Circle of Christhood

Circle of Christhood

Tape 112 Side 1 1955 Kailua Study Group

"Now this I have been taught within. The day is coming when there will be a band of Christhood around the world, a circle of Christhood. Not persons, not people - I'm not speaking of that.

"I'm speaking of a band of spiritual consciousness around the world. You know how it will get there? By these realizations of Christ. The Christ, as Browning tells us, is within ourselves, bottled up there, corked up. We must open out a way for that imprisoned splendor to escape.

"But if we open out a way for the Christ to flow from us, can it localize itself here and benefit only us or must it rush out to wherever consciousness is open to the Christ. Do you see that? Every time that we sit in a meditation, whether we are alone or whether there are two or more gathered in His name and we have no selfish purpose. We have only the desire for this communion with God and that realization comes to us.

"We have allowed the imprisoned splendor to escape, and now it's out in the world. It is doing Its work. It is literally the Presence that goes before this world to make the crooked places straight.

"It is the healing Christ. It is the savior of mankind."

The Secret

From The Monthly Letter, August 1964, Across The Desk- prepared by Joel prior to his transition.

"There is a secret known to the few which must eventually be known and understood and practiced by all.  Peace can be established on earth by one, but more swiftly by two or more, and very quickly by the 'ten righteous men.' This you may prove first in your family, business, professional and community life.  Once you have succeeded, it will not be necessary to ask you to encompass the universe because you will no longer have the power to refrain from doing so.

"Set aside one meditation period each day --- and a few minutes each time is sufficient --- to sit in meditation with the inner ear opened.  That is all: no praying, no asking, no seeking, especially no desires to be fulfilled.  Just meditate with the inner ear open and then go about your business.  Give a specific period to this each day, and do not let yourself watch for results.  In due time, fruitage will appear in some form of harmony within yourself, your home, your family, or your business, art or profession.

"As fruitage appears, raise your consciousness to take in the weather, elections, national and international relationships.  Remember that none of these subjects enters your thought while in meditation.  You may not even think of peace on earth.  Just be still.  Listen with the invisible ear for the inaudible Word.  You are thus ushering in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.    Aloha, Joel."

It is Necessary That You Be Instruments

Tape 5709 side 2

"But since this is a spiritual principle, and is of God, it is necessary that you be instruments through which it is brought further into human consciousness. No one person can cover this globe and lift up the entire world alone.  One person can be an instrument through which it reaches human consciousness, but then it takes thousands and tens of thousands, each being an instrument.  And, just as Mr. and Mrs. Spencer have been instruments that have held and worked with this group, and held them together and started them, so must you draw around you, in time, other groups, other individuals, so that you are an instrument used by God to place this into consciousness." 

Cosmic Law and Realized Christ

Tape 112 Side 1 1955 Kailua Study Group

"Everyone who is at all inclined to be receptive to the voice or spirit of God and in that degree then this realized activity of Christ within me becomes a law of harmony unto you. The realized Christ, the risen Christ, the activity of the Christ within me realized becomes an influence in this entire world.

"I have no way of knowing at this moment where some receptive person in the world may be in a hospital, may be in a prison, in a battlefront, in high political office. It may be anywhere in the world where an individual is sitting pondering or saying,"Oh, God, can you help me? Is there a God to help me?"

"Wherever an individual is reaching out for something beyond the human, the realized Christ of this moment reaches them. The more of the realized Christ that there is in the world, the more the need of the world is being met.

"You have no more idea what takes place through the realization of the Christ in you than I have. I have very little, although I have seen a great deal. For instance, if I were to look around this room and think of the lives that have been touched by the Infinite Way in places where I was not personally known, where nothing of a human nature came into the scene, where my sitting at home abiding in this truth, realizing my conscious union with God until the very flood of it took place within me, the feeling of it, the realization of it.

