Discipleship- 4th February 1996

THE title of teacher, father, master or instructor, may well be entitled 'gift-giver' as well to explain that true transaction as hoped for by the would-be disciple. Envy of those who hold tutorial positions is quite unfounded and deceitful to the cause, for all good and not-so-good teachers alike, bear such great responsibilities towards their pupils, their investments, that said student could indeed cause their personal downfall into many lost eons of contaminated karma and subsequent learning.

Think not that the 'status' as held by any teacher outweighs in glory the solid and grueling responsibility he enters into. When a man assumes any form of authority over another, and that is so accepted by that other, it then becomes an agreement on many condescending planes: that he who has assumed the more advanced vision has offered in promise the truth of its reality, and he then does owe such by said promise; and depending upon how such knowledge is valued and used, the teacher is most answerable also. So it is no easy or light matter for any teacher to advertise and want for his brothers to seek his offerings out.

For this reason it is that we may examine the three parts to discipleship in earnesty, understanding that a sensible teacher hesitates before imparting any true and valued gift, and we would be prudent to do so likewise. True teaching is active loving - meeting needs and concerns pertinent to the individual, rather than for amusement or pseudo-status. Teachings are to be applied and not pontificated; having said that, may we begin.

The three parts to discipleship are:

1. the call
2. the training
3. the commission.

The disciple, or the learner, has the material 'givens' in order that he may qualify - that the necessary preparations have been set in place for him to be responsive to the call.

There are several strata to great knowledge as it works its way out from and into this world. True knowledge is holy; its substance both feeds the angels and streams from angels in an oncology which survives the perturbations of insultuous perversion.

Let us explain: Within each and every man resides the microcosmic mirror-wisdom. Indelibly placed in spirit's own substance, we each hold memory, deep memory of those beginnings of our being and of all being and all things as was and yet to be. Our Christ within us, our own alpha and omega gnosis, enables us to come to great definition, which in time is contrasted against other such wisdoms, all of which fly loose in time and space, projecting forth into manifestation and out again.

When a young bride leaves her house to go to another house she may be known as then being from one of two families. To some they may recognize her as they have known her only in the context of her maiden household, whilst to that newer circle of relations and companions she will be recognized as belonging to that family of her husband. And she is all the while, the same person. This is how it is with the truth.

We have departed our Father's house, our cosmic heritage and spirit's wisdom, in order that we may take on a new relationship, that our egos seek out a knowledge which comes of a different name. Knowledge which is coupled with experience has that factor of experience to enhance it, and so it is with worldly learning.

We began as perfect beings and in truth that still remains the same. But now we go out into the world and seek to make addition to that virgin wisdom - we shall mature our thought and meditations, we shall pray and be prayed for, envelop and enhance, rely on and cause to hunger for a spiritual companionship in the wisdoms that we now seek to share. It is by mutual realizations that we cause to set the definitions within infinity and make further cause to those agreements, such as would manifest within their own making.

So it comes also that there are souls who have exceeded their brothers' capacities and by such advancement are then obliged to make apparent where asked.

The angels are perfectly coordinated to the original truths. Their bearings are set on the past, and it is from there, as the unwed maiden, that they travail from. However, and in comment to this, we find that Christ Himself departed from such innocence that was known only in His Father's House and came to be as Man that he might deliver Man and make him more: For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham. (Hebrews 2:16)

So to the call (or the 'caul', as we jokingly put it), being something in which the lesser cannot demand upon the greater. We may entreat our Father God, we may beseech Him and implore Him, we may plead and grieve until we are met with His Compassion, but we must never believe that we are entitled to insist our case. We therefore need ask, but then wait with the patience which is prerequisite to all good learning.

Whyfor to learn? It is a pitiable notion which suggests that there is no need within a man for betterment - and betterment is learning. Although we all do inadvertently bring many good lessons amongst ourselves, it is far wiser to acknowledge those who are more capable whose example may be profitable, and recognize our inadequacies, working upon, repairing and building what we can, than to try to become a teacher in what we are not.

It was said by another that "to follow is to understand leadership", and we would add to this to say that before one can ever seek to take the lead they should understand what it is to follow - the reverse interpretation is misleading as one cannot ever come into obedience by seeking to overrule.

We would differ on the term 'spiritual equality' as a given, in us being all teachers and pupils, for this in relation to development is a misnomer. If there is anything Heaven is bereft of, when it comes to individual beings of hierarchies (so named for a purpose) or simply in the divisionings of men, it is spiritual 'equality'. That we have an individual distinction is shared, and are loved by God regardless of our many differences is shared, but in no sense can we assume an equality, as being upon being cannot be placed into comparisons or likenesses - having individual attributes fractioned from God with unequal portion and proportion. Without the comprehension of that position, in which we hold to our deficiencies, then we have no means to correct them and no gifts worth giving to pass on. 'Following' per se is not honorable within itself, but rather what glorious light we may choose to follow in an otherwise murkitroyd world, denotes its worth.

For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light. If a man have ears to hear, let him hear. Then He said to them, Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. (Mark 4:22-24)

When Christ works through us we become as Him, speaking as for our Father ("For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Matthew 10:20) for whatever time, in the capacity of teacher, we call upon the soul within another to respond and hear well. In the larger sense there also comes a time within the development of an individual when he is 'called' to acknowledge his spiritual allies and choose with conscious deliberation where his soul best sits - to what corner it belongs. This is most important, most relevant, and cannot be assumed for another. No amount of cleverness can meet with divinity here; even some wisdoms cannot discriminate in the choices which are set before Man.

