The Blaze of Life

“THE Lord in the midst of thee is strong and mighty” — the Lord, the Power, the Life, in the midst of the burning bush which blazes forth and yet which consumes not — which at the same time consumes that which is not — is strong and mighty. The Blaze of Life which you have heretofore thought of as a destroying flame proves to be a dazzling white light which shows the nothingness of that which it formerly seemed to consume.

There is nothing in the Kingdom of Heaven that needs to be destroyed. A seed that has expanded through the time and space belief of the human thinking has not been destroyed, but fulfilled. The grub that, through the slow motion of time and space thinking, becomes a ‘butterfly, is not destroyed, but fulfilled. So you will find that you have not great areas of evil in your mind and life to be destroyed; but vast amounts of unreleased joy, happiness, and expression to be set free.

As long as the eye is double you are a believer in hell — a purifying fire which is to consume something which you promptly say is nothing. What kind of mental gymnastics is this? You may say that you can prove that it has to be destroyed — you can cite Scripture to that end — but, having the double eye of good and evil, you have never yet read the real Scriptures.

The Blaze of Life within you, if misinterpreted, may cause you to commit that which is designated evil. A bank robber’s original idea is good. He desires to inherit the substance of mind, expressed in the symbols of the workaday world; but his interpretation is bad. Immediately upon receipt of the desire to possess substance he translates it into terms of his limited universe. He finds it impossible to attain in any of the legitimate avenues, and so he proceeds to break human law in order to obtain it. His wanting the substance is not wrong; where he falls down is in looking to the appearances, and finding them limiting and impossible, accepts them as real and attempts to set them aside.

The first tendency of man, after he has felt the urge of the oncoming good in his life, is to look out in the world of illusion and see the limitations that are about him. He immediately judges — decides whether it is possible or not — whether it is reasonable or not. If he finds it reasonable with the human understanding, he proceeds to bring it into manifestation by human channels; but, if not, he may turn criminal and attempt to produce it that way.

No wonder, then, that the Master said, “Judge not from appearances, but judge righteous judgment.” If you are looking to the appearances of the human life, almost anything is impossible, because it is subject to chance, destiny, fate, or what you will. When man learns that the life within the temple, body (embodiment), is a Blaze of Life, he will be able to see with this Blaze past the human barriers, of whatever nature they may be, and perceive the object of his desire in full manifestation.

Judging righteous judgment is accepting the words of the Inner Lord, “Before ye ask I will answer, and while ye are yet speaking I will give it unto you.” Is this so, or is it a lie? Answer — you who read this page. Are you still playing with words? Do you still reel off metaphysical statements, and find your coffers empty and your life cold and unexpressed? I am the Blaze of Life. Can you see how the light of this Blaze can search the joints and marrow, and how the stupid repetition of words will fall like shadows on snow? Can you see what “Be still and know” will do for you, instead of rushing about to find a healer or teacher — or copying a statement down out of a book or a lecture to repeat a thousand times?

Can you see what the Blaze of Life will do for you? It is sharper than a two-edged sword. It catches you eventually as you ride along on the way to Damascus, all proud of your attainment — you, the official stone-caster — you, the consecrated one. Is one more consecrated than another? Are not all of the same substance of life? Is not the Blaze of Life in every man who will turn within and find it?

So wonderful, that Blaze of Life within you which is the perfect expression of your True Self. Without Life and Light there is no expression — other than this it is but a borrowed light, a flicker on the mirror of the human mind. The Blaze of Life within you is that White Dazzling Light which illumines all you say; the most commonplace words become alive and full of fire — the most ordinary events become great way markers on the path of the new pilgrim. You, even though you be a simple carpenter or tender of sheep, will with this light find the gates of the King’s palace flung wide open to you. You, though you be a fine nobleman, shall find the Blaze of Life dispelling the hateful bondage of a poseur. Your fatigue of always keeping up a pretense shall cease, and you shall find quiet and peace, and pearls and rubies shall drop from your lips rather than the hard worthless gold which formerly bought you nothing but the fawning of monkeys.

