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.)