Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00229)

            Saturday, June 10, 2006

 

Friends:                        What is LIFE ?

 

 

                                    THE KINGLY MYSTERY

 

The "kingly mystery" is Life itself. We all have Life. We all are Life.
Every being everywhere is Life-expresses Life. To know what is Life itself
is to know the mystery. But there is a condition precedent to this
mysterious knowledge, stated by Krishna, in the opening of the Ninth Chapter
of the Bhagavad Gita: "Unto thee who findeth no fault I will now make known
this most mysterious knowledge, coupled with a realization of it, which
having known thou shalt be delivered from evil." When the one who desires to
learn is not in a critical attitude, when he has sensed in one way or
another that truth lies in a certain direction and gives all his attention
to it without quarreling with terms or the ideas put forward, his is the
attitude of the true student. The one who desires to know must set aside for
the time being all preconceptions, pride, and prejudices which he may have
held, and then he is ready to begin his studies- to take the first step in
the right direction.

The world is full of false ideas, false religions, false philosophies which
must be thrown away. We of the Western peoples have been taught that we were
poor miserable sinners who could do nothing of ourselves. We have assumed
that we are poor miserable sinners and have acted as such. Our whole
civilization is colored and steeped through with this falsity. Our
theologies, our sciences, our commercial, social and political conditions
are all based on this false idea, which in its turn rests upon another
equally false-that man is here on earth for once only. Hence, that his
entrance on this physical scene was through the act of others, and we
believe that whatever of merit or demerit is his was handed on to him by his
forebears. As a consequence, man constantly shifts his responsibility, and
acts as an irresponsible

 
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being. The whole falsity of our existence is centered there, for we are
responsible for every ill that exists among us; every kind of suffering on
every hand has been brought about through a false idea, and the false action
which followed. What are sin, disease, sorrow and suffering but the result
of our own thoughts and actions?

Again, we say "we cannot know;" or, "this life is all there is." Therefore,
the whole force of our consciousness is directed in the line of that one
false idea and inhibited in the expression of any other; whereas all
directions lie absolutely open to us, if only we understand our own natures.
Man circumscribes his own conditions by the false ideas he holds in regard
to life. No one holds him back. He holds himself back. Yet, even with his
narrowing, limiting ideas and conceptions, he is able to accomplish
wonderful things. Whatever he sets out to do on the purely physical,
material plane of life, he accomplishes in a shorter or greater length of
time. If his ideas of religion are all concerned with the physical aspect of
life, however, how can he know more? All the conquests that he can make will
be physical conquests. What could it avail him in the direction of real
knowledge, if he continued similar conquests from civilization to
civilization, age to age, planet to planet, solar system to solar system? He
could gain nothing but a small sum of possible combinations and
correlations, and in all that search and effort would not have gained the
first fundamental of true knowledge, of true thought and action.

The kingly mystery of Life can not mean physical existence, which is merely
one aspect of the Great Life. We have to go deeper into our own natures, and
into the natures of all beings, in order to grasp what that great mystery
is. Then the lives of all beings become clear Unto us; we understand what
all phases of existence mean; we see the causes for all the difficulties
that surround us; we know how to bring about better results, and we perceive
from the very first that the power lies in us, and in us alone, to bring
about all future changes for ourselves. Looking at all existence from a
universal point of view, we become able

 
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to exercise the power which lies in the essential spiritual basis of every
being, high or low. The One Self appears only to be divided among the
creatures; in reality, It is not divided at all. Each being is That in his
essential nature. In It is the foundation of all power; in It lies the power
of unfolding, of evolution, which makes possible for each being-representing
one ray of that One Life-the attainment of a full knowledge of Life in his
own true nature.

