Lesson 17
The most difficult thing for a child to realize is that he is a child and cannot do certain things yet. He feels this state will always be in existence. He becomes very frustrated that he is not allowed to drive the family car, not allowed to take the boat out into the lake by himself, that he cannot ride the motorcycle, that he can’t go away on a weekend camping trip all by himself and he can’t fly an airplane. He feels that he is mistreated and that he is unfortunate in some way because he cannot do things that he sees other people doing. This is always one of the temptations of a little one, a child in the New World. He possibly sees other people do things or has heard or read about it and he becomes very discouraged and disheartened that he can’t do these things. He doesn’t realize he is still a child in the New World.
Being in the new spiritual world is much like being a child in the physical world; it takes time for one to grow. As the child learns certain things such as how to get across the street, how to observe traffic signals and so forth, he feels he should be allowed everything, that he has everything, that he is very, very capable. However, those that are entrusted with his care know that he is not capable of added responsibility at this time. A person that may have experienced seeing things differently, experienced a new attitude, experienced a new set of behavior, experienced a New World, a whole new state of being based on love, and hasn’t possibly yet experienced FAITH and GRACE, and has only experienced a certain degree of AGAPE or understanding, might feel that one has experienced everything, that one has “arrived,” and is disappointed to find that possibly he can’t make up his mind yet about certain things; that he can’t see the good in certain things. And instead of seeing that he is a child in a New World he may become discouraged, despondent, and, of course, then the suggestion has caught him and he has to do much work to get back again.
Now as one evolves slowly and certainly, much like walking on a trip from the hog pen to the Father’s house, he is met on the way and given gifts. That doesn’t mean that he has received everything that he will receive. In the story of the Prodigal Son, the son returning home from Egypt who had seen a new value, a new purpose, and a new aim, he was on his way and his Father saw him while he was yet a long way off. He was still a child in his returning; he was walking. The Father ran to meet him and gave him gifts. He put a new robe on him, which means he had a new set of ideas for understanding, a new way of seeing. He put a chain about his neck. A chain in the symbolism represents that he has been given power over certain things, that he could do certain things now. Kings put a chain with an emblem on some of their officers and that showed they served the King and that all the people further down the line, whatever his office showed, obeyed him. All things less than where one is do obey, which is when one makes up one’s mind they all obey. Now we are not talking about people. Man has never been given dominion over man. He’s been given dominion over other things. One of the temptations that comes along when one is small in the Kingdom, in the New World, in the Spiritual world, the same as in the physical world, is that one is disappointed because one doesn’t have everything obey him, but only that which is lower. Now when anyone blames anything, when one is rather despondent because one is a child and doesn’t have all the capabilities of an adult, one becomes despondent and is apt to begin go blame.
One might recall that when one was a child and they wouldn’t let him drive the car, take the boat, or whatever it may be, that he became indignant and began to blame. Anything that one blames one has placed higher than self, I. So if I blame illness for striking me down then illness will not obey me because I am subject to it; it has a chain with a symbol on it representing higher than I will accept. If I blame circumstances then circumstances are higher in the scale of being than I will accept. If I blame some situation for causing me difficulty instead of seeing it as a gift then, of course, I have placed that situation higher in the scale of being than I, and, of course, it will not obey me. I have no way to make up my mind until I see what is and I see the good of the situation and then it is below me. I am observing it instead of it controlling me.
So man does not experience FAITH for a considerable length of time as he grows in the Kingdom, in the New World, as his spiritual body matures. Faith is the greatest power known to man and if he could experience it while he was still little he might misuse it. Few of us would trust a loaded thirty-ought-six rifle to a little child because he doesn’t know how to handle it. He is still subject to indiscretions; he is still subject to many things that happen that he is not fully aware; he is growing in awareness. We might trust him with a little air rifle or a popgun. As he learns to be careful with it, observes and respects the power of that popgun or air rifle, we might trust him with a twenty-two, under supervision. As he proves himself heedful of all situations and as he observes the necessity of controlling the rifle, rather than blaming it if it fires and shoots him in the leg, he will be given, maybe, a larger caliber rifle. Sooner or later he will be given the thirty ought-six and maybe even more powerful guns or other tools of ability. We seldom would trust a little child to take a powerful automobile off the premises by himself. We will let him ride; we will take him where he wants to go. When he shows that he can observe the rules of traffic by walking, we might trust him with a bicycle. When he shows that he can handle it well we might trust him with a more powerful vehicle and finally he can drive the car. Many are driving cars that apparently didn’t take those precautions. They still do not seem to realize the strength and the destructiveness of the possible use of that powerful weapon. Even though it is not usually considered a weapon it can become a very dangerous instrument when one isn’t heedful of its power.