"That's all I've ever done in my life in this work. That's the only advertising I've ever done, and that's the only effort I've ever made toward helping people is that inner realization of Christhood. "

A Circle of Christhood

THE ART OF MEDITATION

CHAPTER XVIII

A CIRCLE OF CHRISTHOOD

Is it reasonable to expect that there can be a whole group of people in modern times so dedicated to the Christ-life that they will live by actual spiritual contact?  Is it conceivable that a body of students or earnest aspirants on the spiritual path will evolve, who will seriously accept the hypothesis that they, of themselves, are nothing, but that God is all?  Is it within the range of possibility that a group  of people will appear on this earth, who have arrived at that point of realization where life is lived by the Spirit?  Such a group would establish a pattern for the whole world. 

Always there have been isolated individuals who have achieved Christhood by grace, but at no period in the history of the world has it been either realized or maintained by a group.  No one has been able to impart it to a group, because up to this moment no effective way of transmitting the Christ-consciousness to large numbers has been found—at least none that has been effective.  It was imparted by Jesus to the twelve disciples, and out of the twelve only three or four were able to maintain it.  It was taught to several students by Buddha, but only two of them understood it, and of Lao-tse's disciples, only one was able to carry on. 

Today the wisdom of all ages is again coming to light in human consciousness:  "Hear O Israel:  The Lord our God is one Lord."  This teaching of oneness is the ancient secret of the mystics revealed throughout all time by every one of the great spiritual lights of the world.  Every great religious teacher has caught this vision of oneness.  This it is which enables us to unite in that selfsame realization that if I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, then, you are in me, and I am in you; and we are all one in the Father, united in one consciousness. 

Despite the diverse forms of religious worship and teaching prevalent today, men and women of whatever persuasion should be able to unite in this age-old wisdom of oneness.  The teaching of oneness is universal and in no way interferes with the continued practice of our present manner of worship.  In reality, there is no cleavage between "your" teaching and "my" teaching.  There is one Spirit and that Spirit is God, permeating human consciousness wherever human consciousness is receptive.  This Spirit of God works through me for your blessing and through you for my blessing, since we are one in Christ Jesus. 

The world has made great strides forward in religious and metaphysical teachings since those early days of Jesus, Buddha, and Lao-tse; but too much of this teaching has remained mere speculation in the realm of the intellect.  Somehow, somewhere, a group known by their fruits must come into active expression, a group who actually live the Christ life.  They must keep their fingers on their lips, not talking truth, not teaching truth, but living truth, their every act a demonstration of the presence and power of God.  As discord or inharmony flash across their horizon, they will resist the temptation to affirm truth, and instead, turn to that center where the Christ is enthroned and let It make the crooked places straight.  It,, not they, will be the blessing. 

The answer, the solution to all problems, is the realized Christ; let us call It the Risen Christ.  Christ buried in the tomb of the mind will not come forth and do wonders, but Christ risen in our consciousness, Christ raised up from the tomb through meditation and communion—that is the miracle worker of the ages.  It may begin with us and express in the improvement of our health, supply, and environment.  Then, as the Christ becomes active in our consciousness on behalf of those who are receptive to It, It will begin to be an influence in their experience.  Thus, going from one to another, touching a few here, a few more there, eventually, it will encircle the globe. 

Every person who has prepared himself for the awakening of the Christ may become an integral part of this circle of light.  It is not, however, an experience that is possible to every person at this present moment, just as it is not possible to for everyone to earn a degree in engineering or law, without the required preliminary study.  Much as all those who are interested in the deep things of the Spirit would like to include their friends and families as their companions along the Way, this is not always practicable.  Often the members of one's own family or others closely related by ties of friendship, love, or association are the very ones who are the most antagonistic to truth.  They are the rocky or barren soil to which the Master referred.  It is not for anyone to judge or to know who is ready for Soul unfoldment.  That is something between every person and his God.  Eventually, every knee must bend, and ultimately, all will come into their spiritual heritage. 

Spiritual unfoldment must begin with one—always one.  It has to begin in the consciousness of one person.  That consciousness could just as well be yours; that consciousness could just as well be mine.  It all depends upon the degree in which we come into the realization of the Christ.  The realized, risen Christ, active in one person, becomes a potent force in the entire world.  At any given moment there may be a receptive person in some hospital, in a prison cell, on a battlefield, in high political office or low, someone anywhere in the world crying out, "O God, can you help me?  Is there a God to help me?"  Wherever or whenever there is a reaching out to God, there the realized Christ is, in Its fullness.  No one can fully apprehend the widespread effect of the realized Christ when It is loosed in the world.  There is no way of knowing how many people have had healings—mental, physical, moral, and financial—by the very act of reaching out to the Unknown, and, thereby, touching this very Christ, which has been released in meditation by you or by me. 