Each one of us stands in the midst of a great and silent evolution. Each one
of us sees many expressions of different beings- those of the same grade as
ourselves and beings of grades below us. We find relations with other
elements, the power of which we do not see, the source of which we do not
grasp, yet the effects of which we feel. On every hand we are getting
effects from different beings of different grades, each one receiving those
effects differently. The beings below us in forms of the mineral, vegetable,
and animal world are all working, just as we are working, toward a greater
and greater realization of the whole. Sparks of the One Spirit, of the One
Consciousness, they have begun their little lives in forms, or bodies, by
which they may contact others. As they have need for better and better
instruments, need for further and further contact, they evolve, from within,
a better instrument. Such is the whole course of evolution, always from
within outwards, and always with the tendency to an increasing
individuality. From the one ocean of Life there finally tends to
arise-Divinity.

Divinity is always acquired. It is not an endowment. It does not exist of
itself. If we could be made good, if we could be made to turn around and
take a righteous course, life might seem very much easier to us. But there
is no escaping the law; no one can get us "off" from the effects of our
wrong-doing; no one can confer knowledge on another. Each one has to see and
know for himself. Each one has to gain Divinity of himself, and in his own
way. We think of this as a common world. But it is not so. There are no two
people who look at life from the same view point, who have the same likes
and dislikes, whom the same

 
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things affect in exactly the same way. No two people are alike either in
life or after the death of the body. Each makes his own state; each makes
his own limitations; each acquires his own Divinity. Divinity lies latent in
each one of us; all powers lie latent in every one, and no being anywhere
can be greater than we may become.

What is Divinity but all-inclusive knowledge? True spirituality is not a
hazy condition. It is not something that denies any portion of the universe,
nor any kind of being. A hazy abstract condition would mean no men, no
principles, no opposites; but Divine spirituality is the power to know and
see whatever is wished known or seen; it is an intimate knowledge of the
ultimate essence of everything in nature. Such knowledge would not mean
seeing all things at once, nor being everywhere at the same time, but it is
the power to see and know in any direction-the power to grasp whatever it
wishes, the power to shut out whatever it wishes. Otherwise it would be no
power at all; there would be no use in having power and wisdom, and such
beings as the Masters could be afflicted with all the grief and misery in
the world, unable to help where help is needed and possible.

All-inclusive knowledge lies before every living being, if lie will but take
the necessary steps. What prevents him are the false ideas he holds; for
thought is the basis of all action, and wrong ideas in regard to life
inevitably bring about wrong actions. We have thought we are all different,
because we have different ideas, but, in essence, we are One. The One Life
is in each of us. Each one of us stands in the same position, looking out;
all the rest are seen. Starting from this point, we begin to find ourselves,
to see ourselves, to feel ourselves, and, in feeling ourselves, feel all
others. All that a man can know of God is what he knows in himself, through
himself, and by himself. Never by any outside presentation can that
realization be gained. All the great saviors of all times have never asked
man to rely on some outside God, to fear some devil, to go by this or that
revelation, to believe in any book, church, 'ology," or ism" of any kind.
They have asked him to take the step that the height

 
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of his calling demands-to know himself, to know his own true nature, and the
nature of every other being. They have shown that the Real Man must assert
himself, and must act in accordance with his own nature, and the
responsibility which the oneness of all nature demands.

Man occupies the most important place in the whole scheme of evolution. He
stands where Spirit and matter meet. He is the link between the higher
beings and those below. He has so to act, so to think and act, in and upon
and with this physical matter that he raises it all up, and gives it another
tendency, another trend. By the very constitution of his nature, by reason
of his being connected as he is in a physical body with all nature, the
Secret Doctrine states that man can become greater than any one of the Dhyan
Chohans and equal to all of them put together. That is the goal which lies
before him-the goal of the 'Kingly Mystery"-the seeing and knowing and
feeling and acting universally. For there is a power in man which enables
him to judge aright; he has the all-seeing eye-the all-encompassing sight
which permits him to see the justice of all things. And always there is
present the power of choice in one direction or another. The questions
before each human being are: Whom will ye serve? Will you serve the higher
spiritual nature, or the body of flesh? WHOM CHOOSE YE THIS DAY?
 

            {FROM a FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER. musings)

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Best washes,

 

Dallas

 



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