The act of surrender must be accompanied by a fixing of the mind upon one or more of the components of God’s identity so that there is not even the opportunity of a microsecond for the little self to reclaim that which it has surrendered by a sudden shift of the attention back to the self—such as that which occurred when Peter attempted to walk on the water. This necessary fixing of the mind is best accomplished by repeating the following mantra:
I AM Light within, without,
Expand! Expand! and forever expand!
Field of consciousness within, without. Absorb God’s Light and then command Light of God to forever expand!
Fill the world, the land, the air,
The sea and sky and everywhere With awareness, for I AM there.
Sharing God and joyous prayer.
Beyond the earth in outer space Expand the power of cosmic grace.
Our God is there and everywhere.
And where I AM, O Thou art, too,
To increase awareness of Thy Truth
And show me in my I AM eye The holy beauty of the sky.
I see Thy Light of diamond hue.
Sparkling, shining, through and through The pores of self in body large.
The macrocosmic universe.
I AM with Thee, O God, I see The Light expand as Path to Thee.
The power flows, my being glows,
And Christ within, without me shows
I AM the Way to peace and power;
Thy Spirit makes me one this hour.
O God, demand and now command Thy Presence in our holy band Of devotees of heaven’s grace;
Show me, command me to take my place!
In Freedom’s band I’ll ever stand;
By Victory’s power I wake this hour To feel, to feel that flow of power.
Blaze right through me, Light of God,
Spiral nebulae, suns of Light!
Blaze right through me, Truth of God- Fill my mind with great delight!
I AM Thy Grace manifest here,
Thy perfect Love is shining clear!
Command Thy Selfhood to be mine!
Expand, expand in heaven’s name!
Command my soul to be Thy Flame!
Expand, expand, O Love Divine!
The Scientific Realization of Consciousness
The scientific realization of consciousness is wholly dependent upon the proper development of conscience. The conscience of man is related to the
consciousness of God through the Christ. Conscience is the individual consciousness of right and wrong. It is the discriminating faculty of the Higher Mind to which the individual has access through the flame within the heart. Discrimination is the ability to distinguish between Good and evil and to make moral judgments according to the will of God; it is the most important quality of the Christ Mind. Discrimination comes to the individual through the still, small voice that speaks from within when man enters into the Great Silence of his God Presence. Man’s conscience is that portion of the discriminating consciousness of God which the Creator has bequeathed to his beloved Son that he might keep the commandments of the Lord (the Law) and fulfill his divine plan.
In addition to this gift of spiritual discernment, man has a social conscience which he has developed through his contact with the world of form. This is the moral code that he has been taught or that he has formulated as distinguished from the cosmic morality that is ingrained within the soul. If the individual is given the proper training in Ascended Master law and if he is taught how to attune with his God Self, his developed morality will be an environmental application of the principles of universal law; but if this training is withheld, he has only his outer awareness and the social mores of the times on which to base his moral judgments.
People often say, by way of explaining their behavior, “A voice told me to do it,” when that voice is no more than an amalgamation of erroneous suggestions rising as a mist from their own subconscious minds. If man is to distinguish from among the many voices that beckon him hither and yon, he must have the standard of the Law. In his teaching on “Christ is the Door,” Jesus said of the shepherd, “He goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know
his voice.”™ If we, then, do not know his voice, can we be counted among his flock? We must therefore learn to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd, the Christ Self, who will guide us over the jagged cliff's and barren wastelands that the traveler must cross ere he reaches the Eternal Bourn.
Kant’s categorical imperative, which states that you must “act as though the maxim of your action were by your will to become a universal law of nature ,” 39 is a practical rule whereby man in his present, limited state of consciousness may determine just what is the righteousness of God (the right use of the Law) in the affairs of men. But the answers he gives to this imperative are conditioned both by the degree of his attunement with the discriminating faculties of the Higher Mind and by the refinement of his social conscience.
For example, if man keeps himself in a state of listening grace and is able to make contact with his Christ Self, he will intuitively carry out the universal law “Thou shalt not kill” whether he lives in a militaristic society or among cannibals, and he will override his social conscience that tells him it is all right to kill his enemy or to eat his enemy’s children. Although the defense of personal or national freedom often necessitates killing in self-defense, such action is not without karmic penalty; nevertheless, to stand idly by while an individual or a nation is sacked and raped is also not without karmic penalty. In a world of relative good and evil, choosing between the lesser of two or more evils is one of the most crucial tests which the soul must pass in order to win its immortal freedom. Therefore the application of universal law to specific situations requires the utmost care and spiritual preparation.
