The Extension of the Senses

SEEING

We have been accused of having eyes, and seeing not, and ears, and hearing not; and have been told that the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God, indicating that nothing we are gaining from our present use of the senses is aught but foolishness in the eyes of this Power called God.

We are invited to be “absent from the body and present with the Lord,” and to listen to the “still small voice” instead of the audible voice of man.

We are told to “flee from man whose breath is in his nostrils,” and yet, with these foreshortened senses, man has attempted to “demonstrate” a truth which, apparently, is entirely outside of these limitations.

We have constant invitations to “come up higher,” and references as to what takes place “if I be lifted up,” and we are told of the extension of vision when the eye becomes single.

Seeing that all the works of Jesus were not done in the supposed fashion of “metaphysics” (as used in its present-day interpretation of the word, i.e., “using” a God power to change something which seemed impossible of change, and for the purpose of producing miracles), we are only faintly begin­ning to see the necessity of the extension of the senses.

The Law of Jesus Christ is one of fulfillment and not of destruction, and so the use of the senses as we know them to­day is not destroyed or put aside, but rather absorbed in the immensity of the whole.

  “You must decrease; I must increase,” carries with it the idea of breaking down a wall or limitation and thereby increasing that which already is, or extending it, as, at the pushing out of the walls of a room, the air, which formerly held the shape and limitations of the four walls called room, now finds itself lost in an infinity of its own self.

  All that was true of the air contained in the room remains forever true, but the limitations of the room make it impossible to judge by this small amount of air the true and infinite quality of the whole body of air. If, therefore, a person were setting down, as a fact, what he found to be true of the air in the room, his judgment about air as a whole would be faulty and absolutely untrue. So must the world we live in be, viewed through the foreshortened senses.

   Jesus apparently knew this as his true nature, for he asks with impunity those things which are entirely outside of the possibilities of the finding of the human senses.

When he calls Peter, “Come to me,” he is telling him to do something that cannot be done through the foreshortened senses and understanding of the ordinary man. When he says, “Look again,” explaining that the fields are white with harvest and the labourers are few; he is speaking of something which is outside the sense of sight, as recognized by the average man.

The reason such gross failures have come forth from the “Schools of Demonstrating the Truth” is because it all has been done on the plane of the impossible. Back of every one of them is the idea that, by taking thought or making affirmations or meditating on God, they can, or will eventually, cause God to do their bidding, and whatever takes place will be unnatural.

Many will deny this, but, if it were not “unnatural,” they would not make a practice of rehearsing it for the rest of their natural lives, and testimonies would not be told, enlarged upon, and finally printed about this “unnatural”—natural thing which had happened to them because they “treated.”

We find Jesus very naturally coming to the conclusion that Jesus could do nothing with the limited, false sense of life gathered through the foreshortened senses.

“I can of myself do nothing, but I can do all things.” Moving into the naturalness of the Presence immediately put him in the plane of the natural functioning of the Presence. The miracles, to man, were the natural functioning of the law to the man of extended senses, or one who had pushed out the walls of the personal into the impersonal.

“You shall find your life when you lose it” is the paradoxical teaching of the Presence. Only when you begin to understand that the “Look again” is not a straining of the muscles of the eyes, or an exalted or emotional state of the consciousness, nor yet a vivid imagination, can you begin tosee the fields are white, and that the harvest which you distinctly did not plant, is ripe. The command, “Thrust in the sickle,” is one of the most futile, and yet it persists, and must finally be obeyed—-else you remain a lifelong gleaner to a miserly harvester.

“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light” —no light can come through the foreshortened senses. Sifting through the wisdom of man is like looking through the husks for the few grains of wheat that the “swine” have left.

“Ye have eyes and see not.” Does the statement intrigue you? Does it hold you in its everlasting grasp? Do you ask, “See what”? “Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that are prepared for those who love the Lord.”

The things that are to be seen and which we are not seeing “through the glass darkly” of the foreshortened senses are the things which already have been prepared. This takes us into an entirely different classification from those who think they can and do create things by “taking thought”—or that they make things happen because they “treat.”

