 | 6Virtue and Understanding |
“Let us open ourselves as channels, and have complete faith in God, for the battle is the Lord’s. It remains to be seen what we can do when we give ourselves unreservedly into the hands of the Father.”
The search for God is not a one-way process. God is also searching for man, searching for ways to express His love for man which will be understood and received. As seekers we can easily become frustrated if we imagine that the spiritual path is toward a static, inactive goal. Yet an analogy which is probably more accurate is that for every step we take toward God, He takes many toward us.
Throughout the Search for God material, we have found the principle that man’s purpose in the earth is to be a channel to others of the spirit of love. The readings say that God, as well, has a specific purpose in the earth: to glorify each individual.
… as God’s purpose is to glorify the individual man (or soul) in the earth, so the highest purpose of an individual soul or entity is to glorify the Creative Energy or God in the earth.
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The problem comes when man tries to glorify himself: A deeper understanding of the laws of the universe will reveal to us that our individuality has meaning to the Creative Forces. Spiritual evolution is moving towards the infinite, expressing through and glorifying each individual. Profound changes can take place in our lives when we trust that there is a power and intelligence beyond our conscious selves that desires our good. With that kind of trust we are more and more able to let go of worrying about our own needs and focus on serving others.
“But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.” (Matt. 6:30-33)
Experiment: Select an area of your life in which you have recently been worried or especially concerned about making things turn out right (e.g., a financial worry, concern over a specific relationship). For at least a week turn this particular area of your life over to God. Affirm each day that God seeks to express His truth through this part of your life. Listen for and be aware of His presence active in shaping your life. Record any meaningful experiences that occur as you work on this experiment.
“To establish a common ground, let us say that to be true to that which is pure in our purposes is virtue … Virtue is pureness of heart, pureness of soul, and pureness of mind that come through His Spirit bearing witness with our spirit.”
Purity is the key word in the definition of virtue from the readings. This is a very different usage of the word purity than one that implies a “do-gooder” or moralist. There has been a strong reaction in our culture to the concept of virtue because for so long a kind of false virtue that amounted to repression was taught. However, our society has learned that, while allowing the expression of everything which was formerly repressed may be helpful for some people, it does not result in enlightenment.
The time has come to redefine virtue and purity. A part of this new understanding is that these two qualities of the soul exist in and of themselves. Purity is not the absence of that which is unclean or bad. Purity always exists within us, no matter what we are experiencing. As we were created in His image as spiritual beings, here is a state of wholeness and purity within that already exists. Moralists have caused trouble for mankind when they have insisted that each individual must create purity out of his condition of sin. In taking this kind of position, the moralist denies that this pure image of our divine nature already exists and simply must be allowed to express itself.
So important is this new understanding of purity that the readings prophesy that only those who can contact the essence of purity within themselves will be able to appreciate and fully participate in the New Age.
Q-13. Is the Aquarian Age described as the “Age of the Lily” and why?
A-13. The purity. Only the purity as it represents will be able to comprehend or understand that awareness that is before those who seek the way.
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Experiment: Look for purity in your life and in the lives of others. Consider purity in the way it has been defined above. Watch for expressions of the purposefulness of the soul rather than for situations where inharmonious or confusing tendencies have been minimized. Record your observations.
“Knowledge assists when it is in harmony and in accord with the Ideal; otherwise, it may become a barrier, a curse, and a dark pit from which it is hard to escape.”
Consider the following analogy as a tool for understanding this passage from the Search for God material. In a darkened room a flashlight illumines a beautiful statue, casting a silhouette on the wall nearby.
This analogy is suggested in “The Cave” by Plato and in the following passage from the readings:
… that we see manifested in the material plane is but a shadow of that in the spiritual plane.
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The light is symbolic of the one force—the energy of the spirit that gives life. The shadow represents the projection of spiritual reality into (a) materiality, and (b) the realm of rational thought. The statue—representing a pattern within the soul—is of a greater dimension and of a richer meaning than its projection. A person might look at the shadow and have intimations of the nature of the actual statue, yet never experience the statue itself. In the same way, we can have knowledge of a subject (even of a spiritual law) yet never experience any more than the shadow of its real meaning. When we settle for just knowing about something (the verbal or rational expression of a deeper truth), we repeat the process by which we as souls got caught in materiality. We were trapped in a physical conception of life by focusing our attention upon the shadows and forgetting their source or failing to experience that which was behind them.
However, the shadows can be helpful to our spiritual search. We must function in a world of material expression and rational thought. It is when these are coupled with an ideal that we grow in awareness. To extend the analogy we have:
The ideal points the way back to the source from which our physical world springs. The ideal reminds us to take the knowledge we have, experience its reality and not settle for just words or ideas. Knowledge not lived and experienced (just shadows)—knowledge not joined to an ideal—is sin, in the sense that we find ourselves separated from the source from which life comes.
Experiment: Choose a spiritual law of which you have rational knowledge, yet have not known through experience. Write down that law in as clear and concise a way as you can (e.g., whatever you are willing to give to others will come back to you). Each day for at least a week pray for a deeper experience of the meaning of that law and be open in your life for such experiences and awarenesses to come. Record any occurrences which give you a greater experiential understanding of this law.
“What we do not possess we cannot give. What we do not live we cannot teach others to live.”
One of the fundamental causes of problems in human relations is one person demanding of another something he should be doing himself. Not only does this cause friction between people, it also sets up a tension within the soul of the demanding person. To require others to live a truth that we haven’t yet lived takes us back to the essential misconception