Applying the moral imperative is similar to asking the question. What would Jesus do? by which many gauge their actions. If man’s social conscience is
trained according to the Golden Rule, the standard of his own Christ Self, and if through his contact with the Mind of Christ he is able to maintain the strength and the courage to challenge and override social mores out of keeping with cosmic law, then when he asks himself, What would happen if all mankind did the same thing that I am doing? or, What would the highest representative of the Great Law do under similar circumstances? he can in most cases determine the effect of his actions upon the Body of God and he will not fail to act according to the highest Good (the nearest right) he is capable of understanding and executing in a given situation.
When man understands the law of cause and effect—the general as well as the specific effects of his actions—he will begin to understand the universal effect of God’s Law upon himself and upon other men as he implements its principles through rightjudgment and right action. By applying the categorical imperative according to the principles of the Christ, the individual can approximate in his life the Good that God would have him do. But until he actually puts on the consciousness of God, leaving behind the consciousness of relative good and evil, he is not capable of approaching this Good in all circumstances.
Inasmuch as man’s reasoning and intuitive faculties are of necessity limited in their interpretation of the voice of conscience, there comes a time when they must bow to the edicts of the soul’s refined sensitivities as these are guided by the Holy Spirit. Rising in consciousness to the level of his Christ Self-awareness, the individual is able to gauge his actions through the perceptions of a heart that beats in cosmic rhythm with the heart of the Universal Christ. He is able to determine what the effect of his actions will be, for he is one with all Life and his awareness of the energy
veil is once again impersonal. He senses the going-out and the coming-in of God’s energy. He feels the tides of Life as they leave the shore of being and flow to the other side; for he is one with every other son of God as an extension of His consciousness, as a ray that emanates from Him, blending with all other rays whose origin is the One Source.
The faculty of conscience developed through instant rapport with the Christ Mind is a more advanced criterion of action than the categorical imperative; for when confined within the bounds of reason that is based on duality, one’s social conscience is not always universally valid. Furthermore, when man sees himself in a hostile world as one against many, he is incapable of making universal a priori decisions that are at once impartial, immediately practical, and cos- mically just, whereas moral decisions based on one’s contact with Reality and with the Real Self in every man proceed from the heart that knows who and what I AM and from its direct contact with the Life that is universally one.
Right actions, then, arise out of man’s sensitivity to the Christ consciousness and out of a conscience motivated by goodwill to all; these criteria form the basis for the supreme exercise of free will. To face the consequences of one’s acts, or one’s karma, to accept one’s duty to Life, or one’s dharma, to serve the Creator and the creation through the right use of universal energy and through obedience to universal law— these are the challenges that face man daily. His success in meeting these challenges depends upon how he uses his faculties of perception, of conscience, and of consciousness.
If he has not developed the Christ conscience, man cannot be given the secrets of the universe; for without this golden standard he cannot be trusted to
use the knowledge of the Law wisely and impartially for the good of himself and his fellowman. Bearing in mind that the Christ conscience is a prerequisite to the mastery of self and consciousness, let us proceed with another exercise calculated to expand the magnet of Christed individuality. Let us pursue Saint Germain’s instruction on the creation of the Cloud as a means of developing our faculties of perception and discrimination. And let us apply the Master’s method to expand our God Self-awareness by employing the Cloud as a magnetic forcefield for the scientific realization of his consciousness:
“Stand now before your altar, honoring the living God and his fiat. For he who is God has commanded it: ‘Take dominion!’ You are rightfully functioning, then, as you do just that. You are about to create; and you will first create the Cloud from the enormous power of God stored at every point in space, waiting to be invoked.
“The power of vision is central to our invocation. Therefore, we shall create in our minds first a milky-white radiance; and we shall see this milky- white radiance as an electronic vibratory action of vital, moving, ineffable light. The concentration of the light, which we call the ‘density’ of the light, is that which makes the milky-white color. If the Cloud were attenuated, we would be able to see through it as though the scenes around us were enveloped in a fog.
“Now, having created in our minds this form of a bright translucent Cloud, we allow it to enfold our physical bodies and to occupy our forcefield. For a moment we become lost in the midst of the Cloud, and then it seems as though it has always been there: its atmosphere is familiar, comfortable.