    The things that are to be seen with the blind eyes already are prepared. It is an entirely different premise from which to work. We at no time are concerned with that angle of it. When you are told to “look again,” that “look” does not in any way create the “fields white with harvest.”

The Sonship degree is constantly concerned with making things happen that would not otherwise happen, but the Son has his limitations and eventually must function into the Fatherhood degree where the finishedmystery is revealed.

The moment the prodigal rises to go to the Fatherhood-degree, it—seeing him a long way off—comes toward him with the robe, ring, fatted calf, etc. So when man begins to leave the level of “making demonstrations” which come and go constantly, and very often leave embarrassing gaps between, the Fatherhood consciousness moves, figuratively, towards him.

Jesus was not concerned with the creating of things. He constantly was seen touching the next dimension or the Presence where that which appeared to the three—dimensional mind a miracle, was a natural, ever-moving thing.

At this height, he had but to give thanks or recognition, and the vacuum, caused by beliefs in the mind of an individual or a group as to the absence of God in one form or another, was instantly filled. It was not a running of unformed substance into a matrix or mould, but a becoming aware of the Presence which broke down the limitations of the thing called problem, or “room,” and a joining of the one with the whole.

The “room,” then, was no more, and yet its invisible dimensions might still remain; or, for want of a better idea, we say the hard, solid walls of granite were suddenly made of the most open of screen wire.

The individuality of it is still retained, but it is one with the universal whole. “I and my Father are one; my Father is greater than I” just as the air of the universe is greater than the air taking the shape of the screened-in room. Yet are the two one—the temperature, density, movement, etc., would be the same and the air in the room could take all of the qualities and powers of the air surrounding it. All illustrations are inadequate and stupid when it comes to bringing out the relation of God and man, soul and body, but they give us a faint inkling of the truth as taught by Jesus the Christ.

No wonder, then, that Jesus, realizing the limitations of the senses, first invited man to take his attention away from appearances, and asked him to judge “righteous judgment.” Certainly he could not find the “righteous judgment” in the appearances of things created out of the limited concept of life.

Through the limited senses, man could see only what his consciousness was capable of seeing. Hence we realize that, although five thousand people saw the so-called miracle of the loaves and fishes, perhaps only a small percentage could see anything taking place, other than the most orderly passing out of bread and fishes.

It was not possible for them to see anything different, no more than a man looking through rose-coloured “specs” can actually see a horse white. The horse, no matter what its true colour, will appear eternally pink; so the most glorious reve­lation viewed through the foreshortened sense of sight would have to conform to that sense. “Through the glass darkly”—-through the beliefs and thoughts that you have accepted as real and true. Darker or lighter, according to your ability to perceive the reality of existence.

“If thine eye be single, thy whole body is full of light”

seems to give us an entering wedge to this new dimension. The whole body being full of light posits the fact that all of the senses of the body would be freed into their new field of activity.

Undoubtedly Jesus saw—literally as well as symbolically—-the Kingdom of Heaven here and now, because he saw it in his own consciousness. “Look not lo! here, nor there, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” It is marvelous to contemplate what the slight change in the mental elevation may suddenly do for you.

   If you are still working with a dual world, still working against evil, still finding evil as a reality which you are especially appointed to destroy, your whole body cannot be full of light, and your eye cannot be single.

The coming of the Power to fulfill, not to destroy, will teach you much, and the awareness of the Presence, even in hell, where you may have made your bed, will cause you to under­stand that Jesus was not in the business of fighting a supposed thing called evil. He constantly recognized the Presence; and the manifestation of evil, which in its final analysis is a belief that a place exists apart from the Presence, is filled full or discovered to be already full of the Presence.

“Even the wrath of man shall bless you” is just another way of “seeing” with the single eye the Presence. It is so different from trying to force the Presence into the evil situation. Gradually, as you begin this calling on Me in the midst of every picture of so-called evil, you will understand the lack of sympathy in Jesus and his deep sense of compassion.

