The Basic Priorities to Existence & Grace- 18th December 1993

"NOT all trees may become Ash trees", and with consideration to species - as species is divided - we may add to this in saying that there must be Divine reasoning for diversification in plants, in animals and in Men. Not all men shall go on to develop and become so similarly; even when their feet are fixed upon this path, this inner road home. Even when the certainties reside and the urgings to the quest have lent the fresh perspective and inflamed the mightiest of curiosities, men go forth and become in different fashions - not all the same. Yes, men of Christ will feature this and that in preference to those and they, and each as glorified and as deified as the other. Every man has equal purse, over time.

The great mystery is Man - where has he gone? How great the contrast- the contrast between the firstborn, the purest blood, and his numerous relatives with heavy countenance in delicate stupor.

There is mystery if one looks into the face of many individuals and asks "Where is the man within? ". They may be walking and talking and appear to be interacting. But at times, with some fellows, it is apparent that the 'ennobled soul' is as inactive as to be quite separate, as it were, to the copycat facsimile before you. Where is the divinity? He is, in consciousness pertinent, quite happily placed dozing with back to road aside a river; concealed within a sun bespeckled forest; conversing with the Angeloi - or yes, most literally 'off with the fairies'!

When we gather our consciousness to ourselves, we drive more of our own substance into that concentration which is placed where the ego of our being resides. Yet too, we are apportioned in many ways throughout the soul-hemispheres, having remnants of self in all places past frequented- we may flit here and there, respectively. The 'narrowing down' in self-conscious exacting is a drawing together, a summoning of those higher faculties which are ours, when we come to know how to use them. In this back-to-front sense, a man never really becomes more than he already is; and yet one might say this also for a silken thread yet to take its place amongst an extravagant tapestry - one might say it is all one and the same. . . 

However, we may not take to ourselves and claim that which is not ours to take; and every godlike feature which comprises the advanced Man is already accessibly inaugurate to the constitution.

The central point of gravity within a Man depicts his knot of active consciousness. By and by he will become capable to enable powers and strengths - from will, by concentration, from a developed and exercised morality (which corresponds with cosmic virtue) - that he does exercise and provoke thereby the higher ordinances- little by little he is dynamic centrally and conducts accordingly.

The higher attributes of a man are correspondingly sensitive to the Graces which sustain the soul and infill it with properties specific to their heavenly inclination. For were we to not experience the qualities of Grace, a man would be basic to need, sameness and stimulation only.

• Need= Hunger needing sup-placation, coldness needing warmth, muscular system needing exercise and commanding movement, genitalia needing accompaniment and stimulation - actually pairing according to the vital and specific inclinations.

• Sameness= similar to sympathy, but not so developed. For one may sympathize or empathize without actually being the same at that time as the correspondent. In the developed sense we may advance out from our ego-condition sufficiently to experience another's station or experience or meaning, or gift; and then recoil back. However with sameness the sympathy is limited to expression and inadequate. Camaraderie is often born of sameness, as opposed to true brotherliness. Dogs may lie against each other when cold, in mutual understanding. They may even lack the ego as defined and consequently have sameness of experience with a human by sharing the man's experience, but this too is sameness.
  

• Stimulation= the reactive element which maintains continuity. In this way the physical world may appear distinct from its truer reality - that it works upon itself with a series of atomic contests. However the movements of all are marvelously manipulated by higher intervention, second by second (actually out of time).
  

So the point in reviewing the basic priorities to existence: need, sameness and stimulation, is that it may assist us to begin to comprehend the power and value of the aspects compelled by Grace which infill us with a vastly higher meaning than the basic animalia has to offer. It is by the practice and rehearsal of higher thought, aspiring and conjoining with Divinity's reasonings that fashion the man, who, as the pearl, gains layer upon layer of beauteous acquisition upon the general core.

Is the student dismayed that he may supersede his brothers? Does he wrestle with their attendances and eagerly foists his own self-measures upon them? Are we impatient for perfection to work and prove us correct?

What we do we do for the future, yes, but also we do firstly for the here and now. The saying that 'the end justifies the means' implies that the means may be unwholesome and yet qualified by result. We would argue that a sour beginning only leads to a sour end, that all seeds of action are colored with the initial 'spirit-vitae' and the nature of such. Therefore it is precisely the 'doing' within the realm of the here and now that need be answerable to the future.

