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.’”

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

I hope you had a blessed Easter – both traditional Easter Sunday as celebrated in the West and Second Advent Easter, which we observe every year on April 18th according to our Sacred Calendar and which is based on solar reckoning.

We commemorated both days with Sunrise Divine services at the Cathedral Church of the Americas in Sanctuary. The Sunday service was followed by an Easter lunch and an egg hunt for the children, and the Monday service was followed by a breakfast fellowship and a day of contemplation – receiving the many blessings bestowed. It was a powerful sunrise and a beautiful day here at the Community Center.

We will now proceed with our Part 11 of the Twenty-second Saying of Jamil.

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 11)

“And a second female Companion of The Way spoke saying, ‘What are the plans of The Community for educating the young and helping them follow The Way?’

“Noting the sincerity of mind of the speaker, the sage said to her: ‘We are faced with the eternal problem of living in the world as human beings and being under the laws of the material State. We are not always free to worship God or to express our spiritual and religious natures, even here in America, without restrictions being imposed upon us. The same applies to the education of our children in the Church. We will always have to contend with the secular-minded who wish to impose civil law as being the only law of the land upon the spiritual and religious-minded. They forget, or would like to forget, that the founders of the American Constitution intended religion to be free. It is difficult for a new religion such as ours to make a place for itself within the framework of secular law with all of its restrictions and stringent laws governing the education of children, indeed of its populace as a whole, which, of course, is essential for any civilized nation ruled by law and order. And it is difficult for the secular-minded to make room within the framework of the secular State for religious education of children. It is a difficult problem, but one that will have to be solved by the Church according to need.

“‘For example, the Church does maintain a parochial school. Children of ministers are educated in accordance with Jamilian Doctrines while meeting the requirements of the State educational authorities. It is essential that, if we are to build the ministry, it must needs begin with the children. Education needs to start early in life. As our Church grows and prospers, a greater number of children will be educated. But until the Church becomes successful and prosperous this will be difficult. It is for this reason that the ministry needs to take The Teachings to the people, so that larger numbers of people will become more familiar with and accepting of The Teachings.

“‘We need to proclaim The Teachings in order for the citizenry to accept us. Once this is achieved, the Church will be allowed more opportunities than at present: because any small, unpopular religion will be viewed with suspicion by the majority of older and more established churches that have such a great influence upon the secular-minded.

“‘However, until such time that we are accepted, we must not allow ourselves to be dictated to and governed, ruled and manipulated by the State, or we will not fulfill our destiny, which is to teach the True Religion to all the world. It is our sacred obligation to exemplify righteousness and to teach others in the need for righteousness. Only in this way can the world be restored to spirit. Education is, of course, the most fundamental means of altering the world for the coming of God.’”

This portion of the Saying expresses the importance of education and the rearing of children in The Community and in the Sacred Teachings of Light. There is mention of our parochial school. Many of you know that we operated and maintained a K-12 school. The curriculum was approved by the State while at the same time allowing for the spiritual and religious education of the children. We graduated several classes, and I am proud to have been in the first.

We ran our school from 1977 to 1998. Unfortunately, however, due to increased regulations, restrictions and costs (such as liability insurance), we had to suspend our activities. I say “suspend” because we have every intention of resuming and reorganizing our parochial school at some time in the future when proper faculty, staff and funding become available to us.

For the time being, the children of The Community are privileged to receive exceptional studies in comparative religion, the System of Cosolargy, and the Teachings of Light that prepare them for more formal studies in The Academy and the Sacred College. In addition, they serve as attendants during sunrise and other services and are part of the Jamilian Handbell Choir.

I will speak more of this in September during Convocation when I deliver the annual State of The Community address. I trust you will be there to hear it. I am looking forward to seeing you there.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022