It is for this reason that I have been asking our students in The Infinite Way to devote one meditation period each day to God alone—not for themselves, their families, their business, their patients, or their students, but for God alone.  In other words, we reserve one period for a meditation in which we go to God with clean hands: 

Father, I seek nothing.  I come to You in the same spirit in which I would go to my mother were my mother available, for communion, just for love.  You are the Father and Mother of my being.  You are the Source of my life.  You are the Soul of me, the Spirit of me.  I have no favors to ask of You.  I come to You for the joy of communion, to feel the assurance of Your hand in mine, the touch of Your finger on my shoulder—just to be in Thy Presence. 

The realized, demonstrated presence of God is the Saviour of the world. 

The time has passed for any one individual to set himself up as the sole representative of the Spirit of God on earth.  Every person must show forth that same Spirit.  If this book can bring to a few the experience of the Spirit of the Lord, then they, in turn, will be able to go out and help others reach this same experience.  The Saviour is the Spirit of the Lord—not a man or a woman.  The Saviour is the Spirit of the Lord, and the Spirit of the Lord must be realized by you and by me individually. 

The most that any spiritual teaching or book can accomplish is to lead the student to the realization that there is a kingdom of God within him and then inspire him with the desire to achieve it.  The most that a spiritual teacher can do is to open the consciousness of those individuals who look to him, so that they may attain the realization of the Spirit of the Lord.  But one teacher, as we have seen in the case of Jesus Christ, could not do this for the entire world—not even for his own disciples, except for the few who were receptive and responsive.  Judas is an example of one who did not respond to the Christ.  Only those with a deep spiritual hunger can be lifted by a spiritual teacher into the God-experience. 

Every mystic throughout the ages has succeeded in opening the consciousness of students to the experience of the Spirit of the Lord.  In some cases, hundreds received it through their teacher.  But the world went on its merry way to destruction, because those who reached this high state of consciousness set up a worship of the teacher rather than a practice of the teaching.  Everyone who through this work is touched by the Christ should dedicate himself to opening the consciousness of others in the same way as has been done for him.  This he can do by being a witness to the activity of the Christ in his own consciousness, demonstrating to the world that anyone with sufficient interest and devotion may be led to the same experience. 

Wherever there is a realized God-consciousness, it becomes an instrument through which God functions in human consciousness.  The activity of the Christ can function through my consciousness, reaching and touching yours to illumine, heal, and supply.  In the same manner, as you are attuned to the Infinite Invisible in meditation, Christ finds an outlet through your consciousness, touching the lives of others, awakening their consciousness, and bringing what the world calls healing to their bodies and affairs.  The activity of the Christ, with no human intervention, flows into whatever human consciousness is opening itself to God's grace. 

The day will come when there will be a band, a circle of spiritual wisdom around the entire globe.  The fabric of this circle will be formed throughout the world by the realized Christ-consciousness of teachers and students.  When this circle has been developed sufficiently, then everybody who seeks spiritual light will be able to reach out and touch the realized Christ-consciousness of anyone in this band of illumined Souls.  Then the world will be uplifted, not one by one, but by the millions.  When this consciousness is released through individual realization in meditation and communion, it can no longer be localized in either time or space and anyone in the world who touches it can attain it in some measure. 

Illumination dissolves all material ties and binds men together with the golden chains of spiritual understanding; it acknowledges only the leadership of the Christ; it has no ritual or rule but the divine, impersonal universal Love; no other worship than the inner Flame that is ever lit at the shrine of Spirit.  This union is the free state of spiritual brotherhood.  The only restraint is the discipline of the Soul, therefore we know liberty without license; we are a united universe without physical limits; a divine service to God without ceremony or creed.  The illumined walk without fear—by Grace.