February 23, 2022

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 4)

“And The Companion then asked, ‘Does being born again take the place of prayer? Is it necessary to pray after spiritual rebirth?’ To this, The Man said, ‘Here we have a dilemma. For example, we of the Church of the Second Advent preach to the Church of the First Dispensation saying, “Jesus Christ is not the Only-Begotten, First-Born Son of God.” That expression, taken from ancient religions, was always used to describe the great spiritual Sun of Righteousness by which God revealed His Nature to the world, expressed His Truth, which was perceived by the spirit of Man as Goodness or as Light, and spoke to the spirit of man and woman in The Word.

“‘The Sun of Righteousness was the intermediary between man and woman and God. The intermediary was not a person. The Christians borrowed that concept from ancient sources. These sources taught the Greek and the Egyptian concepts: that God had revealed Himself and given His Body, which was Light, for man and woman to eat, so that they might be nurtured; that He had revealed His Nature and His Face to all humankind in the Light of the Sun of Righteousness and spoke to them by means of His Word; and that that Light – that Sun – was His Image and His First-Born, which He had sent into the world to redeem humankind as an act of Love. Christians of the first centuries well understood this, but those of later centuries forgot the original teachings.

“‘In the teaching that has come down to the modern Church, people became obsessed with the idea that the life of the body was in the blood, and that the life of spirit was also in the blood. They spoke about the sacrifice of Jesus’ blood as being the atonement for Man’s sin, not realizing that Jesus followed The Way of God, looked upon the Sun of Righteousness, received The Image, was re-created Image, and received The Word. Both Image and Word were incarnate within Jesus. And he told the Jews to follow him, to live The Way, so that they, too, might be re-created in the Image of God and receive His Word. The body of flesh was never intended to be the Image of God because it was heir to death; and God, being deathless, could not possibly create anything that would suffer or die.

“‘Prayer does not rise to God, no matter how emotional, how zealous it might be. It is the same as yelling for God with the voice. God hears neither mental prayers nor vocal speech. He hears only the voice of the spirit. And you must live The Way, or He will not hear you. There is no other way to raise a prayer to God. The perfect prayer, as taught by Jesus, the Essenes and other members of the Eternal Race in every great culture throughout the world (for the Essenes were an Order of men and women living in Palestine who had their fellows in other parts of the world) was the same fundamental teaching: a person was reborn by living The Way, looking upon the Face of God, and allowing God to send His Word within that person so he or she might have a dialogue. And by “dialogue” was meant “God speaks to me and I speak to God by living The Way.” That is the perfect prayer – living The Way – not speaking, praying, asking, sacrificing, or any other thing a person might do.

“‘And that is the message we have for the Christian religion.’”

Again, if I may be of any personal service to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours in Light+,

Gene

February 18, 2022

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 3)

“Then a male Companion of The Way, the first Companion to speak, asked, ‘Is the spirit, the sleeping spirit, related to the archetype?’

“And The Man answered, ‘The spirit of man and woman has the potential of Light and of Darkness. In that, we have an archetype. If we refer to the allegorical Garden of Eden, we see that Man and Woman fell away from God because they believed in the teachings or the words of the Power of Darkness, which we call the Devil. And, having thus believed, they followed the way of the Angel of Darkness and fell away from the Grace of God. And having thus fallen, they were denied nourishment and became dormant. A body denied food will die. Thus Man and Woman took on form – material form – which began with an archetype.

“‘That archetype was the “shadow” of the angelic Body of Light, a Dark Body of Light, or a Dark Angel. That was the archetype. And out of the Dark Body of Light slowly evolved the material body we have today, as did the mind. So the mind is related to the material body – both evolved out of the Dark Body and the mutated Consciousness which we call the Kalos nature of the psyche. And all these evolved out of the Light Body and the Divine Consciousness which can only be restored by God.

“‘Therefore, even though a material person goes to a material church and prays to a material god, that person will in no way gain access to the True God. And though prayers may be emotionally, psychically, and mentally satisfying and good for a person, they will not restore the spirit to a living Soul. That was a fundamental teaching of Jesus and the reason he and the disciples and the first Christians were so fanatic in their zeal to spread the “Good News.” But the people, in desiring to worship a messiah, or a material god, and wishing to have a savior who would redeem them, clung to Jesus as that savior, denying the Power of God as the means of restoring them to their divinity.