You, with the picture of your self-expression hidden away in the shadows of limitation, shall suddenly find it illumined by the Blaze of Life — it will become alive and active, and, strange as it may seem, you will find that all the waiting you have done will have amounted to nothing — you shall take up the expression at that point which will cause you to know that nothing has been lost — not even time. O glorious Blaze of Life, that looks through everything, and sees the Reality of Being — the Now of Life and Light.

The halo is not something projected by supernatural vibrations, but a perfectly natural emanation of light which escapes and is visible even to the eyes of the double minded. He wishes to fall down and worship Jesus, and gets the stern rebuke, “Call not me good.” Seeing this emanation in terms of success and joyous abandon, the human mind tries to flatter it and fails — tries to destroy it by every way and means he can contrive, and fails. Might he as well try to destroy the light of the sun by thrusting a sword into it, as to destroy the Blaze of Life which proceeds from the I AM within — the soul who has awakened to his true identity.

As light consumes darkness and yet does not consume it, so the Blaze of Life consumes the darkness of human thinking, and the glorious Divine indifference to appearances from this height always brings results. The sick are healed and the poor are fed and the good spell (gospel) is preached without any conscious effort. What is all this worry and flurry about making the world good and getting rid of evil? You can only get rid of that which is within yourself. Perhaps you do not like this — more than likely you are one of the consecrated ones, one of the appointed ones — but remember, I stood not in pulpits, but in the stable, and was associated with those you called harlots, wine-bibbers, and sinners. Remember that I AM not any more in your holy churches, with all their rules and regulations of who and why, than I AM in the lowest dive. Dare you to deny this? Then you dare to say to Me that I AM not omnipresent. You dare to say that I AM more present because of you and your chattering words or your idle thought about making Me appear. You shall see in good time.

I AM the Blaze of Life within you — I give life to the dead and dying by recognizing the eternality of life — I AM that which can again establish the Lazarus, even though to all the human reasoning it is impossible. I AM the Doer of the Impossible — I AM the one and only expresser — and I do not find it exciting or miraculous that my good should come into manifestation without effort. I AM effortless, like the light breaking across the skies of night — your skies of night. Even as you read this I AM ready to break across your consciousness and cause you to see beyond the limitations of your human thought. I AM the Blaze of Life. “If ye be in the Spirit [consciousness] ye are no more under the law.” The law of what? The law of your own belief. If ye be in the Spirit, do not fall down and say it is hard to be in the Spirit. You are at this instant, and always have been, in the Spirit of Life — only the holy torch which is within you was not fired into flame by pure recognition of the God Presence in everything, here and now and always.

Awake, thou, across the black night of trying to make Me appear; behold, I stand at the door and knock — not as some strange historical character, but as a living, breathing, pulsating life — a Blaze of Life which has come finally into expression. Do you hear? You who read this page? Yea, this line? I AM looking through your eyes; let Me illumine the page for you — let Me illumine life for you and cause you to see the flower before the seed and the bird before the egg.

Be still — do not attempt to blow the Blaze of Life out, or make it flicker to suit your poor human capacities. You will begin now to appropriate some of the things which I could not tell you of back in Jerusalem. You will begin to absorb some of the good which is all about you. You will be quiet. Yes, you who read this page, your chattering will be over — you will feel My presence, and after that nothing will matter, and all the idle trying to demonstrate Me will pass — will be lost in the Blaze of Life which will reveal to you that there is little need of demonstrating that which is present in all its fullness. You will go by the way giving — giving — giving — such a precious substance that even your gaze resting upon so-called evil will transform it. The halo which will emanate from you will not make you an impossible saint of the early-day Christians, but will be the light which you will carry into the everyday world, and which as you go on your way will fall into many a basement dwelling and make it a palace.

Again will come to your remembrance (for when you recognize the Blaze of Life you will not be a healer, but a revelator of the Isness of the Kingdom here and now) the glorious and Divine indifference — Divine indifference because it does not recognize the two powers, one good and the other evil, but the Oneness of the Spiritual Universe, which by reason of its one-ness and unity becomes indifferent to beliefs amassed from the judgment of appearances. Healing will flow into expression as naturally as light dispels the shadows. Why should one, knowing the nature, then, of shadows, not be indifferent to them — regardless of how real they may appear? He is divinely indifferent to them, and knows that nothing he does or attempts to do with a shadow will change its essential nature; but, recognizing the truth that with the coming of light the end of the shadow automatically takes place, he turns his attention to light.