The old Prophet, putting his hand in his bosom and bringing it out white with leprosy and then restoring it to normal health by doing the same thing, should open the eyes of the blind, who believe that disease is even a belief which has to be destroyed. It is not in any sense of the word “handled”; the awareness of the Presence is all that is necessary.

“Call upon Me and I will answer you.” Do you believe that? Answer me. Do you believe that the calling upon this Me will bring about the manifestation? You will when the dual standard of life passes away and you find that “I came not to destroy but to fulfill”—that the senses are extending into the real existence which pushes out the walls of the narrow concept of Life in which you have existed all these years.

When this extended vision begins to be a reality to you, and you have stopped looking on an evil situation as something outside of God, then you will be able to look upon disease and produce ease; and upon poverty and produce wealth; and upon unhappiness and produce happiness. Your “gaze,” extended into the reality of being, will not be concerned with the shells which drop from the eagle preening its wings for its divine destiny.

It is wonderful that the old idea of turning the eyes away from what we called pictures of evil gives place to the Divine Glance which, to the three-dimensional mind, appears to heal.

Healing by the glance? What a fantasy to the old human intellect, what a fantasy everything God-like is to the old human foreshortened senses, and yet it is amusing at least to see that the most hardened atheist, as he is gasping his last breath, usually calls on the God power.

“No man shall see My face and live.” The moment you begin to see this finished mystery you die a thousand deaths. One belief after another passes away, and with them the land­marks and the memory of them finally pass out too. If you see the Presence with the single eye, you see it, and, no matter what the appearances, your vision is extended just a little beyond the mystification of human beliefs.

The Prophet and his servant, you and your body, had come along many a highway of life when, all of a sudden, the servant discovered that the way of life was infested with a thousand and one beliefs armed to the teeth and out-pictured as an army of horsemen and chariots. Debts, impossible situations, disease, fears—all of these things have come and blocked the only way—and the servant is afraid, even as you and I.

“Look” the terror-filled voice of the one judging from the foreshortened senses. By every reason of man he has a right to be afraid. “Look again”—the prophet is speaking, and the sense reaches out into the state of “Look again,” and now the mountains round about are filled with chariots and horsemen. “Those that are for us are more than those that are against us.

And so the revelation of the Presence takes place through a thousand parables and stories. When you recognize the Presence in any place and stop trying to handle the mystifications of belief, you suddenly find the sight extended to the point of “Look again,” and find there the God and Heaven rising into expression out of the hell of human beliefs.

We are gradually coming into alignment with the Oneness of Life, and can faintly understand how this understanding causes everything to fall into perfect agreement with every­thing else.

“I AM of too pure eyes to behold iniquity” is not a moralistic statement of a tribal Jehovah. It is the actual uttering of that pure, unsullied state of consciousness wherein no evil exists.

Recalling very definitely to mind that your problem is no problem to another, and likewise another’s problem is nothing to you, you will begin to understand what it means to move into the place where the single vision exists.

“When thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light.” When you begin to see the Oneness of life, and stop judging from appearances, you will find that you are not concerned with effects. They will automatically take care of themselves. Those, still working with demonstrating the Power, are more concerned with the manifestation than the Power. The rebuke is always the same: “Ye seek me for the loaves and fishes”—and not because of the miracle.

When you begin to understand, even in a little way, this Single Eye doctrine of Jesus, you will understand how it is that the manifestation flows constantly into place without any out­side aid or assistance. Remaining on the point of Power­—magnifying the Lord within, merging into this Oneness of Mind—suddenly frees you from a host of beliefs and reveals to you that the “Harvest is ripe.”

The “getting” and “demonstrating” ceases at this point—-­yet, in reality, it only begins. The Oneness of it all causes you to see that Jesus became the giver, and in giving he placed himself in such a position as to receive all. As it passed through him into expression there was nothing lacking in his life. Do you begin to understand the outpouring of the Substance, and how it sidesteps all of the laws of man?