“We recognize that the mind has the power to expand its circle of influence, but we must not try to
move far from the parent tree of self. Let this bright and shining Cloud at first be nine feet in diameter around oneself. Later, perhaps, we shall expand it to a diameter of ninety feet, then nine hundred feet and farther.
“In our early meditations we shall concentrate on intensifying the action of the white light in our minds; from thence we shall transfer that action to the nine- foot area around the physical form. Once we have developed the sense of this Cloud being around our physical forms, we shall understand that whereas the Cloud can be made visible to the physical sight, our primary concern is to keep its high vibratory action purely spiritual.
“Those of you who are familiar with electronics and the workings of a rheostat will understand that by a simple twist of the dial of consciousness, we can intensify the vibratory action of the Cloud. In this case we coalesce more light around each central point of light; for our Cloud is composed of many light points whose auras diffuse and blend with one another, making the total effect one of a lacy yet highly concentrated white radiance—a pure, swirling Cloud of cosmic energy.
“What is this mighty Cloud that we have created, this forcefield of vibrating energy? And why did we create it in the first place? Actually, whereas I have used the word create, it would be more appropriate if perhaps I had used the word magnetize; for we are actually magnetizing that which is already everywhere present in space. We are amplifying an intense action of the light from within its own forcefield—more than would normally manifest in a given area. We are thereby drawing upon universal God-power to produce this Cloud that first penetrates and then hallows our immediate forcefield in order that we may have a spiritual
altar upon which we may project the pictures of reality that we desire to create.
“Bear in mind that this Cloud can be used therapeutically for the healing of the nations and the soul of a planet; or you can use it as a platform to invoke, as Christ did upon the Mount of Transfiguration, the presence of the Ascended Masters—of beloved Jesus, Mother Mary, the Master Serapis Bey from Luxor, the Maha Chohan, Lord Maitreya, Archangel Michael— to assist you not only in your alchemical experiments but also in your ministrations to Life.
“Where you are yet ignorant of just what you ought to produce for yourself and others, you can. in a gentle, childlike manner, ask God to produce out of the great pool of his light-energy the miracle of his healing love, not only in your life and in the lives of your loved ones but also in the lives of the multitudes in the world at large. You can ask the power of God and of the kingdom of heaven to come into manifestation upon earth. You can ask for the golden age to be born, for an end to strife and struggle and all negative and hateful manifestations. You can ask for Love to take dominion over the world. If you will open your heart to the needs of the world and to the love of the Divine Mother that seeks expression through your uplifted consciousness, limitless ideas for universal service will flow into your mind.
“But here again let me hasten to sound a note of warning, especially for the benefit of those who have been psychically inclined or who have a tendency, as humanity would say, to ‘go off the deep end.’ Beware! You are dealing with sacred creative power. Beware! It is better for you to ask the Masters to interject their ideas for you—without necessarily defining or releasing them to your conscious mind—than for you to be carried away from the tether of the alchemical norm.
The Ascended Masters are not only sane and well organized, but they are also Godly and profound to the nth degree. It is essential, then, that you become likewise. Above all, be not carried away by pride or by the exaltation of the self over others.
“As you gain spiritual power through these periods of meditation upon the Cloud which at first should not exceed fifteen minutes a day try to understand that the creative Cloud, once it is dispersed by your fiat at the conclusion of your creative ceremony, will continue to expand and expand and expand throughout the universe as a globe of translucent white fire, eddying in ever widening spheres to contact all that is real and that is really yours. The Cloud, as the manifestation of the power of your creative energy, the fire of your spirit, will draw into your world the very consciousness of God himself. Evoked from the central pores of Being and beautifully expanding as an altar of God, the Cloud will hallow space wherever it expands.
“Christ was able to produce the miracles recorded in the Gospels, and many more, because he had first mastered the correct use of energy. He called the holy energy of Spirit ‘Father’; and, of a truth, ‘Father’ the Spirit is to all manifestation. T he Father is all-loving, all-knowing, and all-powerful; and he will make you all that he is. But we have only begun to touch upon the correct use of his energy .” 40
Liberty Born of God’s Consciousness
The soul cries out to the Spirit of Liberty:
O Liberty, whose quest is the anthem of men and nations! O Liberty, thou flame that burns within the heart but escapes the confines of man! O Liberty, our Mother of Eternity who cradles our Christianity, molds our humanity, and fashions a new order of the
254 Chapters • What Is consciousness?
ages! Thy children long for thy embrace, to know thee once again and to hear thy comforting word “All is well.”
