Lesson 24
It has been said that all spiritual writing, sometime called esoteric meaning written with an inner meaning, is all in the nature of a sealed book, a book which one must have the key to in order to open it. If one has the key to open it one finds great riches within. The New Testament is one such book. It has been sealed for endless ages. The Christ referred to it in one place and said that the Scribes and Pharisees had taken away the key of knowledge, the key that opened the book that was then available to knowledge. So as we observe we see that we have a key.
Over these past many weeks we have been making a key that can open many things. Last week we looked at the key that opened a given area, what The Lamp of the body is, the eye. We saw that by putting the picture of man to the side of it that we had a key that opened that. And that 2,000 years ago, at least, it was well known that man was in a conditioned state, that he was serving the four dual basic urges and that he was not obedient to his nature. It was told in a little story. So we are not looking at something new, not something that the speaker invented, not something that has been invented in the area of modern psychology, but something that is a study of man, The Science of Man that has been around beyond all comprehension of ages, as far back no one knows because the oldest writings we can find are still talking about the same thing.
Today we will discuss another area of information and we will try to use a key again to understand it. This time we will read from chapter 7 of the same Book of Matthew starting at verse 13: “Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are there who enter that way. How narrow the gate and close the way that leads to life and few are there who find it.” Now we will skip down to verse 24: “Everyone, therefore, who hears these my words and acts upon them shall be likened unto a wise man who built his house on rock. And the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house but it did not fall because it was founded on rock. And everyone who hears these my words and does not act upon them shall be likened unto a foolish man who built his house on sand. And the rains fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and was utterly ruined.”
Now obviously if we look at this in its very literal terms, the man is given instructions about building houses and that we build them on foundations and not out on a sand dune somewhere. So in its literal meaning it has totally no value to us because we all know enough with our modem technology to put a foundation under a house. In the beginning of it, it says, “Enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction.” Now that doesn’t sound so well. It might be like one saying, “Well, don’t go on the freeway because you’ll get killed. Find a little narrow out-of-the-way road and take that because there’ll be less traffic on it and you won’t get injured.” Of course, that doesn’t make much sense to us today because we find that freeways, if one pays attention, are relatively safe and certainly more desirable. But he’s not talking about a literal gate and a literal road. A way, you know, is a road, the El Camino Real, the King’s highway. So maybe the King’s highway is the broad wide way. And it says that the king of the world is mammon, this world.
We have been looking at that fact that the four ideas of the world were ideals had value, not what is. That everything we should do was to improve this self and other selves so that they would realize the ideal, so that they would have the value that we have put on the illusion called the ideal. It says, “To enter by the wide gate,” which is that of self-improvement by the way of the world, to have ideals and struggle toward them. How many ideals can there be? That’s a broad wide one, isn’t it? It could go from here on because you have an ideal, I have an ideal, another person has an ideal, and we all fight over those various ideals of what ought to be. So that is the broad way. Of course, if one takes the way of self-improvement one gradually, completely destroys self because one is struggling toward an ideal, is frequently disappointed, feels hurt, looks for blame, and all the rest of that vicious cycle.
But it says, “Enter by the narrow gate.” Now the narrow gate means something that is precise. It says that the way or the road is close. The way and the gate are the Teaching. The Teaching starts out very simply, by one simple thing; I will disidentify from the self and observe the self. That is a very narrow little gate. It doesn’t give a lot of ways, it is not interested in self-improvement, it’s not interested in being a success, it is not interested in being a failure or avoiding failure. It is interested in putting light on the self. We talked last week of having light in that spiritual body that was all distorted, cramped and conditioned. So the entering by the narrow gate is to enter by way of the Teaching. And the close road means there is one step at a time and careful attention is paid to it. One does the things that are in the way of the road. One doesn’t just hear about them. In a later part of this particular reading it said: “The man who doesn’t act upon it.” So the man who hears the idea of self-observation and doesn’t act upon it and the other things that are included in self-observation such as observing unpleasant emotions arising and identifying with them and feeling entitled to. Observing the accounts receivable against all sorts of people, against all the things that the self does that holds up the excellent idea to appear to be different. That one doesn’t attempt to achieve or act out a spiritual experience but that one waits until one experience’s it. Those are little signposts along that narrow, straight road. Where it says straight doesn’t mean that it is a straight line, it means that it is close in.
So we have deliberately taken on the act of SELF-KNOWING, the act of disidentifying from that self, from the act of taking account of all the accounts receivable we had against everyone. This is the straight way. We deliberately put ourselves under the Teaching to experiment with them to find out for self. Now in the broad wide way one wouldn’t experiment with anything except some means of self-improvement. One might experiment with improving self by positive thinking which is trying to make oneself believe something one doesn’t believe, one doesn’t see but hopes it’s some sort of magic formula. We might study motivation; we might study sensing more, sensitivity training; all means of attempting to improve self. We might undergo a long sessions of psychoanalysis or we might take up some form of psychotherapy. We might throw over all the usual rules of the games of everyday living and begin to live freely, be strictly on the side of A, turning into a Gentile. Or we might get so tired of that that we might go to the side of B and accept some organization and begin to believe and do as we are told by that organization — really be good. Or we might try to please many people or we might try to put on a new front. We might wear a yellow robe and scrape our hair down to a little bead over the top and chant and sing, or we might sit in states with our eyes closed in reverie and have all manner of dreams, all with what purpose in mind? To be less disturbed. Not to be more conscious but to be less disturbed to gain more pleasant sensations.
