Beggars of Life

LEAN on ME.” Direct, simple, unin­volved, isn’t it? An invitation which, if accepted, would instantly cause you to cease the useless “leaning ” upon persons, organizations, books, etc. But first it is necessary to understand this ME, to recognize this ME, to become one with this ME, before you can accept such a glorious invitation.

In the Apocrypha, in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, we see a very definite word being stated about the begging attitude of life. It is so common sense that it is well worth consideration, no matter what its source.

“My son, lead not a beggar’s life; for better it is to die than to beg.

“The life of him that dependeth on another man’s table is not to be counted for a life ; for he polluteth himself with other men’s meat ; but the wise man, well nurtured, will beware thereof.”

“Begging is sweet in the mouth of the shameless; but in his belly there shall burn a fire.”

The beautiful symbology of these verses can hardly go unnoticed, so poignant and powerful is the message. “My son [my body], lead not a beggar’s life.” The old conscious­ness which begs of life the permission to live does not understand the innate power within which does not have to ask favours to perform the works of the Lord. It is amazing that so many are begging-begging in the body, as it were, for the comforts and necessities of life which belong automatically to man.

“The fear [reverence or recognition] of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It is only when man recognizes this Inner Lord of which Jesus so often spoke that he can see the use­lessness and futility of the “beggar” con­sciousness. Most people beg instead of PRAY. They implore a God to do something for them, and cannot understand why He does not do it. They compare notes and find that God apparently is very partial, and is not in any sense of the word moved by the beggar’s plight. The beggar at the temple gate would have continued a beggar if his requests on the outside had been fulfilled.

We have all been beggars—it has often been shameless begging in the name of the Lord, and it has been fire to the digestion. A woman once took an entire book of mine, adapted it -which meant she cut out all the spirit of the message and with her hobnailed mentality went crashing in, wiping her dirty feet all over its pages. As well might she have rushed into the Louvre with a can of black paint and painted a moustache and eyeglasses on the Mona Lisa as to “adapt” an entire book. It was filled with the vibration of her fear of what she was doing, but it was done under the guise of “love-offering.” Imagine the interest that “love-offering” will collect as time goes on. “God is not mocked”—the beggar may not be sitting at the temple gate; he may be on the very altar, but whatever he gets in his bowl will be like “fire to his belly.”

“I have never seen the righteous begging bread.” Do you hear?Neither do you have to “take” from another. You take from “ME.”

“The FEAR [recognition] of the Lord is a fruitful garden, and covereth Him above all glory.”

Awake, thou that sleepest—arise from the consciousness which is eternally depending on something or somebody—and “lean upon ME.”You will find that the moment you begin this “leaning” on ME your life will be replete with blessings and gifts of which you never dreamed.

“Life that is dependent upon another is not to_. be accounted Life,” runs the quotation—the looking to a person for life is a slow poison. It is true that it may come through a person or many persons, but it must be accepted and recognized in God. Else you become a beggar—begging of those who may in many ways be inferior to you. Yet by reason of the fact that the temple of God is with man, every man or temple serves the God-awakened soul, and to the relative sense of things it would seem nothing more than a contradiction to say that dependence upon another gives anything but the true sense of Life. The teaching of Jesus is so contrary to the relative mind that it turns from it with the explanation of its action as imaginary, super­natural.

When you once recognize the INNER Lord—the Father within, or the Christ Mind—and glimpse its power, then you let go of every outside help-every book, teacher, organiza­tion, person, place, or thing—as unnecessary to the God power, and in the letting go of the symbol you gain the principle, and then you can possess any and all of these, in so far as they may be of use to bring about the King­dom of Heaven here and now.

When I take the spirit from the letter I am no more dependent upon the letter. Yet the very letter may serve me in a hundred ways. I am no more bound by the personality of the letter, as it were. I do not have to find it in a certain book, or from a certain teacher, but I can take it from any source, knowing it is the spirit and not the letter that quickens. It is wonderful when this simple understanding dawns upon you. It is as the light of morn­ing; it fills everything; there is no pointing of the light into specialized ways and manners. It comes with its fullness; and so is it when you make the recognition of the PRESENCE here and Now. A sudden illumination takes place within you, and, while nothing may for the moment be changed on the outside, yet the soul of you proclaims, “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see.”

Dependence on anything weakens. “Lean on me.” This does not mean any rash or uncertain acts on the part of the person who hears this word, “Lean on ME.” There is nothing crude, vulgar, or rash in the Power of God. That only happens in the petty personal teaching which of a sudden tries to pattern after the Divine, and hopes by doing some radical thing which it calls penance, in one form or another, to gain favour of the Divinity. There is no favour to be bestowed by God. “My Grace is sufficient for thee” takes care of the Divine Influence which makes favours entirely unnecessary. It is wonderful!

We do nothing on the outside. All move­ment takes place from within. This is a difficult lesson, for the human mind has waited so long for something to take place. But, when it is once seen, plan automatically exclaims once again, “Whereas before I was blind, NOW I can see.” What does he see? He sees things and ideas which cannot be mentioned to the profane who are merely seeking a sign. And so he goes his way. He silently folds his tent and steals away into the secret place of the Father.

The oft-repeated illustration of “the grain of mustard seed” comes up again. If you regard the outside, nothing happens, and it is futile to consider increase, but, once you see through the symbology and recognize the power in the Seed, then you can understand how it is, by the magnifying of the Power, the manifestation will take place. So with the handful of snow which, formed into a ball and started down the side of a snow-covered mountain, arrives at the base of the mountain an avalanche. If you consider the outside and the amount of snow in your hand, you cannot possibly see how this handful of snow can control an avalanche, and it cannot, except the attention be taken away from the symbol and placed upon the power which is going to turn it over and over. . The speed and power are the important things—the accumulation will take care of itself; and so is it with man. If he can keep his attention on the power and let the outside alone, h(: will arrive with increase. Who can stand in the ways of the Lord? Who can accept this glorious revelation? Many want to, but they still imagine it must come through the human thinking or the human limitations. “Leave all; follow ME,”includes the human thinking of and about, and the “working” of, the thought.