The Spirit of Liberty answers:
Liberty is born in the soul No more will man be satisfied with lesser goal. The baubles and trinkets of the world Have their place,
But the place of the Son of God Is the consciousness where God is.
The place where God is not
Or where lesser images of Him hang
As useless icons upon the walls
This no longer holds the soul
Which seeks to fly the realm of mortal delusion
And ’neath the canopy of goodwill
See and entertain the reality of the angels,
Of the Ascended Masters,
Of that cloud-capped realm
Where the soul, with childlike laughter
As a bubbling stream
Moving toward the Sea of Identity,
Feels the freedom of the wind
And the power to stir the zithers
Of lesser consciousness
With a sense of beauty and of the subtlety
That hangs like a brilliant bubble
Whose watery, airy veil
Drapes the transparency of mirrored iridescence To the waiting eye.
The realm of angels is not without delight.
And Ascended Master reality awaits the flight Of souls who yearn to break the bonds Of hopelessness that defraud the world situation From the wonders of God’s radiant intent. Captured so penuriously
Within the fabric of ritual, praters, and dogma.
But held so beautifully
As pulsing flame of threefold God-delight—
Love. Wisdom, and Power
Within the heart and soul.
And the soul is satisfied:
And now as I await the expansion Of the great macrocosmic world Within the microcosmic realm of self.
I see that bom in me
Is the power of limitless expansion ever. hour. O God. I thank Thee for the shining hours That come composed of minutiae—
Of minutes, seconds, and of micropause—
While Mind does turn to record forever Thy immortal laws . 4
The liberation of the souls of men and women throughout the ages of their involvement in the veils of illusion has been accomplished through the practice of sacred ritual. If the force of human habit patterns be reinforced by a coiling of the w ire upon the pole of being each time indulgence in human vanity is allowed, then the ritual of unwinding the w ire, coil by coil, must effect the undoing of the force of human error. The ritual of unwinding the graveclothes that bind and burs the soul within the consciousness of
J
mortality is the joy of the overcomer: nothing else w ill satisfy his soul.
Those who have not know n the passion of the soul to be free look on in wonder and amazement at their brothers and sisters who find delight in what seems a monotonous and unfruitf ul existence of labor without reward or recognition. These do not perceive the exaltation of the Spirit as da;, by day the soul rises into newness of Life and Liberty. As for those who
seek an earthly reward, “they have their reward,” 4 ' and it is an earthly tribute; but the I ather who seeth in secret the travail and the sacrifice of the saints rewards them openly, and theirs is a heavenly tribute.
Let all understand that the art and science of sacred ritual is the fulfillment of all communion and service to Life; it is the capstone in the arch of attainment and without this crowning glory individual C hrist I AM ity remains incomplete. Of what, then, does ritual consist and how does its practice liberate the consciousness? Morya speaks of ritual, but he leaves to the diligent disciple the task of discovering that he speaks of ritual;
“I'.very man should realize his essential individuality, his privilege, ( io( 1-given, of expressing unique qualities of Life that fie can use to endow the universe from lfie fountain of his own life and love. Hut there are lessons to be learned, understandings to be sought and found, and old senses to be cast aside, transmuted and, in some cases, re-created.
“Morya thunders! Why should we put off the hour of the emptying of the mind of its delusions? Why should darkness impel the mind and heart to distrust themselves? Let us infire men with a gnosis of possibilities; let us create a sense of strength, based not upon weakness but rooted in the flow of Reality. I he fact that men have not known does not mean that ignorance should continue. We send light on the holy will; and it permeates the consciousness, bridging the old gaps and steaming the spirit loose from its confining walls where the insidious glue of human consciousness has dried up the very thought of progress.
“Sultry spirits inf est the gullible and the complacent! We speak to those who are willing to be (iod- willed! I he very idea of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ often leads to separation, I he strange consciousness of schism finds welcome wherever men love darkness. They ply the
boat of consciousness into waters caves of intricate folly. But the clarity of the will of God promotes the facility of smoothened Reality.