So faith is more powerful than all these things. Man usually doesn’t experience faith right off. He finds that he can see what is and he can see the good of it but he can’t quite make up his mind. He may take this as a limitation that he has failed, but it is not that he has failed. He can begin to see the good of not having faith until he is more mature in the spiritual world. As he understands and sees that he is thankful for not having been given another gift beyond the ones he’s already been given he might be entrusted with faith because he sees the power of faith. He sees the value of it and he knows that very valuable things, valuable abilities, valuable positions or offices are not indiscriminately handed out, that the person must have the maturity before they are given them. One can slowly mature in the spiritual world much as one matured physically in the physical world where one didn’t have certain privileges or certain powers or abilities.
Some of us may be many, many years old and haven’t been given all powers and abilities yet in the physical world, then obviously not in the spiritual world where faith is the most powerful force known to man. The story is told that the Christ said to a fig tree, “Thou shalt henceforth bear no more fruit,” and it was dead that evening. It forthwith withered up. That is a very powerful force. He said, “If a person had the faith of a mustard seed,” a very small amount of faith, just barely beginning to experience faith, that he could say to a tree, “Be thou rooted up and planted in the ocean,” and that it would obey. These are very powerful things. So obviously faith would not be entrusted to a child in the spiritual world. We can be very thankful that it’s not because we might use it in a moment of indiscretion in our youngness in the spiritual world for something that would be very harmful, and we are aiming to be harmless. So GRACE is seeing things as gifts that one never did see as gifts before. And possibly being denied the experiencing of faith for a while is a very great gift. You see, a child never sees that because his parents won’t let him have the automobile when he is not quite capable of recognizing its power or his father won’t let him use the thirty-ought-six rifle or take the power boat out into the lake by himself, he doesn’t see that his father is interested in his well-being. He sees his father as a mean old man who just won’t let him do things. He feels he is very, very capable. And, of course, that is a little trace of vanity that is still trying to entice one back. You know that vanity was a very powerful force and stayed in existence for a long time. While it may be cast out now it’s still rambling around outside trying to get one back. It tells one that one is capable, but self-awareness is constantly observing and seeing that one is still a child in the spiritual world, that one’s spiritual body, frame of reference, is not fully developed. Then one sees the fact that one has not experienced faith is Grace, a great gift, an undeserved good, because we would have grabbed it, right quick. Of course, “We would only have used it only for good,” like the child would have not misused the rifle, the boat or the automobile. But his judgment is not sufficient yet. He has to take things in steps as he can use them and to begin to recognize as Grace many of the things that one has considered to be evil, bad.
So one of the things we begin to reevaluate about now is seeing things differently. We started seeing differently and now we will enhance that ability; we will practice seeing things different. So suppose we head a sheet of paper GRACE, the undeserved gifts extended to me, to I, to the awareness function of X. One of them would be that I have not experienced faith yet and I am thankful that I have not. This is for one who is little in the Kingdom, in the New World, in the world of Spirit. One would be thankful when one is uncomfortable because Spirit is speaking to one, undeserved goods, and telling one that “one has goofed” and to check up and get back on the beam. See where one is stressed either by the environment, inner feeling, activity, or by improper nutrition. One would be thankful for all things that seemingly interfered in one’s initiated aims because it gives one the ability to see if one is maturing or if one still has the tendency to get a little annoyed or feel hurt or whether one is somewhat mature in the spiritual world.
It points out very clearly WHERE AM I? That was the first question we have a record of in the esoteric Teaching, that man was asked, “Where are you?” For a person to know where he is on the scale of being in the spiritual world is of great value. He begins to see what he’s capable of handling and what he still requires for more self-awareness. It is so easy to assume that we already know. Every time we make a discovery we have a tendency to think, “This is it.” But those who’ve gone on before tell us that no matter how far one goes they still make discoveries. Each time he thinks, “This is so great, there could barely be anything more. This must be the ultimate.” But still as he goes on in observing and being aware, being a servant of X, being objectively aware of everything that comes along, not subjective, “How does this affect me?” but the objective, just seeing it, reporting it and its seeming value as seen at the moment. Then one seemingly never runs out of discoveries.
