Wednesday, May 25, 2022

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 15)

“When The Man had thus spoken, a Companion of The Way said, ‘Since earth is material and we are partly material, and since we are engaged in this struggle for the Light, then through our efforts matter can be transformed into higher forms of energy which could manifest and assist us in our quest for the enlightenment of not only ourselves but of the world.’

“And The Man responded to him by giving an illustration. ‘Just as the physical, material sun is used by God to reveal Knowledge of Himself to the human race, then the bodies of humankind must also be used to teach The Way to the race. Once man and woman are put in contact with their heritage – their spirit – they become Instruments of God’s Will on earth, which is to teach the human race the Judgements and the Statutes that will be coming out in the future and to establish a whole new concept of government. Once they begin to teach, then other people will follow in growing numbers. These Teachings will create a Community of followers and then the material sun, acting upon the mind and upon the material body through the atomic structure, will begin to change the thinking habits of humankind. The material sun is used by the spiritual Sun as the spiritual Sun is used by God and His Image. Thus we see a chain of events, an inner relationship of spirit to matter.

“The Image and The Word is the sea of rebirth. It is the seminal force – the spermatikos – that creates and generates life in the spirit. The spirit gives birth to the Soul and the Soul then becomes an Instrument of God’s Image and Word. That Soul is nurtured by the Image and The Word for the Soul needs nourishment – Food. The greatest motivating force of living things in the world of nature is the need to eat for survival. The second greatest motivating force is that of procreation. More than anything else, these two great forces are the driving forces of nature. Similarly, the spirit needs to be reborn and needs to eat in order to live. And that is why there are so many religions in the world, so many religious books, and the urge for man and woman to be religious. It is within them. The spirit craves nourishment and life.’

“Then said a disciple, ‘Do you suspect that other suns in the universe having planets around them serve a purpose similar to our sun?’ The Man said, ‘The manifestation of the Sun of Righteousness is a cosmic, universal event.’ And the disciple replied, ‘Then it would affect more than one physical sun, would it not?’

“‘Yes,’ answered the Teacher. ‘However, we have here an enigma, just like the enigma in the allegorical Garden of Eden. Where did God come from? Where did the Devil come from? Why was there a power of Darkness, a Dark angel? Why did they Fall? And the problem is this: If the spirit is not reborn, it cannot see God; it cannot hear His Word. And yet, how is the spirit reborn if it cannot see the Sun of Righteousness? This is one of the most fundamental teachings, not only in this religion, but in the great world religions of antiquity that taught the Way of Light.

“‘In order to have knowledge of The Image and The Word, humankind must be instructed or told. Therefore, God sends a Messenger who proclaims the existence of The Image and The Word. That is what Jamil did. He proclaimed the existence of the Sun of Righteousness in our own era. He laid the foundation for this Church. While God is the True Founder of the Church, Jamil is the Messenger – the Proclaimer – who had been sent by God to speak to humankind. Thus, we see that we must trace our authority to more than a spiritual force, not only for the world to accept it, but in order for the awakening and the rebirth to take place. Jamil came into the world, revealed the message of the existence of The Image and The Word and prepared his disciple – his successor – by ordaining him and quickening his spirit so that it could receive The Image and The Word of God. There has to be a beginning.

“‘Members of this Church have been brought into the Church because of Jamil and because of his successor – in this case, The Man – who is able to awaken in the disciples of The Child and the members of the Church a memory of their spiritual nature and a reason for their being here. This indicates that these people are pre-ordained to be here. They are old wise souls, if I may say so, and once they contact the Church and are drawn into the presence of Jamil’s successor, they are awakened and able to see The Image and The Word. And their rebirth is instantaneous. They are nurtured by The Image and The Word, but there was a beginning – this contact – which is vital.

“‘Again, we see that the physical sun is used. A child was used. Jesus was used. A man or a woman – disciples, humans – are used as the material sun is used to reach the human race. Such are the means available to The Creator.’

“And this was the commentary on the Twenty-Second Saying.”

Wednesday, May 11, 2022
Birthday of The Man (1927)

Ninety-five years ago today, my father was born in Bellingham, Washington just 20 miles from the Canadian border. His life was certainly a series of expeditions, quests, and explorations in more ways than one. I always spend the day of his birth contemplating his life and this Teaching.