“Now the Word long ago went forth; but the common man skulks in fear lest someone should find out that he is in league with God or the holy will! Shames are honored while the Source of all grace remains hidden in shame from puny, mortal eyes. Truly the blind lead the blind. Walk ye in the dominant way of the Sacred Stranger who respects no man’s illegitimate thoughts, but even, man’s person [pure son ].” 4
The Master is speaking of the ritual of selfpurification that must go hand in hand with the pursuit of the will (the consciousness) of God. Unless he participates in this rite of self-immolation, man cannot know the will of God. nor can he become that will in action.
The self-centered consciousness of those whose souls have not been quickened by the Law (or Lord) of ritual will, upon receiving the energies of the Holy Spirit as manna that falls from heaven, either taint these precious energies with their impurities or lock them in the imperfect molds of their human desires. Therefore, the ritual of breaking the clay vessels molded and shaped after the patterns of one’s human thoughts and feelings must precede the coming of the Holy Spirit into manifestation. But this is only the first step: New bottles must be formed, designed after the pristine thoughts and feelings of the Christ, and then filled with the new wine of the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said. “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out. and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.” “ He taught this ritual to his disciples that they might shatter the matrices of outworn concepts and replace them with the pure, geometric forms of the Mind of God.
The term ritual may be defined as “a prescribed order of performing religious or other devotional service ,” 45 and to that we would add “for the purpose of transforming the human consciousness into the divine.” The techniques of ritual taught by the Ascended Masters are by no means empty ceremonials or meaningless motions, vain repetitions or the fanatical frenzy of those who unwittingly worship the synthetic image of the Christ in place of the Real Image of the Son of God. They are scientific practices by which man can attain dominion over the forcefield of his consciousness—not by blind belief, but by conscious atonement ( at-one-ment , hence attunement) of the soul with the white fire core of his being—the Christ—and with the fiery core of every atom of his four lower bodies. Through ritual man enters the heart of Life and earns the right to sit on the seat of authority, the throne (three-in-one) of his Christ Self. One with God, he commands cosmic forces because he has realized the fullness of that Mind which was in Christ Jesus.
The law of ritual is the right-you-all of the Brotherhood. It is the opportunity to right all wrongs that have ever been imposed upon Life’s energies through the misuse of free will. It is the opportunity to reclaim the bad seeds of discordant thought and feeling that have been recklessly cast to the winds without concern that they might one day spring up as thorn and thistle in a neighbor’s garden. Ritual is the golden thread that the aspirant follows through the labyrin- thian cave of his own past errors, ultimately to find at the other end the open door to freedom through self- mastery in the Christ consciousness.
The geometry of ritual is the key to the mathematics of soul liberation. This geometry must be discovered by each one through the invocation of the
sacred fire in the form of prayer, decrees, and meditation (see Chapter Twenty-Five). The liberation of consciousness that comes through the practice of these rituals is based upon the law of the square, representing Matter; the circle, representing Spirit; and the triangle, representing the merging of the two through Christ the Mediator. The visualization of these forms during periods of communion with God establishes a forcefield in consciousness which channels the energies of the sacred fire into patterns of perfection whereby they are locked in the Christ consciousness, never to be requalified by the human. More complex forms of these geometric patterns, together with their three-dimensional counterparts, can also be mastered; as these gradually displace the jagged, incongruous forms that have been retained in the subconscious mind, man rises in Cosmic Consciousness to take dominion over the earth.
One of the greatest keys to self-mastery is the geometrization of consciousness through the concentration of the mind and heart in perfect union of motive, will, and action upon these soul-satisfying forms that are the building blocks of creation. By and by, these will emerge from one’s own subconscious, automatically parading before the mind (in place of the haunting specters of the past) as flaming, white- hot glyphs that brand the aura, seal one’s thoughts and feelings in the Light of God that never fails, and claim the soul for Home and heaven.
The ritual of dedicated service to one’s family and community is strengthened by these patterns etched in sacred fire upon every cell and atom of one’s being. The rituals of loving, of being, of giving and receiving, of studying to show oneself approved unto God, and of fulfilling one’s own creative evolution are brought into perspective as the ebb and flow of the
tides of the Infinite filter through the latticework of geometric forms that are stacked layer upon layer from head to toe in his physical form as well as in his spiritual being; thus the total consciousness of man enters into the ritual of becoming the Christ.
