THE ETERNAL SEARCH FOR GOD

Today, we return to the Path of the Heart in our journey towards a more satisfying understanding as to the wisdom of mankind’s questioning as to God.  If you feel that I seem to ‘ride the fence,’ do not worry overly–for the fence is the most neutral vista.  Again, I remind you to return to my Wisdom Story of the Great Library containing all possible points of view–the Tower of Babel.

The wise questions are not, “Does God exist or not exist?  Is God present in the Universe?  Is God Being or a Being?” and so on.  The wise question is,”If God is and not God is, if neither God is nor God not is, then, what will you do with your life?”

For what I do with my life is the final Answer, regardless of the Path I travel. I might suggest that all of you go to The Strange Life of the Good Doctor and read the page.

Friends, at the present moment of time each one is paused in time and space, standing upon familiar stones–stones forming the bedrock of a personal pathway traveled mechanically since physical birth. Immediately ahead, the path bifurcates–each separate segment leading onto a different and currently unknown future. Which path will you choose? Will you step boldly and confidently onto the path less familiar? Unfamiliar, though necessary if you are to experience the beginnings of a new segment of human evolution and a new direction of Work. A path demanding from you a thorough and merciless reevaluation of your previous life and goals? Or, will you choose to continue as always? You must choose your future path! Indecision is a choice–a choice of default to the path of mundane existence.

This first lesson is provided so to help clarify the nature of the choice you have asked to be given. I call this bifurcation point in the life of a man or woman, the moment when a person commits to THE ETERNAL SEARCH FOR GOD; a subject of special interest to every student in the great Work. After all, the purpose of consciously traveling the pathway to immortality and the formation of a soul, or higher being body, is to uncover an avenue for escaping from our worldly prison and reuniting with the One Super-Substantial Source responsible for creating and maintaining not only our Ray of Creation, our Universe, but all other Rays. In order to discuss this goal in a meaningful manner, it is necessary to understand the significance of each word contained within the title of this discourse.

Therefore, I am going to ask each of you to consider what each word means. Try to see what you really know about each of these words; see what sort of life experiences are brought to mind when you contemplate each word. Don’t limit your understanding to definitions others have told you or you have simply read in a reference book; for you can only claim right understanding after expending conscious effort; in other words, there are no free lunches in the Cosmic.

Let me give you an example of what I am suggesting. Suppose we take the subject of the influence of the Sun in our life. For myself, an influence is a motivating force which induces me to think, feel and behave in a certain way. An influence may be external or internal, I may or may not have much control over it or my response to it. Fortunately, I realize that I do not have to automatically be controlled by these influences, I can learn how to exhibit choice, learn when and when not to respond to a particular influence. I have learned that I am not, and can not be, the originating cause of influences, for influences are simply the flow of energies controlling the probabilities of certain actions coming to life in God’s Universe. All actions come from God because God is the Sole Creator. All I can do is to consciously apply will so to redirect some of these energies contained within this wonderful Creation so to aid in the fulfillment of God’s Hidden Plans.

Second, what do I know about the Sun. What have I learned through my own efforts and experiences? One thing I know is that the Sun is the center of our Solar System and serves as our source of light and life. I know that the earth revolves around the Sun because I perceive the cycles of the seasons. The Sun provides warmth to the earth so that water can exist as a liquid; for it was in liquid water that life first began and it is liquid water which maintains the health of a living cell. I know this because I have studied the fossils left by early life forms. I know that the mummified remains of the Pharaohs are dry and lifeless. The Sun baths the earth in visible light which is utilized as the energy source for plants producing carbohydrates and oxygen by photosynthesis. I know that plant carbohydrates and oxygen are necessary for metabolism to occur in plants and animals. I know that all cells must have the capacity for metabolism to be considered alive since plants die in the dark and I lose weight when I don’t eat enough. I know that metabolism of organic compounds produces energy for movement, reproduction and mental activity. I know that mental activity eventually leads to more complex forms of consciousness and that advancing consciousness and understanding will be the bridge allowing me to return to my God and even Beyond. I know that the Sun is the source of light and life for our world and that experiencing light and life teaches us love. Therefore, the Sun is our closest representative of the Light, Life and Love of God Who is the real Source.

I trust each of you is beginning to understand what I am asking you to do? Important questions to ask yourself in such situations are: What do I already know about this word or concept? What is my ordinary understanding of it? In what connection have I heard it used before. How has it affected me? What do I want to find out about it?
Let us begin to see what we understand about the expression–the eternal search. To begin, I am going to ask you to try and separate yourself from what you have heard or been taught concerning eternity, the act of searching and God; ask yourself what kinds of internal images actually come to mind from your own being when you use these words or when you hear them used.

For me, the eternal represents something which exists outside the ordinary boundaries of Time. Eternal means forever–without a beginning or an end. Eternal is something that is perpetual. The word eternal comes from the root word Eternity. Before I can understand the eternal, I must understand Time. But since Time and Eternity seem exclusive of each other, I know that Eternity exists in a dimension perpendicular to the flow of Time.
From speaking with other persons, I understand them to believe that Time represents a measure of the directional flow of events occurring in a particular Space. This flow is perceived as being directional as the result of causality operating in the Past; that is, events which have occurred before the current moment of mind activity are thought to have lead to the events of the Present. This chain of causality seems to project back into the very beginnings of Creation and generates the notion of the Future, that is, the expectation that a novel set of events will manifest. Such persons firmly accept the law of cause and effect; and if introspective, will spend much time trying to relate Future effects to Past causes.

An analogy might be helpful. Try curling the fingers of both hands into your palms so to make two tunnels through which you can see light. Place your hands so that the two tunnels are aligned in sequence and hold both hands up to either your right or left eye such that you can peer through the tunnel to the room ahead. As you sight down this tunnel you quickly notice that only a small portion of the room ahead is visible to your eye. This situation is representative of how most persons perceive the flow of Time in their lives, that is, they continuously are looking into their Future along the tunnel of the Past. Consequently, they introduce a number of erroneous beliefs into their lives.

As a result of the “tunnel effect”, such persons perceive Time as a linear sequence of narrowly prescribed events for which Future possibilities are limited at best. Therefore, they become discouraged about the Future since they perceive that even though life is causal, their ability to be consciously causal is virtually nonexistent. They fail to grasp the notion that in actuality the Future determines the Past.

For the general man and woman of the day who is asleep as to his or her actual presence, life is composed solely of the his or her personally recorded events of the Past and his or her expectations of the Future. Instead of being simultaneously Present to oneself and one’s activities, such persons exist only in Imagination and Fantasy, prey to the Automatic Laws of the Universe. Such persons are impotent in directing even the smallness of their day to day Future, they cannot be entrusted the task of directing the greater Future of Adamic man’s spiritual evolution.

Since the average persons lacks the appreciation and the ability to be in the Now, they are unable to see that Time is not a linear sequence of Past causes leading to Future effects; but in reality represents the order of actualization of events occurring in the Now. Consequently, such persons fail to grasp the fact that Causes can only exist in the Future, that Future causes manifest as effects only in the Present. Subsequently, while hindsight may show the tunnel effect as described previously, this new notion of Time constates that the tunnel is only an illusion–the flow of Time is better perceived as the eye of a needle being moved through an infinite set of causes. Once we understand that the Future more appropriately represents a set of causal possibilities rather than the effects of Past causes, we understand how we can insure the continual renewal of our Beloved Order through Work such as that now being done. Because we are taught how to be present in the Present, we can develop an inner unity which is eternal and which has access to the power of the Cosmic necessary to accomplish such ambitious goals.