Today, I write to you from Baja California Sur, Mexico, where I am with our Companion of The Way, Humberto Garcia. We are not far from The Community’s property on the Gulf of California; and, after a pause of more than two years, we are solidifying plans for Humberto’s relocation from mainland Mexico to our property in El Cardonal.

I will have more information for you once we return and will also, of course, give a detailed report on our mission in Mexico and our other plans during this year’s Community Convocation. In the meantime, I leave you with this portion of the Twenty-second Saying of Jamil.

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 14)

“To these words, the same Companion queried, ‘Will there continue to be War between the Light and the Dark when the ultimate transformation occurs?’ The Man answered saying, ‘This struggle between Light and Darkness is already taking place. At the transformation of the material world into Light, the whole material universe will be transformed into Light. Matter will be “burned up” by the Light of the Spirit. There will be no Darkness. There will only be God and His Creation. All will be restored to Light, and perhaps with the knowledge that each Soul has within it, there will never be the need or desire to separate from God again.

“‘The Image and The Word is a seed that is implanted in the spirit of man and woman, and that seed grows into a Soul – creates a Soul – and out of the Soul comes Community, and out of the Community comes Nation, and out of the Nation come Nations, and out of the Nations comes one People, and out of the one People comes the Union of God and Man, or God and humanness, or God and spirit. Once this unity is achieved, all the illusion of matter will disappear and be no more, because there will be no reason for it to exist. It is only separation from God that creates the false illusion.’”

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 13)

“And another of the Companions said, ‘I do not know of any race of people which does not have a religious concept. Is the search for God imbedded in the archetype?’

“‘It is taught in this School,’ replied The Man, ‘that man and woman have a spirit. And that spirit continually yearns to have life and to be nurtured. And that is why there will continually be some form of religious expression, even if it is not the ultimate form. The religions of the world preserve our religious yearnings and make it possible for us to someday find the Truth, because God’s Image and Word will always manifest and He will always send Proclaimers or Messengers into the world to proclaim the Truth. And once that Truth and The Way are known to man and woman, they will then live it.

“‘This brings us back to the City and the Nation we must found. This is to be a Nation of people of the Eternal Race who are representative of the new people with new sights and new goals beyond politics, economics, and the military. But we can never turn from these things until we are truly spiritual. People in the world today want to free themselves from the control of the State. They want to free themselves from law and order and social restraint and economic control. In wanting to be free, they find or seek escape in the use of drugs, in metaphysical speculation, in materialistic or humanistic viewpoints, in music, art, or poetry. They desire to be liberated – to break away from conformity. These acts only lead them deeper into error of matter and the self. In the end, they become enslaved to their emotions and to their desires. It is almost as if people are seeking their own destruction. They are rebelling because they cannot find ultimate and True Religion. This fact explains the great need for our Church to instruct the awaiting masses of the world. But in order for this to happen, our Church must be totally free to teach the Truth as revealed to us without hindrance.

“‘Our communion of bread and water is a symbol of unity and of our humanness. We ask God to endow that bread and water with a special blessing, which, in a way, prepares us to receive the greater blessing in the Sun of Righteousness whereof we eat the True Bread of Life and drink the Living Waters of God. Thus we have a lower and a higher form of religious expression.

“‘If we as spiritual beings die, we cannot help the world. If we seek our death, we cannot instruct humankind. Therefore, it appears that we must accept our spiritual Origin and Nature as well as our human nature and responsibility to the world to instruct humanity and free them from the Powers of Darkness that hold the innocent in a grip of death. Once we are reborn – made spiritual – we remember our origins and our true natures and begin to see that we are immortal. As Jesus taught, “Before Abraham was I am.”

“‘By our instructing the ignorant of the world in the Ways of God, this world will change into spirit. First, individuals will collect together into a Community; the members of that Community will collect into a Nation, and that Nation will instruct other nations. Eventually, all the nations of the world will form into a whole, and then God’s Word and Image will manifest and engulf the world and it will be restored to spirit. That is the concept.

“‘Therefore, as men and women of spirit, we must think beyond the Christian religion. We must think beyond any world religion and think in terms of a universal religion. As Americans, we must think beyond America and think in terms of a spiritual Nation. In essence, we are creating or generating a kind of spiritual revolution that will cause men and women to let go of those powers that control them – economics, politics, the military, social restraints – and refuse to be governed by the Powers of Darkness. It is a great war that we are involved in – a war of peace, a war of conquest and of triumph – God’s Instruments by which this will be achieved are the Sun of Righteousness and the human Soul.’”