“‘The archetype is the neuter spirit which has its origins in the angelic Body of Light and becomes alive again with the Word of God in the Image. Therefore, individuals looking upon the Sun of Righteousness and hearing The Word evolve physically – on the mental level – very strongly. The psychic level then begins to develop and the person has memories of who she or he was. Then these individuals begin to have a Consciousness of Spirit and, in an instant, remember who they truly are. As a consequence, they let go of the material world and serve the world of the spirit more than the world of matter. They become a complex, as it were.’”

Again, if I may be of any personal service to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours in Light+,

Gene

February 9, 2022

This past Sunday, we concluded the annual Advent Vigil (January 30th to February 6th) of daily sunrise services honoring the dawn of the Second Advent with the birth of the Sun of Righteousness and the manifestation of The Image and The Word incarnate. I truly hope you received the many special blessings emanating out of The Light during this blessed time of year. We will now resume our review of the Twenty-Second Saying of Jamil.

The Twenty-second Saying (Part 3)

“Upon concluding the words of the Twenty-Second Saying, The Man asked of those assembled whether they had any questions. And The Mariner among them said, ‘The early part of the Saying explains that the spirit is alive but not Conscious. I am not certain I understand. Could you please read that portion again?’ The Man read from the scroll again; ‘Man has a spiritual nature that is not Consciously alive – a spirit which is part of a spiritual domain and is not of the world or the material universe.’ When he had read these lines, he turned to The Mariner saying, ‘You may recall from The Teachings that every human being has a spirit of two natures: one of Light and the other of Darkness. Men and women are free to choose which aspect of their spirit is going to be encouraged to be restored and made alive. Most serve the Darkness because they are ignorant of The Way to Light, and have no access to anything beyond the world or the Powers of Darkness, which are readily available.

“‘Even though Man’s spirit, which envelopes him in a sphere of Light, is his only potential for the development of a soul, it is, nonetheless, a neuter. In other words, there is neither Light nor Darkness within it. It is, in a manner of speaking, sleeping. And most people, living in the world and motivated by it, pursue a life in which the individual is primarily involved in earning enough to provide for oneself and one’s family. People’s tensions are relieved through entertainment, vacations, and other means of relaxation. Living in the world so totally preoccupies people that the spirit has no nourishment, no source of energy by which to awaken. Thus, the beastly or animal nature of people – that body of flesh that inherits death – rules them.

“‘In their concern with living, they often become opposed to one another – neighbor, brother, sister, sometimes their own children – because one’s own person is most important to the individual. Therefore, the fittest survive among men and women and animals intent on survival. This is a well-known fact of nature as taught by the naturalist Charles Darwin. But there is another part, the greater part of man and woman, which is the spirit. And that spirit is the cause of Man’s existence, even though the only apparent, visible form is the body which, as we know from The Teachings, is a product of Man’s descent into matter, taking on a mutated form through this abortion.

“‘The spirit of Man in the world has no means of being awakened. But the manifestation of the Sun of Righteousness, a Power of God and a nourishment to the spirit, touches it and, like a seed implanted into the spirit, gives birth to the soul. Thus born, that soul takes on a Conscious life and becomes a person rather than remaining a neuter spirit with a dual potential.

“‘In the churches today, people pray to God, they worship God, they sing praises to God, they participate in rites, ceremonies, the sacraments, the liturgy, the litany, and believe that the exercise of mind, speech and emotion is sufficient to give them spiritual beingness and life to their spirits. This, of course, is not true, as we know from one of the most fundamental teachings of Jesus. His words to this effect were, “All your words and all your prayers and all your pompous ceremony will not give life to your spirit. You must be born again, and that birth comes of the Father. Follow me, I am The Way. I live The Way. And by living this Way you, too, will become reborn. And once reborn, you become a Child of God, and God becomes your restorer and savior.”

“‘The spirit, being neutral, comes alive by means of a food or a nourishment outside the realm of nature. That food is The Word and The Image of God.’”

Again, if I may be of any personal service to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Very truly yours in Light+,

Gene