I AM the Light of this (present) world. I AM always very near, as near as you yourself are to any condition or situation. I AM a light which is set upon a hill, thereby illuminating all the valleys and ravines of human belief. The light piercing the dark caves of the earth reveals precious stones, unseen by the human eye unaided by the light. The Light of the I AM pierces the deep recesses of your human thought, and finds hidden there royal diadems of jewels of attainment — such jewels as are beyond all price. They are there in you, awaiting the recognition of the Light within.

When you identify yourself with this glorious Light of the within, and are God-conscious of its presence, then will your words shoot forth on streams of lightning and illumine the way for not only you, but for countless others. It will be with the impersonal and impartial giving of this Light, that greater effulgence will come to you — the halo shall be extended, ever caking in newer and fresher mansions in the Father’s house. In the language of the Scriptures, you shall enlarge the borders of your tent.

You cannot bring the Light as something you carry in your hands or something you force into expression by so much thinking, but you show forth the Light by reason of being the Light yourself. The whole process will become more and more unconscious, and hence more and more natural, reliable, and productive of results. “Blessings, blessings, blessings — so many you cannot count them” will become true. So automatically will the Power of God function in your life; you will presently be swallowed up in it, and be unable to sort out demonstrations of the Power and talk about them. So many blessings you cannot count them, you will not be seeking little gifts of the Spirit; you will come and lave and drink and eat.

“Eat my flesh and drink my blood” has small comfort to a helpless sinner — as taught by theology; but it is a wellspring of beauty, a gushing fountain of life and vitality, to the awakened soul who once recognizes that the flesh to be eaten is the substance of Spirit made manifest — the heavenly manna — and the blood is the inspiration of God Almighty coming into his life with a great Blaze of Light.

You who are silently reading this, do you hear what I say unto you? You who read — you? Be still; that which is back of all thought is a thinker — and the thought is only the farthest reaches of the impression, put through the limitation of the intellect. Be still, then, and I will impress you with something so wonderful that it cannot be put into words. You will begin to accept some of the new proportions of the new heaven and earth. Be still — do you hear? Learn to accept your good. Leave the dry letter of the word and imbibe the soul — it is well with thee Now — do you hear?

I have strange and wondrous things to impress you with. My promises are kept — do you hear? Read, then, one of them, and see for yourself. Are you afraid to trust Me wholly and alone? I give nothing to cowards, because cowardice has narrowed down the aperture to such diminutive proportions and only the tiniest ray can penetrate. Listen:

“Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

Do you hear? Believest thou this? You who read this page? You? As a servant of the human beliefs you knew not what the Master or Overlord of chance and fate did; but I call you friend, and make known to you all things that I have heard of My Father. That is, I AM ready to reveal to you the depths and heights of the True Word of God which is above all the human laws and opinions. Be still — you who read this. You.

If you give the “cup of cold water” you will not go unrewarded. If you give to the perishing soul the glorious freshness of the Presence of the God Power here and now, and if you bring to him the Kingdom of Heaven as present, this will quench his thirst and moisten the parched lips so long in the desert of human reasoning.

“Seek not what ye shall eat … neither be of doubtful mind,” but “seek ye first the Kingdom of God … and all these things shall be added unto you.”

This is just the reverse of the strange idea that by reeling off words you can get things, or that the reason Jesus came to earth was to give man a power to work magic and get prosperity and all sorts of things. Jesus came to reveal the Kingdom as here and now, where everything is already in manifestation and does not need to be re-created by a thinking man.

Be still — you who read this page. You. Do you believe that “all these things will be added unto you”? Yes or no? What can you do about it? Can you make them appear?

Blaze of Life — Blaze of Life within you who read this page — shine forth — shine forth, dissipating the shadows of disease and inharmony — shine forth. Shine forth in all thy splendor — reveal the Kingdom as here and now, complete and whole.

 

Walter C. Lanyon