MIND IS THE CONNECTING LINK. -- PART TWO

Continuing a brilliant teaching given us by the Masters of the Far East....


A CHOICE

Thought, operating on the plane of the intellectual, raises the vibrations of the body to a point which corresponds to liquid. On this plane, thought is neither wholly material nor wholly spiritual. It is vibrating like a pendulum between materiality and spirituality, but there comes a time when one must choose which one you will serve. If you choose materiality, a world of confusion and chaos awaits one. But if you choose the spirit, one may ascend to the dome of the temple of God in man.

This state of thought can be compared to the gaseous in matter, which is elastic and tends to expand indefinitely. God always leaves it for a person to say if they will control their fluidic stream of thought in the direction of those celestial heights which bears one above the fog line of doubt, fear, sin and sickness or let their thoughts sink to the sordid depths of the animal in man.


CONNECTING LINK

If, in thinking of mankind as a trinity of spirit, mind and body, or we consider it principally from the standpoint of mind, or soul, we shall se that humanity occupies a position between two great extremes of mental activity, the lower of which is the body, and the higher, the spirit.

Mind is the connecting link between the visible and the invisible. Operating on the plane of the senses, the mind becomes the seat of all the animal appetites and passions. It is the serpent in man´s Garden of Eden which beguiles him into partaking of the poisoned fruit.
When Jesus said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up," he was not referring to the raising of his body on the cross but to the elevation of the soul or mind above the sense delusions. Standing between spirit and body, though separated from neither, the soul or mind is capable of thinking even lower than the brute thinks; or it may enter into conscious union with pure spirit where there is an abundance of peace, purity and God Power.


PERCEIVING THE IDEAL 

When the "son of man" (our lower nature) is lifted up to that realm in which he/she rises above the fallacies of the physical realm, one thinks and acts on the plane of pure intelligence. There one discriminates between those instincts which one shares with every other animal and those divine intuitions which one has in common with God.
When a person thinks on a plane with pure spirit, the soul enters consciously that realm wherein it perceives the ideal of things, rather than the things themselves. It is no longer dependent upon the senses but, with clearer vision, it sees the broad horizon´s grader view. It is here that truth is revealed by Divine Intelligence and speaks the inspiring and health-giving message.

When the "son of man" has been lifted from the depth of his material world and has been surrounded by pictures of tranquil beauty and the refinement of the mental world, after a time one is seized with a healthy dissatisfaction and the ever-upward urge of the soul bears one to higher realms. There one no longer sees the pictures of tranquillity, but dwells in the land of tranquillity, surrounded by perpetual beauty. One has glimsed the inner and to one that has become the all; and the outer has become the inner. One now lives in a world of causes where before one moved in a world of effects.


TRIUNE MAN 

The spirit of triune mankind is pure intelligence, that region of one´s being where neither sense testimony nor human opinion has any weight against ascertained truth; it is the Christ within, or the Son of God in the son of man, the discovery of which sets at rest doubt and its discouragements. It is from this pinnacle of one´s being that one views all things with the clear vision of the educated soul. One beholds more things in heaven and upon Earth than are dreamed of in any philosophy. When you have learned that you are not a body with a mind which is ruled either from within or without, but that both can be made obedient servants to your real spiritual Self, you have now brought into expression that God-given dominion with which you were originally endowed.


SPIRIT IS OUR ESSENCE

Spirit is the supreme essence of mankind´s being. It is never diseased and never unhappy for, as that great soul, Emerson, says, "It is the finite that suffers. The infinite lies stretched in smiling repose." Job of your Bible told you that man was Spirit and the breath of the Almighty gave him life. It is indeed the Spirit in mankind which give life and that Spirit rules one´s lower activities. Spirit issues commands with authority and all things become subordinate to righteous rule.