It is recorded that Jesus “raised his eyes to Heaven”—and quite naturally most religious pictures portray Him standing gazing into the skies. But Jesus explained that Heaven was not a locality, but a point in consciousness. It is the place of recognition of the Presence, a point of awareness.

Man can only know God in his own consciousness. Cer­tainly he cannot know Him outside of his consciousness. He must meet Him in his own consciousness, and until he does he cannot perceive Him in the hell of human belief which has emanated through the wisdom of man.

When once man recognizes God in his consciousness he can then see Him everywhere and in every situation. He does not have to bring Him from afar; he can call upon Me and I will answer him.

It is wonderful the light that rushes in as your sight moves toward the single standpoint, as you begin to leave the old battlefields of belief and come out into the place of “If I be lifted up I will draw all manifestation unto me.” It is wonder­ful that this being “lifted up” comes through the recognition of the Presence, here, there, and everywhere.

   The drawing of all things unto you is quite a different thing from the “demonstrating” them of old. One quite naturally takes place, and brings with it no surprise or emotion; the other is as much surprised when the “demonstration” is actually made as if he did not expect it.

“Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” Do you hear? Are your ears beginning to be unstopped? Are the scales beginning to fall from your eyes?

“Then shall the blind receive their sight.” It is wonderful to contemplate this Oneness of Life, for it carries with it the possibility of all the dreams of yore.

The “picture shown to you on the mount” cannot be seen through the glass darkly of human belief, because these beliefs have never even dreamed of anything so beautiful and glorious. So, steeped in the fearsome laws of life—“Work out your own salvation”; “As for man, his days are few and full of trouble”; “Earn your living by the sweat of your brow”; “When Iwould do good I do evil”—how can man see through this dense fog the “picture shown to him on the mount”? It is too good to be true, and it is not true if squared by the findings of the human senses.

But the promise stands, “Thine eyes shall see the king in all his beauty.” That promise that you shall see your soul in all its beauty is enough to carry any man on into the place of awareness.

Are you curious about the things that have been prepared for you? And the things that have not been able to enter into the heart of man? Only through the extended senses is it possible of attainment. If you cannot see God in the devil who is disrupting your life, God in the disease, God in the thing lying in the gutter, you cannot find Him in the temple, for He is all or nothing.

“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” And the choice is up to the individual. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the opinions and beliefs of another. The coal of fire is placed upon the lips of the initiated. He has ceased from “talking it over” with another. He knows and will “let” the light shine, but he does not try to “make” it shine.

“By their works, not by their words, ye shall know them” —you have the yardstick always at hand.

“Ye shall see Him as He is” when the eye becomes single, and that will satisfy you. When you even glimpse Him, this Oneness, you will have answered the question, “Is this He that should come, or look we for another?”

If you are still asking this question, you are still expecting another Messiah, and another will come and another will be found to have clay feet, because you will finally have to find Him within.

Digging out the clay feet of Messiahs is the pastime of metaphysicians, not knowing that at each digging they are only showing forth their own lives and disbelief in the One Power. Spending time seeking into the personal lives of speakers and lecturers suffices for understanding of the Christ to many. “Follow Me”—“Follow Me”—do you hear?

Yes, it is true, the “fields are white with harvest and the labourers are few” because they have the double eye of lack and substance and coming and going of the Presence which is only possible to the “wisdom of man.”

When Jesus said, “Look again,” it was an extension of the sense of sight into vision where the Presence was recognized as a manifested thing. The looking again, the Divine Glance that heals, does nothing but become aware of the Presence, and the flames of the hell of belief subside. Hence the Healing Glance—the looking past the glass darkly unto the Presence which shatters the belief manifested in death or disease.

“Thrust in the sickle” becomes a present possibility as soon as the eye becomes single and the greediness has subsided into the recognition of the Presence.

“Yet in my flesh shall I see God”—it is wonderful!

The universe in which you live is a mirror of your con­sciousness. It can only reflect what you discover within. It can only respond to you. It can only answer to your conscious word, be it good, bad, indifferent.