Some issues go beyond the simple learning; whilst they are intrinsic to our Manhood they may be lost to sophisticated striving, should we forget our elders and believe ourselves to be the uppermost examples of humanity. When we depart from those who would guide us well we begin the solitary and dangerous route, having left their protection and their pathway. We can therefore be grateful to those who have gone ahead and literally illumine our way before us. We may trust in their being, that for each man who beckons them with need, they shall turn back from their own upward trek in order to guide their brother further forward.

The training - the second part to the discipleship - is offered by those who may give it. Whilst it may be regarded as 'life itself', there are those individuals who may offer guidance, and do it well. It can be said that in this we may establish two things, that firstly a pupil does not equal his teacher, however and secondly, he may represent his teacher as though he were that teacher, and in this way he too may impart the gifts also.

The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant be as his lord. (Matthew 10:24)

And the training precedes the commission, necessarily; for as it was aforementioned, it is a perilous task in deed and in word as well, were one to teach (to give out) something proven heinous by their student.

The teacher, no matter how exalted, takes to himself the actual development of he whom he earnestly endeavors to teach. This must be so, because once the karma is implicated and the responsibility set, he is then tied to that outcome for better or for worse. Therefore, if as a teacher we have brought the knowledge of poisons as medicine before our pupils, but they have then used them in murder, we too shall fall into that afterworld of hell and suffer the death and the consequence and the karma of our knowledge.


It is for this reason that certain souls do not dally amongst the weaker in humanity. Fain to promote, some individuals who advance out from their brothers recoil from association; just as the hermitage monks who would avoid the diseases of the soul and the afflictions of the lesser's sin. There are risks, more than rewards, in being and becoming a teacher.

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

In this we may find our guidance in understanding the offerings of good teaching. The wolves of the world would shred us to pieces and surely ravage our goodness by their very untamed natures. And so as sheep, we are sent forth, but with wisdom, as our mercy and goodness of intent are to be our savior. Here it is that Christ has delivered the teaching profession - can you understand here where the cycle was broken once and for all? It was never in the name of defiance that this be so, but it was for the sake of all goodness to survive and be protected.

Before Christ, those who were 'at the top of the tree' were continually toppled by the weight of the stragglers there beneath them. It is a simple equation, men will make mistakes, and there were fewer that could assume immediate disciplines, fewer still who had the heart qualities and character of their beloved teacher. Fate decided time and time again that teachers and pupils suffered alike. The waters were contaminated and the sympathy and suffering abounded.

The transformation Christ brought here was to release the teachers from the all-consuming nature of this karmic bond. Were they to enter into their guiding instructions 'as harmless as doves', as pure in intent with only the purpose to give in His Name, then it was that their assurety was assumed and the teachers did not risk the liabilities of their pupils.

However, two things do remain - should any person assume authority and show the way to injure, or go the way without Christ, then there is equal karma shared between the two.

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren these things ought not to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? (James 3:10)

The 'fountain' has by character a need to be as harmless as a dove, sweet and true to the purity that it would impart. There is no reliability in a man to whom words spill forth in defamation, and then to issue the 'truth' of the angels. The teacher needs be with "wisdom that is from above first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy." (James 3:17). Or let him rather be a good pupil then, than hazard the vocation of the would-be master-instructor!

We call for sympathy to be afforded to all teachers in the World - whether they be apt or not capable, specific, technical or logically reprehensible. The deep regard which may spring from the heart of the admiring pupil may come too with the knowledge of the very risks that other soul has taken upon their selves for the sake of their own.

A teacher may well lose his elevation - not in relation to his pupil in likelihood, but more because the pupil can be the very cause of it! And so we all cling and cleave to Christ to deliver us safely from that conceit which pre-empts and excludes our true salvation and that of our brothers, and pray hard for us all!

Amen

How brittle and cracked were my bones without Him,
As each splintered and tore at the flesh beneath skin,
And I bled and I wept,
And it hurt as I breathed,
And my time was complete, for my life was diseased.

How hopeless my fortune,
Barren my lot, without Him,
As I called from the void,
With a voice cracked and grim;
In ineffable turmoil,
This dark sea of scream,
Forming yet another tear-fall,
Into the eyes of a waiting angel.

I should lie wasted,
Sore-tested,
Without Him,
Stripped of will, vulnerable to the demons of Sin,
Those Carnivores who set upon Man,
That brother upon brother, as cannibals became.

The waters should recede into nothing without Him,
Back into the spaces before Time, time and time again.
Withdrawn, the Holy Powers back,
As spectrums quelled, converge to black.
And Father God with parent's grief,
To lose His Son would surely weep,
With ceaseless wails throughout that time,
As Love's defeat from depths would climb,
Out from the cold and into the slime,
Making swamp of the active Waters Divine.

And now it comes to this - the dread,
His Life now gone, His Passion dead.
Oh Christ return! Come forth this day!
Leave not our souls to death's decay!
Please live for us, as we for You,
And know our love to be pure and true.