Circle of Christhood

       "That brings us to one of the most misunderstood points in metaphysical teaching, that of INDIVIDUALITY.

 

          "The Master Christian gave us two spiritual Commandments:  "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."  And, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."  Then, according to John:  "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar:  for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"  So, if we do not love man, whom we have seen, how can we love God, whom we have not seen, since God and man are ONE?  True, that to this finite sense which sees out through limited person, God is invisible.  But, once we get to this high estate, this high realization of spiritual being, when we look out on the world and see every person, every circumstance, every condition, as God appearing, then God is becoming visible to us.  However, until we reach that state, God is invisible to us, and in order to honor God, the infinite invisible, we must honor man as God made visible.

 

          "Now, how do we love that individual?  First, we have to understand individuality as God; we have to understand that God is individuality, the only individuality there is.  But that individuality appears infinitely, and it appears as individual you and individual me.  Then, in honoring or respecting the individual, we are worshipping God.

 

          "That is why at the beginning of this work, I said that the first duty of the disciple, or student, is that of gratitude.  Now, gratitude is a tangible idea, and it must be expressed tangibly.  And it cannot be expressed tangibly in the abstract, therefore it must be expressed TO an individual.  Only, in expressing gratitude to an individual, you are expressing gratitude to the individuality of God in one of Its forms, and you are recognizing God as the source of that for which you are grateful.

 

          "Never should we receive or give out money, never should we take food or drink, without that recognition of gratitude to the infinite Source which, also, is the infinite Source of our own being.  Yet, to do that, but fail to be equally grateful to the individual through whom the good came, would be an attempt to be grateful in the abstract.  It would be holding the head in the clouds without keeping the feet on the ground.

 

          "There are many ways, or forms, of expressing gratitude to the individual.  One form, of course, is with money.  Another, is through recognition.  If only we would recognize the part that each one of us plays in each other's lives, and be willing to let that gratitude flow out to that individual in some tangible form.  It may be in the form of service, it may only be in the form of the spoken word, or it may be in the form of money.  Whatever form it takes, it must come out, it must be expressed, and it must be expressed to an individual in order for it to be expressed to God, since God is appearing to us as the individual." 

 

p. 54  God, The Substance of All Form (original unedited)