The practice of the Presence of God—of affirming I AM here, I AM there, I AM whole, I AM omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient because I AM God in action where I stand, where you stand, where Life is living everywhere— gives instantaneous liberation from the false or incomplete testimony of the physical senses, which is the foundation of the synthetic consciousness. Above all, such rituals provide surcease from the weight of planetary effluvia and liberation from ego involvements that tend to make one identify with one’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings instead of with the experience of the Great I AM—the feelings and thoughts and actions of the heart and head and hand of God.
Morya concludes: “From time to time the Brotherhood releases vital ideas—sometimes simple, sometimes complex—into the minds of the students. These ideas are not always assimilated immediately. Albeit instant love is the will of God, it is not always the possibility of man. Therefore, these teachings on [the sacred ritual of] the will of God are given in order to re-create in consciousness certain engrams that will enable you to accomplish effectively and by consent your release from the carnal mind and to replace it by the buoyancy of the Mind of God .” 46
Conscious Penetration of the Macrocosm
In shedding light on the question. What is consciousness? the Ascended Masters would teach the disciple how to transcend his mortal limitations while he
yet dwells in the dimensions of time and space, how to be in the world but not of it, how to effect his union with the Highest Mind, unhampered by those earthly circumstances which proceed from the carnal mind. When he demonstrates trustworthiness in the application of cosmic principles, the Masters reveal more advanced methods whereby he can experience directly the consciousness of God. Then the disciple answers the question for himself: What is consciousness?
In our investigations into consciousness the question comes to mind, Can we experience the realm of First Cause? Can we experience the world of Noume- non? Can we experience God’s consciousness directly? The answer is that man can experience God totally only when he becomes totally aware of God. While he is partially aware of God, he can experience him only in part; as long as he remains in his limited consciousness, his experience will be limited thereby. Profound insight into the question of transcending limitation through the expansion of consciousness is given the disciples of Lord Meru at the Temple of Illumination:
“Consciousness, when functioning properly, is a glowing orb of reality, joy, and full illumination. The individual reaching-out from the seemingly separated center of being to contact the cosmic center of Life and thence the periphery of all reality is accomplished as easily as the miracle of the radiant, expanding Mind of God penetrates the universe with light.
“Inherent within man is the power to expand consciousness beyond the sphere of the personal self into the dominant domain of reality. This reality is shared by the myriad manifestations that inhabit Cosmos; but because of the marvelous quality of ‘locked-in individuality,’ there is never any oppressive erosion of the permanent nature of man. There are only the gentle, molding factors as the hand of Universal Intelligence,
Power, and Love commences the process of tutoring the evolving soul personality.
“Recognizing, then, as beloved Kuthumi has said, how easy it is for individuals to misqualify energy and, conversely, how wonderful it is to begin the process of requalification, the individual self can look forward to experiencing newness of life and a sense of fulfillment that he has not known before.
“Soon he will bypass the false structurings that he has created and that have been created for him [even within his mind] by the dark overlords and their dark stars of compounded misqualification. Soon he will realize, with the joyous gurgle of a newborn babe, that the universe is a home of light and hope where the temporal manifestations of intelligence, consciousness, and identity can be welded to the Eternal even as the Eternal permeates the substance of mortality with its essential reality. Here at last mankind can come to know the permanent gift of bliss which it was the Father’s joy to convey to the individual at the birth of his identity. . . .
“In the name of Holy Wisdom I, Meru, urge upon everyone the willful relinquishing of the snake- skin of identity that has crawled upon its belly while pursuing the vanities of the intellect. Replace this by the dominant sunburst of the living, vital Mind of God and that reality which God is and which you are because He is .” 47
The Ascended Masters are very much interested in expanding or, shall we say, spiritualizing man’s senses and making them God’s senses (the faculties of God’s own Self-awareness) in order that man might overcome the boundaries of his own finite sensibilities. The Lord of the First Ray has given magnificent counsel on the subject of the return to paradise, the return to the high estate of God’s consciousness that every son
and daughter of God once knew and loved. The chelas of the Master are not surprised when they hear the fire of the will of God crackling in his every word, for they know that their beloved El Morya has energized a momentum of utter devotion to that will as it manifests in the externalization of the Mind of God:
“Stand now to release thyself from the darkness that is in thee 48 and face the luminous orb of the Central Sun from whence all creation sprang! Mindful of His will for Good and of His power to extend that will, realize that He is able to extend thy consciousness from its present state—to pick it up, to exalt it, and to draw it into Himself by the magnetism of His grace—here and now, prior to thy release from sense consciousness.
