As seekers after spiritual awareness, we become able to relate to the essential goodness in all that exists. This principle is at the heart of the philosophy in the readings.
Know the first principles: There is good in all that is alive.
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In fact the capacity to recognize the essence of good behind the personalities or actions of those whom we dislike is an initial step along the path.
Hold rather to those things in which, in thy dealings with thy fellow man, ye may see only the pure, the good! For until ye are able to see within the life and activities of those ye have come to hate the most, something ye would worship in thy Creator, ye haven’t begun to think straight.
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For what purpose do we, as spiritual beings, have experiences in the earth? The readings indicate that it is to magnify the good in life. In doing so, we grow in attunement with the divine.
Thus the purpose of each experience is that the entity may magnify and glorify that which is good. For, good is of the one source, God, and is eternal. Then as an individual entity magnifies that which is good, and minimizes that which is false, it grows in grace, in knowledge, in understanding.
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Experiment: Select one person whom you have had trouble loving or appreciating. Each day for at least a week make a special effort to see the good in that person. Let your thoughts, words and actions express your desire to relate to that which is good in that person. Record your experiences.
“What we once despised now we cherish …”
A book by Merlin Carothers entitled Power in Praise encourages us to praise God for our difficulties. Indeed, it is adversity that challenges us to let go and allow unknown powers and capabilities of the soul to emerge. This principle applied to physiology is found in vaccinations, in which a small dosage of a disease culture is placed in the blood stream to awaken the body’s defenses, which have been dormant.
Many of us face adversity or difficult situations very frequently in our daily lives. However, too often we demand perfection in our outer circumstances. Things of the material world are always imperfect and always seek a complement. Jesus’ teaching, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48) calls upon the spirit of man to experience its perfection. His kingdom is not of this world and we cannot demand our circumstances in materiality to be without trial and imperfection. In fact, it is the situation which we have despised and wanted most to be rid of that contains within it the most precious gift. In the words of Carl Jung:
“There is no light without shadow and no psychic wholeness without imperfection. To round itself out, life calls not for perfection but for completeness; and for this the ‘thorn in the flesh’ is needed, the suffering of defects without which there is no progress and no ascent.”
(Jung, Psychological Reflections, p. 281)
When we catch a vision of the qualities that potentially can be awakened by a difficult situation we can actually come to cherish the experience and praise God for the opportunity to grow in that particular way.
Experiment: Choose one life situation that you find yourself frequently despising and wishing you were free from. Write down (1) the situation and (2) constructive qualities it challenges you to find within yourself to cope with it. Throughout the week, each time you find yourself despising this situation, say a short prayer of praise to God for the opportunity to learn these constructive qualities.
Example:
| situation: | a physical impairment that limits my ability to function normally in life |
| constructive qualities challenged to awaken: | patience trust in others |
 | 7Fellowship |
“As we manifest love toward our brother, we increase or awaken our consciousness to a more complete fellowship with the Father…”
Having experienced the reality of the unseen world through faith, and having seen the purity of purpose within our own souls through virtue, we can establish a personal relationship with the Creative Forces through fellowship. We may have thought of fellowship in terms of being loving to other people; yet the readings use the word “brotherhood” for this type of experience and reserve the word “fellowship” for our relationship to God.
Q-2…. Please describe the difference in fellowship and brotherhood.
A-2. One to God, the other to man.
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These two kinds of experience are, of course, closely tied to each other. Fellowship, or the awareness of our personal relationship to God, gives rise to a desire to show brotherly love to others. Showing such love to others reminds us of that essential relationship we have with the divine within.
Q-1. Can brotherhood exist among men without true fellowship?
A-1. Fellowship is first brotherhood, a pattern of—or a shadow of—what fellowship is; for, as has been given, all one sees manifest in a material world is but a reflection or a shadow of the real or the spiritual life. Brotherhood, then, is an expression of the fellowship that exists in the spiritual life.
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The dual nature of the relationship between fellowship and brotherhood is illustrated in this diagram.
An important criterion stated in the readings for us to meet if we would know fellowship concerns a personal individual response to the call from God to serve His purposes in the earth.
In this manner may these truly become the living lessons. Not one dependent upon another, but all conscious that they have been called, and unless they answer in person they may not have that whole fellowship with Him that is promised to those who have vowed and bowed to Him.
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Experiment: Before each meditation period have a short prayer time in which to awaken fellowship. In prayer affirm your awareness of being called by God to do His work. Express your desire to answer personally this call in all aspects of your life.
“We need not flatter him or lead him to overestimate his strength; rather we should help him to understand himself and to know that he has a friend who will stand by in time of need—one who will extend a hand if he is about to fall into temptation.”
How can we demonstrate our friendship and brotherhood to another? How can we show that we truly care about his difficulties and growth? One answer is so simple that we often forget to do it: listen. Of course, listening means more than just not talking. It means an attentive spirit that perceives what is behind the words and then is able to reflect (not always verbally) that which is purposeful and good.
There are many reasons why we don’t listen to others and therefore fail to help them know themselves better. One reason is that we often get caught in trying to carry out a particular method or technique we have learned, which supposedly will make us better helpers. This is the problem with psychology and counseling theories that do not teach the helper to know his own divine nature first. Too often such a person fails to listen because he is concerned with effectively following through on a certain technique. Carl Jung warns against such an approach in his writings about people who seek to be helpers to those in need.
“An ancient adept has said: ‘If the wrong man uses the right means, the right means work in the wrong way.’ This Chinese saying, unfortunately only too true, stands in sharp contrast to our belief in the ‘right’ method irrespective of the man