You might have heard someone tell you what a wonderful feeling they had when they did so-and-so. Feeling, of course, is sensation. So we are struggling toward sensations when we’re in the broad wide way. Where does it lead? To disappointments. What does disappointments lead to? The next step on the way is feeling hurt. What’s the next one? Looking for blame, what went wrong? What do we find to blame? Possibly some other person, some circumstance, some interference. “The phone rang just as I was about to get into a certain state. I was entering the silence and the phone rang or somebody rang the doorbell, and, of course, their to blame for me not having the great experience that I wanted.” The experience being some sensational experience, maybe seeing a vision, having a reverie that is a very brilliant dream. Maybe we were intent on the drug experience and we used certain drugs and then the police said we couldn’t have those drugs; so they arrested the pusher that was supplying the drugs. That leaves one out. One then looks for blame, one feels mistreated, one feels sorry for self, one feels put upon, and one, of course, begins to use the ideas of the world which all lead to destruction.
One looks for signs and wonders that one has achieved a certain amount: “My sales increased last week. I have more money in the bank this year than last year (that’s not true for the speaker). I have a new automobile. I have a much more pleasant household. My wife doesn’t gritch at me as much etc.” All which are looking for signs and wonders that one’s means of self-improvement have succeeded. But all of us who have been along the road of self-improvement know that sooner or later some second force comes in. This is what is referred to in the reading as “The winds came, the rains fell and the floods came,” in other words a second force, something that was a decided challenge. If we had our house, our spiritual house or the spiritual body built on sand, only hearing words and practicing means of self-improvement, and still no knowledge of the inner man, no knowledge of all the conditioning, some of that conditioning will rise up and act, and, of course, all the signs and wonders that one had so valued are suddenly all gone and the house is utterly ruined.
Again, either one starts back on another program of self-improvement in the broad wide way that leads to destruction down the freeway of the world or one starts again after the house is ruined with the ideas of the School and experiments with them to find out how they work. Really runs an experiment of disidentifying from the self and begins to observe the self in all its many conflicts and struggles within. Begins to observe that it’s building accounts against everyone in sight. That all it ever considers is, “Does this make me comfortable, what do I get out of it, how does it give me any improvement, how does it help me to gain the ideal?” As one observes this one can start the act of self-knowing; leave the broad wide gate and enter the narrow straight way. Begin to experiment and see what’s going on. One may not experience exactly what one likes. One may not like what one sees on this narrow close way. It may be like driving over a narrow mountain road where it curves and twists and its one lane and one moment of lack of attention destroys the whole trip. But if one pays attention and observes the self, which is that road, continues to observe it, one is using the Teaching and one begins to value it because one becomes awake and conscious. One’s eye, E-Y-E, the third eye, the inner comprehension, begins to have light. One begins to see the inner world and that inner world is transformed by X when the light is thrown on it. As long as it is in the darkness, of course, X does nothing about it because it is not reported to X. As one acts upon something one finds out about it.
Now all the Teaching, the words we have been considering, the various practices that we have, no doubt certain people have only done them very lackadaisical. They dug down about six inches below the surface of the soil and said, “This is deep enough,” and they laid the foundation there. The house still will not stand. It will stand a little bit but it won’t stand very long because there will be temptations which we have considered. This is why we are going through these various things that continually give us Teaching that is available to us, to be reminded of, that we can read as well as listen, that we can begin to practice the things of the School. We find that they are continually about us, that it is not some strange material that someone has thought up but that it has been around for centuries and it has been used by all of those who arrived.
Some place in discussing these the Great Master Teacher said, “How narrow is the gate and how straight is the way that leads to life.” You see the broad wide-gate leading to destruction, is death itself. And He said, “How few are there who find it.” Yes, there are few who find it, not because it’s not available but because the key is not recognized for its value and because we sometimes have the key handed to us but we never use it for anything. You see if you had a key to a vault with untold riches of diamonds, rubies, gold and silver, and you never used the key, it wouldn’t be of any value to you. The key is only of value to what it opens to.
The Teaching in itself is a lot of words, but if one uses it as a key it opens untold riches. Riches of peace, riches of serenity, riches of complete comprehension of everything that’s in front so that no longer are decisions necessary for one to go through struggles. One sees clearly, one has a spiritual body, one has a frame of reference that is eternal. It’s not something that is gone by every shifting sand, that today we believe one wind that will improve self and make one self into a magician and that tomorrow we’ll believe something else and we practice it.