“Realize that He that keepeth all that is real 49 about thee, having received thee momentarily unto Himself, is also able to return thee to the present moment unaffected adversely, but mightily affected inwardly by a fuller measure of the understanding of His will [of His consciousness]. Realize that the will of God can best be known by a spiritual experience. Desire, then, that experience. Desire to reach outwardly toward the Godhead in the Great Central Sun galaxy at the same time that thou art reaching inwardly to the implanting of the divine seed within thyself. For it is the will to live within thyself that must unite with the will to live as God lives. This is the divine will within the heart of the Central Sun; this thou must understand and be united with.
“If this be accomplished but once consciously, thy life shall ever thereafter be affected by an innate knowing, recorded within, of that which is the will [the consciousness] of God. The phantoms and the ghosts that formerly made thee a stranger at the courts of heaven will no longer hold power over thee as they once did. But man’s reunion with the Sun can
264 Chapter 5 • What Is Consciousness?
be accomplished only by an act of God [an act of grace]; it is a cosmic event which can occur in the world of the individual only when he has proven himself ready for it. . . .
“You must be able to go deeply within; for not in outer accouterments of name or fame or even in worldly intellect does man find the keys that will transport him to these higher reaches. We caution that great care must be exercised in this matter, for truly we are not concerned with the developing in men and women of untutored or unguided psychic experience. We want this form of communion to be a rarity rather than a daily practice. It is something one should try no more often than once a year in just this manner, with the exception of those who have been mightily prepared by advanced training. For them there will unfold the necessary direction that will assist them in having vital experiences to guide them in their solar evolution.
“You must understand that the will of God [the consciousness of God] is a sacred adventure. I have said it thusly for a reason, for the average individual considers an encounter with the will of God a remote possibility. He prays to have the will of God made known to him, but he does not understand that he can have an a priori glimpse of that will while yet in mortal form. He does not realize that the will that sees can also be seized, in part, as a treasure house of consciousness and carried back into the domain of the Life within. There the great lodestone of Truth acts as a divine revelator to reveal to each man from deep within his own heart what the will of God really is. Above all, let him understand always that, complex and all-embracing though it may be, the will of God [the consciousness of the Mind of God] can always be reduced to the common denominator of Love, Life, and Light .” 50
O Mother of the World , 51
We are all children of Thy Heart-
Kept apart by triviality,
We remain separate From Thy cosmic ecstasy.
Passions of cosmic freedom, when denied to all. Bind blind mankind to sensedom, do enthrall.
To fight each other we are pledged—
By dreadful doings, dining On man’s shoddy, senseless spewings Of aborted patterns charged with hate— Delusion’s senseless, fate confusions.
Do Thou now, Great Silent Mother,
Teach Thy children how to have no other Than Thyself—to hold our hands from mortal error. To keep our minds from mortal terror,
To seal our hearts in purpose now supreme.
To forge Thy cosmic union—Reality, God-dream.
Long the night has vacant been
From the Light of Thy radiant Manchild;
Standing in the Sun of united oneness,
We confess to loss of happiness.
Thy office of pure Light fears no competition;
Let none doubt Thee, but find instead Attunement with Thy blessed Head Of hallowed thoughts;
Thy Love, which flows from glowing Heart Of cosmic dreams from God’s own musing.
Clears the air from each confusing dream of man That splits, divides, and saws asunder Many lives until all wonder.
Where’s the blunder lying ’neath our feet?
Shall it defeat us evermore—
Never to pause and take our store With all our reason, wisdom evanescent,
Vanishing to a point of nihilism?
I am a child of cosmic diligence;
Immaculate is Thy concept
Of my willingness to be God-taught,
To learn to love, to shatter matrices of dense desire. O Cosmic Mother, from Thy lofty star position,
Set my heart afire!
May I move by impulse of Thy Love
To the Fount of Brotherhood
Where, washing feet of all my competitors,
I shall serve them all And see Poseidon rise.
The new Atlantis of our allness.
Nevermore to sink into the smallness Of the lesser self that raiseth Cain.
I am able now to serve and reign As Thy beloved Son.
She Who Leads
Ancient Pyramids
Hieroglyphs of Nature
Kanchenjunga
Fiery Summit
Silent Sages
Pmh TO kMl \S\
River of Life
Chapter Six