It is true that, merging from the physical to the mental, man learns that he is an over­comer, and that he is in the business of getting rid of evil. He believes in, and actually appears to possess, a certain knowledge with which he can overcome sickness. He is always trying to get rid of evil, and this battle of evil goes on eternally in the mental realm. He is for ever trying to get rid of poverty, and so he fights a so-called poverty and its mani­festations—fights it on the outside and on the inside, with deeds and words and thoughts. Sometimes he gets rid of poverty in its most virulent form, but he is yet a long way from the rest that comes from the consciousness of abundance. Sometimes he is able to save himself from the ravages of sickness, but is a long way from being well, because the mon­ster with which he has struggled is still there in the offing, and is only waiting for the oppor­tunity to enter in again and possess. This mentality is the soul of all metaphysics—that is metaphysics as it is generally understood, upon whose banners are glaring promises of release from sin, sickness, and death. But, when you are merely released from these enemies, you may yet find yourself in a middle ground where not much of anything is happening—you are a long way from home, as it were.

Later comes the voice again: “Come unto me, all ye that labour, and I will give thee rest.” The sudden recognition of the ways of Spirit, which are past finding out, dawns on the consciousness, and at once man rises from the temple gates and moves off, not as a cured, hailed, or helped individual, but in an entirely new state of consciousness. He ceases to seek release from any of the negative con­ditions of life, and becomes aware that he is now putting on the positive concepts of life.Hence he no more fights or attempts to overcome poverty: he is seeking the place of substance, and when he arrives at this consciousness all his limited beliefs are automa­tically absorbed. He is functioning in a new consciousness which never experienced the thing called limitation. He is not an over­comer. “Put up your sword” can only take place when you have left the mental plane of life and entered into the place of Spirit, which has a way that no man knows, which causes all the wisdom of man, however time-honoured, to be foolishness. It is a big step for the conscious mind, but it is a glorious new day when once you see you are moving towards the new state of things instead of the place of overcoming.

In the mental realm, after you have over­come poverty or the fixation of poverty which is just a belief in an absence of God, you have yet to prove prosperity. In the spiritual realm, of which Jesus spoke, you are actually moving towards the fulfilled consciousness of prosperity, and all the beliefs of poverty are made nil. It is likewise with sickness. Both sickness and health being limitations of life, why seek either of these states? In reality, what you are seeking is “Me.” and that “Me ” is “Life Eternal,” and so when you merge into the all-life you will find it stepped down into visibility in the thing called health, because it is only in the form of health that you can see it—yet you never see LIFE. So likewise life becomes visible in abundance and in a thousand and one other ways, and so the illustration of the motive power in the handful of snow speaks volumes to the listening ear. It is wonderful!

Be not a beggar of Life. “Go in and possess the land”-the consciousness of the Christ within. Stop looking to people, and stop looking for a new Messiah. Finally the last Messiah has come, done his wonderful sleight-of-hand, and disappeared, and you are cast down to the valley of despondency. You are in a funk because another has come and”let you down” and you have tried all the queer, strange tricks that his”method” taught, and failed. When are you going to make a nice clean end of this foolishness and return to ME? No Messiah is coming, because he has already come into your life, and is standing at the door and knocking to be admitted.

Away with all the foolishness of new doc­trines. “Come unto ME”and let ME reveal myself unto you. If you dare to cast away from you the”sin ” of looking for ME in some glorified teacher of whom you have heard wonderful tales, you will experience the new Life within yourself and all will be well. The old human consciousness is eternally waiting for the Bridegroom to pass by, but hasn’t any oil in his lamp to see him when he comes. He is waiting for another miracle-worker to pass along and do some tricks. He is sure to be disappointed and badly disillusioned.

We laugh when we read in the papers from time to time of certain strange sects who expect the end of the world, and who have in many instances got themselves up in long white robes, of the approved mode, ready to meet God; yet there are hundreds of people to-day who are running about trying to make the ascension.

Do you not know that the only place of ascension is within your own consciousness? Do you think the heavy body weighed down with conscious thinking is going to ascend over anything? Awake, and arise from the dead.

“And what will you do when you are ascended?” “Help others.””You can do that NOW.”

Can you begin to see that as you ascend into the consciousness of the Lord Jesus Christ you are no more under the law, but you are still on earth? “This is the Kingdom of Heaven” gives you plenty of locality. “Be in the world, but not of it,” is only possible when you have ascended to the point of at-one-ment with Jesus Christ. You are then operating under grace, and it is wonder­ful what can take place in you. Not for show *or place or to be known of men. The miracles were given. The moment the curious eye looked for more, he found himself in the desert without loaves and fishes. So when you learn the law of miracles it will be at a time when you, are through with the display.The blatant talking of and about, the false promises, the poison bait of demonstration, will fade away. If you can do the WORKS, you will do them when it is necessary, but never to please a crowd of curious people. There might be some swine among them-and they might trample your pearls into the mire of unbelief again. Do you recall that once Jesus said so much and revealed such deep and hidden things, that they (the crowd) laughed him to scorn? Do you understand how essential it is for you to “leave all; follow ME “?

The ascension so much talked of these days is taking place in you constantly as you turn away from the false gods and follow ME.

 

Walter C. Lanyon