Returning to the opening comment about the Ash: the Temple of St. John is open to every man, of course, but whether or not it is to be the choosing of every man to enter, is an entirely different matter. In a manner of speaking it is as the whole of Humanity - just as we discussed - Man has all the components of deity already; and yet our supporters anguish in ripe indignation that their 'teachers' are so ignored! This frustration comes of immaturity and is to be expected. In time the student comes to realize that it is misspent aggravation, when it is consolation which is required.

How so? As every frontier is ventured upon there becomes esoterically, a deluge of unanswered imponderables, which if not met with an inner content shall dissolve a man almost entirely. For mysteries never cease to be mysterious! It truly is endless - any field of study necessarily and profoundly, holds the opening doors to further and further penetrations of understanding; and the 'unravelling' as it were, has to be ceaseless, for all that comprises eternity is by nature ceaseless too. The story is that long, and the facts along the way are immeasurable in their totality. So we must at the outset develop a capacity to be content when we are not so inclined to be so - that we may exercise this at will, for there is a paradox in understanding too. One may actually come to a comprehensive grasp of understanding, soulfully, and this may ease one into the contentedness we seek.

For example: If one is frustrated that the majority of men are incapable of higher discernment, it becomes an imponderable to contest this thought. On the one hand it is downgrading and demeaning and insulting and injurious to view any man as a dullard or inadequate, on the other hand (forgetting the impropriety) it is often the case that the man is a dullard or inadequate, and could achieve, would that he could; and we do rightfully make these distinctions on behalf of him, and are frustrated because he at this time cannot. However such frustration at these discrepancies becomes as self-inflicting sorrow if we do not answer it with, as they as they say, "a hope and a prayer", "a lick and a promise", and then go on.

One cannot go where uninvited. One cannot give to he who refuses - this is the Law. We can respect this Law because it affords each to license of himself, and commensurately, protecting our freedom all the while. Dear Christ cannot obtain the entrance key (at this time - but who knows?) and so we must be content in His Reasoning that this be so.

There is no amount of urging whereupon one may accelerate or accentuate another's development. Equally so, all students, though few these are relatively speaking, share great meshes of supporting sympathies amongst them which surpass distance, from city to city, outpost to nether-nether; and every meditation, every aspiration, every inner acknowledgment gathers light to the planet, as well as to themselves. We may not answer all evil or all stupidity, we may however, address and remedy that which is our appointed task as presented.

Contentedness need not imply faint-heartedness, nor should we be one hundred percent content all the time- moreso content with our discontent which provokes us to greater concern.

Association, right association is of tremendous importance! It has been held by us before and need be said again, that it is vital to the soul of man that he lovingly works amongst that which he does. That study must be with joy and enthusiasm - his joy and his enthusiasm - and it is disharmonious and injurious if these aspects are not with him. When he labors it should be with great happiness to do so. When he is in company, be it - at least some of the time - with those who his soul is most comfortable to be placed with, and where possible, dynamically intertwined, fashioned by mutual love. For without absolute wholehearted participation, he is resigning his individuality to a corrupt and irregular aspect of perspective. The greater profit to the man and his world is through the expressions of ecstatic interaction.

There are many tasks which are loathsome and it would be pretentious to assume that every detail may be exerted with full joy. However when there is time afforded and personal choosing, one is better to 'follow one's heart' and pursue those activities which encourage the exuberant joy.

Should one choose the way of the teacher and to be exemplary to those who might savour advice, should it be from one who is lusterless and humorless, ill-content with the world? It becomes an interesting misapprehension: one is no less serious in that they experience happiness, in fact, contrariwise! There are confusions in this; however it is stressed by us because so often the students who have arrived thus far are humbled in their expectations and are dangerously grim. God surely has appointed happiness that we may come to know it completely, and that be His Happiness also.

Happiness is preferable to wickedness, and man shall learn this as well. Frivolity is not happiness, just the appearance thereof. Happiness is the expansion of self, swollen with the comprehension, jubilant with the infilling grace of wonderment, and closer to a knowledge-wisdom of one's soul. We wish you happiness - now and forever.

(Thanking those also for all kind thoughts - requests noted, depositions accredited. We are not so intrusive, but only a thought away. And, you do come close.)