You see man basically is somewhat of a child when he is conditioned. The four dual basic urges and the various decisions are all magical formula, magical rituals when they were tried. It was supposed to be magic to cry and it really is a magic cry, isn’t it? Watch a baby sometime. It cries and it gets what it wants. So that is a magic ritual. To be belligerent is a form of a magic ritual. Man believes in violence, that it is a magic ritual and it will get him what he’s looking for, the ideal. He believes that pleasing people is a magic ritual so he passes out compliments, says the appropriate thing, waits on people. They sometimes don’t notice and he gets all upset. He is like a magician whose wand won’t work longer. He says, “What went wrong?” And then he has to starts all over again. Another person believes that believing and doing what he is told by his authorities, saying certain words, attending certain meetings, being at a certain place at a certain time, saying certain words and formulas and certain ritualistic procedures, that they were in some way magical and will entirely convert him. He may even believe that if he is dipped in a vat of water with certain words said over him that he would rise up as a new man. But when he goes out and experimented a little bit, he is still the same. He may think that if he has goes through some long ritual play that it may bring about a complete change in him. But unless he sees that play as being a relation of his inner state and then goes and acts upon it he will only have some interesting trivia to talk about and nothing really has been changed in the inner state of the man.
Putting on a new front doesn’t change the inside. It’s like a little kid putting on a cowboy outfit; it makes him a cowboy. He puts on an Indian suit and he feels he’s an Indian. He takes a stick and jumps on it and he’s riding a horse. And, of course, this is about the way of “I’m trying to put on a front,” being very polite, very kind, very considerate, but it doesn’t change the inner man, it doesn’t build one thing to the spiritual body. All it does is reinforce mammon. It says we’ll be less disturbed if we appear to be different. We’ll only be the Scribe and the Pharisee. It isn’t a magical formula to blame someone. It still does not relieve one of the responsibilities for being obedient to one’s nature. I can blame all day long and still what is, is still there and I haven’t seen the value of it; I’m only blaming because mammon’s system didn’t work. As long as this goes on, man is on the way to destruction. He’s struggling towards an illusion of the ideal. He has not observed the narrow gate. He hasn’t entered and he hasn’t acted upon anything. He may have heard the words, listened to tape after tape, but if he hasn’t acted upon it he’s still building his house on sand, and there will be a second force that comes by and the house will be utterly destroyed — he’ll have to start all over again.
So it behooves us to pay attention. It has been around a long time. And what is the whole purpose of attention? To be aware, aware of the self, aware of the world in which one lives and to be aware that one is of another world, the real world of living beings. One lives in the man-made world and the man-made world is the greatest teacher of all time if we have the key to it. We can be very thankful that we are one of the few who have had the key and that we can enter there. We can be ready to give the key to any worthy seeker. But one doesn’t give the key to a treasure to just any passer-by. That person must first demonstrate by something or other that they are really deserving of being given the key.
A little way back we might read in the same book that, “One doesn’t give that which is holy to dogs and one doesn’t cast pearls before swine.” Obviously nobody needs the literal instruction. You wouldn’t take something you considered to be holy and give it to a dog. You wouldn’t even give a book, ordinarily, to a dog unless you were teaching him to carry it and you certainly wouldn’t give him a book you valued, and to be holy is something valued very greatly. One doesn’t go out and throw their jewels before pigs. So it is another thing that is being talked about, the key, which is the key to something holy that makes one whole and complete. It is a jewel. It is a treasure. It is not passed out indiscriminately any more than you would give the key to your home that you live in, with all your furniture, clothing and everything that is there, you wouldn’t give the key to just any passer-by. In fact if you should accidentally lose the key, in all probability you would have all the locks changed on your house.
So when one has something holy one has something valuable entrusted to one. One doesn’t use it indiscriminately; one doesn’t pass it out to animals. This is another way of saying, not that humans are dogs or pigs, but that the conditioned man, that mammon is a pig and that one doesn’t give things to people who are serving mammon because they will do what with it? They will try to use it as a philosophy to improve themselves so that they will have more ideals. Of course, the Teaching won’t work that way; it’s so designed; it protects itself from that use. They can get some counterfeit but they can’t use the Teaching for that. “And then they will turn and rend you,” which means they will use every means of the tricks of mammon to discourage you, to destroy you, to saying that you are dealing in something that is a fraud and all manner of other things.
Now if we were trying to use the Teaching for means of self-improvement it would be a fraud, wouldn’t it? But we’re not interested in self-improvement. We are interested in being conscious, of having inner light, of seeing what is and of seeing the value of what is. Then the Teaching is valuable.
If I gave you a key that fit a great treasure and told you it fit a corncrib then you wouldn’t ever think of using it for the treasure. You’d only use it for the corncrib and it wouldn’t fit there so you would probably say that I was lying to you.
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.