Wednesday, April 27, 2022

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 12)

“Then The Mariner said, ‘My mind returns to the difficulty of exemplifying righteousness. Why is it so difficult, and I am speaking singularly, to exemplify righteousness – to live The Way. Also, despite our ideals and our intentions, why is it so difficult to do the proper thing – the right thing?’

“The Man said, ‘The world is a world of matter. And matter originated out of Darkness. Therefore, Darkness is the ruler, the governor, and the god of the material world. This is the first great fundamental teaching that must be acknowledged by all initiates of The Way. Thw world evolved out of the archetype which was the Fallen Angel, then out of Adam and Eve, the progenitors of the human race. There is nothing Good in the world – only Evil, only Darkness, only suffering, and only pain. If it were otherwise, we would not experience death. Regardless of how beautiful a child may be to its parents, that child will eventually grow, suffer and die. And that child is lost to the parent, as the parent is lost to the child. There can be no permanence in matter. Therefore, matter is not Good, because Good cannot suffer and Good cannot die. That is a fundamental teaching.

“‘Acknowledging and accepting that the world is not a Good place, that the world must be restored to Goodness by changing to Light and to spirit, the teacher – the disciple of God, the minister of God – does not cling to the world. He or she clings to the spirit, clings to God, and is strengthened and nurtured by The Image and The Word of God. One is first spirit and secondly a physical being or a human being.

“‘We struggle in the world because we exist in a world of Evil and Darkness. The world suffers violence. Men and women who possess great power and wealth suffer and die just as poor people do. There is no real, lasting benefit in the world.

“‘The world is continually at war on greater and lesser scales. The State is at war. The bureaucrats are at war. All are at war with one another. Life forms in the world are involved in a constant vicious cycle of eating and killing other forms by which to live. Everything is based on death. The survival of the fittest is constantly demonstrated in our society and in our social and family life. No matter how much we love our spouse, our children, our brothers and sisters, father and mother, there is continual strife. This is the way of the world – of our human nature – but not the way of our spiritual Nature.

“‘Therefore, we must expect the world to be at war with us – to war with the Church. The Church is obligated to instruct the world by example. The best way to live an example is to be stern, as was Jesus, even if you are killed for it. We need to be stern, to be strict, to lead by example, to organize, and to live in Community, because only by strength of numbers can we hope to overcome the power of the State. The State governs us by numbers.

“‘The world is kept ignorant of God because people are in the hands of the Powers of Darkness. And the Powers of Darkness must always fight against the Light. It is a perpetual struggle. And even if you were to be enlightened and even if you were to become ennobled and become a great spiritual Teacher, you would still have to suffer the indignation, the undignified act of suffering old age and death. In the end, the world triumphs over the body. There cannot be peace or Goodness on earth except in spirit. Therefore, the world must change and be restored to its original state. That is the goal of spiritual Teachers. If we let go of the spirit and cling to the world, we are lost. But though we lose our bodies or our human beingness, if we cling to the spirit, that is where we find our immortality and our permanence.

“‘In giving The Image and The Word to humankind – to the world – God gives Food for nourishment of the Soul. In other words, God’s Image and Word is food to the spirit. God is what feeds us; not prayer, not devotions, not the sacraments, not the priests of the old church, not anything of the world. If we can understand that it is only God’s Image and Word as our Food and Nourishment that sustains and redeems and restores us, then we can understand the need for living in Community, which allows us to become instruments of change for the world. If Light does not live and exist in the world, then the world will have no knowledge of it; and it is our obligation to give knowledge of God’s Image and Word to it.

“‘That is why we must build a City and a Nation of God. We must dwell in Sanctuary – we need to preserve The Teachings in archives and keep them in existence for the world so they will not be lost. Jesus was killed, the disciples were killed, the first Church was destroyed; and through that destruction, the Teachings of the True Begotten Son of God – The Image and The Word manifest – were lost. And the world inherited a perverted, artificial, man-made religion that people follow, believing it is the Way to God, which it is not. That is a horrible realization once you are reborn and have knowledge of the Truth. Each must hold to The Way and not be weakened by the hold of the world.’”