A new era, wrapped in the garment of approaching day, is dawning in the hearts of mankind; and soo again wil the virgin Spirit of God shine forth from the heart and the door again will open, by which all who will may find entrance to a larger and fuller life. Young, vibrant, with perennial youth and hope and endeavour, the soul of humanity stands on the threshold of a new era, more glorious than any other that has brightened the sky since Creation´s dawn. The Star of Bethlehem shone brighter at Jesus´birth than it had before but soon its brightness will be like a noonday sun, for this new Light foretells the day when the Christ is born in the hearts of all mankind.


(Article from "The Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East" Vol. 2.)

MIND IS THE CONNECTING LINK -- PART ONE.

The following is a brilliant teaching given us by the Masters of the Far East....


THOUGHT ACTIVITIES

As the body represents the lowest degree of thought activities, so the Spirit represents the highest thoughts of Divine Mind. As the body is the outer expression of thoughts, so the Spirit is that in which the form takes its initial impulse direct from the Divine Mind. It is the immortal and real Self, in which reside all the potentialities of Divine Mind.

The thought atmosphere is a real, substantial thing and has in it all that makes the body. So many people consider the things that they cannot see as unsubstantial; and although they are told, over and over that they cannot conceal themselves, they go right on believing that they can. It is well for us to know the truth that we carry around with us the open book of our lives, out of which all mankind read whether we realise it or not.

Some people are good thought readers, while others are dull; but all can read a little and we cannot conceal ourselves. Also our thought atmosphere is constantly precipitating its slowly cooling words on our body and there it is seen by all. We can, with a little practice, feel the thought force of this atmosphere that surrounds us and gradually gain a realisation of its existence as real as that of the outer world.


ALLIANCE WITH GOD

We have learned that just as mankind may touch the earth with their feet, so on the wings of aspiration one may soar to celestial heights. Like those of old, mankind may walk the earth and talk with God and the more they do so, the more difficult it will be for them to discover where Universal Life ends and where individual existence begins.
When mankind forms an alliance with God through spiritual understanding, the boundary line between God and man disappears. When this point is reached, one will know what Jesus meant when He said, "I and my Father are one."


THE TRINITY IN MANKIND

The great philosophers through the ages have accepted the idea of man as a trinity but it never was their belief that he/she has a triple personality. They have considered a person a being who in their nature is triune.

The tendency to personalise all things has degraded that which is called the Blessed Trinity into the impossible conception of three in one, when it can be best understood as the Omnipresence, Omnipotence, Omniscience of the Universal Mind, God. As long as mankind considers the Blessed Trinity as three persons in one and as something that must be accepted even though it cannot be explained, they will dwell in the wilderness of superstition and thus, of doubt and fear.

If the Triune nature of God is spiritual rather than physical, then the trinity in man must be seen from a mental rather than from a material point of view. One of the wise philosophers has said, "Despising everything else, a wise man should strive after a knowledge of Self, for there is no knowledge that is higher, or that brings more satisfaction of power, than a knowledge of one´s own being". If a person knows their real Self, they cannot do otherwise than discover their latent possibilities, their concealed powers, their dormant faculties.


SPIRITUAL IGNORANCE

Of what avail, if a person should gain the whole world and lose their own soul?? Their soul is their spiritual self and, if one truly discovers one´s spiritual self, one can build a whole world if one is serving one´s fellow man by doing so. We have learned that he who would attain the ultimate goal must search the depths of one´s real Self and there one will find God, the fullness of all good. It is because mankind is a trinity in unity -- composed of spirit, soul, and body -- that, in a state of spiritual ignorance, they have the tendency to think on a level with the lowest degree of one´s nature, which is the physical.

The ignorant person looks to the body for all the pleasures one gets and there comes a time when one gets from the senses all the pain that one can stand. What one does not learn through wisdom one must learn through woe and, after repeated experiences, one will not deny that wisdom is the better way. Jesus, Osiris, Buddha and Muhammad all said that with all our understanding, we must get wisdom.


(Part Two  -- Write the title in search box, top left, adding "Part Two").

 
(Article from "Life and Teaching of The Masters of the Far East" -- Volume 2.)