So no matter what we have discovered we’re still children in the New World. Of course, a child discovers how to cross a stream or he discovers how to swim the length of a pool and he thinks he’s discovered the ultimate. But a few days later he discovers something else and he thinks that is the ultimate.
So we’re talking about observing self, being aware, observing all things about us, observing suggestion, observing relationships, observing things we see related and connected in a way we’ve never seen them connected before. We are thankful for every limitation we experience; it tells us where we are; and to be able to answer WHERE AM I is of great, great value. In love, agape, one is also little and is a child, has learned something and is able to see that people know what is right, proper and justifiable. Whatever they do to them is what is right, proper and justifiable, but he possibly hasn’t considered many other situations. So it might be a very interesting thing to begin a series of experiments to see if I can see how any person that I look at is justifying his particular behavior. There is an old saying attributed to the Indians, the original North American citizens, that says, “You don’t know a man or understand him,” which in our words means you can not have agape for him, “until you have walked in his moccasins for a mile.”
So let’s begin an experiment in increasing and growing in LOVE, AGAPE. We will begin an experiment. Take almost every person we see, observe what they’re doing and see if I could justify what he’s doing. After all we have all been conditioned, we know the justifications, and how could I justify what he is doing if I were using the same material that he has, the conditioned, the unexamined self. Can I see how he is justifying what he is doing? I can understand that he couldn’t do anything else because he’s doing what seems right or proper or justifiable to him.
So we will make up a list and we will attempt to be the devil’s advocate. I will see how I could justify from the old pattern of conditioning everything that someone else is doing. That way we will really understand them and we are growing in agape. The ultimate example we have of agape is the Christ on the cross being crucified and to his tormentors below he said, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” He could see very well their justification for nailing him to a cross. He understood and could walk in their moccasins. He could understand that they felt that what they were doing was very justifiable or possibly even right or proper. And when we begin to see that for the people who mistreat others, for the people who are crude, rude, ungentle in every way, for the people who are constantly trying to be helpful, and for the people who are teaching as fact philosophies which they have never examined. In other words, could we forgive the Scribes and the Pharisees, could we forgive those who crucified the Christ?
You see, when we begin to look, and we’re then growing in agape, it doesn’t mean we would use that justification, but that I can SEE the justification the person uses. I’m beginning to truly know the inner states of man. It might be said that I am beginning to read his thoughts. Many people think that reading other people’s thoughts would be a great attribute. It is really impossible to until one begins to consider, there is that being considerate again, considering how they are justifying or feeling that whatever they’re doing is right or proper. Then one is beginning to recall all the conditioning. It is rather a humbling experience. Then one begins to know what all men think because he sees what he is justifying. He sees where that justification comes from and one doesn’t forget that one’s beginning was a slave to conditioning and one doesn’t get the “big head.” One recalls that a very short time ago, “I was a total slave to mammon and to all of his henchmen,”— the basic decisions that said the way to gain non-disturbance was to complain, stick up for rights, please people, believe and do as told by authority, put on a different front and blame. One can see what everyone is doing and then one sees their thoughts; they are laid wide open. It is not a great thing. It is the outcome of a little more understanding of what is meant by agape. It is being able to see from another’s viewpoint and then there is more agape. And possibly when one can see from another’s viewpoint, and agape has increased, one might begin to experience faith.
In the meantime let’s be thankful we didn’t get it because we might forget to be aware of how a man is justifying something and we might think of revenge or we might think of some other sort of thing like that. You see, somewhere it says, “Go and find out what this means: I desire mercy not sacrifice.” Mercy, of course, is the action of agape and we can only have agape as we can understand how the other person feels that what they are doing is right, proper or justified. We can see that he is a slave and that he is obeying an ever-demanding master who demands more, better and different — mammon. And not so very long ago each of us was a slave of mammon. And mammon is still standing out there doing his very best to get us back, and if we are not aware, we are not considering, mammon has an excellent chance. So let’s have as an aim to understand other people’s behavior, their attitudes, their state of being, and knowing that there goes I except by the grace of something that came my way because I was finally questioning the purpose of living a little bit. I questioned mammon a bit and something came to meet me on the way when I was far away and gave me gifts. After all the Teaching is a GIFT. It is the greatest gift this one has ever known.
Copyright © 1973 by Rhondell. All rights reserved. This material is for an individual student’s personal use; it is not to be duplicated or loaned to another.