 

HEARING

  “HAVING ears, ye hear not.” Again man is brought face to face with the fact that he is not properly hearing—that he is missing the voice and hearing only the noise and the sound of things coming together in the outer world. He can be so mis­taken in the sense of hearing that if he were to close his eyes he could not tell whether a horse was approaching on a paved street or a couple of coconut shells were being tapped on a board.

If he cannot differentiate between things as simple as these, how can he possibly rely on the sense of sound as he knows it? The fact that we are constantly accused of having ears and eyes which we do not use also posits that something important is being said.

I once watched a Chinaman in a Shanghai native theatre enjoy, and apparently hear, one of his classics when such a bedlam was going on in the house that it would seem utterly impossible to hear the person sitting next to you without intently listening. And yet the Chinaman was relaxed, making no conscious effort to hear through the din of crying babies, squeaky music, peanut and sweetmeat vendors. He was at a terrific point of attention, however, and all his power was pointed in one direction. It was like drawing the sun’s rays through a magnifying glass.

A deaf woman once told me she could always hear anything evil said about her in her presence. She did not know that if she could hear evil she could hear everything else by the same method, i.e., attention. She was at the point of attention when it came to evil. In fact, she admitted that she “knew” she could always hear anything evil that was being said about her—and so she did.

 “The still small voice” must be heard from this point of attention to the Presence and not to the noise on the outside, otherwise you miss the word which is to be made flesh. “There were many things I could not tell you because of your unbelief”—many things which Jesus wanted to reveal but the hearing was so heavy by accepting the noise of the world that it could not hear the “still small voice” of revelation.

A woman came rushing in one day, frightened almost into insensibility. “A fortune-teller told me I am going to be killed in four days.” She had heard, as many people have heard, the death-sentence pronounced over them—“incurable, hopeless, helpless,” and thousands of other things that can only be heard by the hearing of the ear. It is not possible to hear these things from the standpoint of spirit, for they are founded on the failing wisdom of man—which is foolishness in the eyes of God.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” If he asks of God within himself he will have to hear with the hearing ear. He will have to hear past the noise and confusion of the outside world. The Voice will be eternally saying “I will,” but unless the hearing is at the point of attention it will hear the clanging noises of human belief.

     It is recorded that the “dead shall hear my voice and live,” and this not only means the physically dead but the mentally dead as well.

    “Not that which goeth in, but that which cometh out, defileth or maketh a man”—-that which you hear determines what will come out.

    “Go unto this people and say, hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and under­stand with their hearts, and should be converted and I should heal them.”

     It is obvious from many scriptural references that there are two kinds of hearing—one that causes the heart to wax gross, heavy with misunderstanding, and the other which hears that which the ears dulled with false learning and judging from appearances cannot hear. To hear the “still small voice” of which so much is said the hearing must be of the heart and not of the ear from the human standpoint.

“My sheep hear my voice” has nothing to do with a shep­herd calling on the hillside. It is the inner hearing just as a wise dog is not misled or attracted by an imitation of his master’s voice, no matter how perfect the imitation. There is something in the “hearing” that detects the voice of ‘the shepherd, and it is just this thing which opens the doors to the spirit of the words of Life, which are otherwise dead letter.

The eighty-eight notes on a piano do not represent the sum total of sound—it extends to a point of infinity on both ends. Yet, because the heavy human hearing does not detect it, he says it does not exist. The universe is filled with music which remains inaudible to most of us because we are hearing with the human ear.

The cause of so much failure in the field of Truth has been that most of us have been trying to hear the still small voice through the human ear, and, although it thunders down through the ages, the clamour of the human belief makes such a din with its unreality and false testimony that the “still small voice is inaudible,” or else it is interpreted through such limited, dulled senses that it is impracticable.

“Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand,” showing how the ear can hear the word and yet not hear it. Hearing with the ear and not understanding, is hearing through the limited human sense. It is so far removed from the “God spake” that it cannot understand the “still small voice.”

When you go within and shut your door you shall then know what the true sense of hearing is, for the “Father who heareth in secret shall reward thee openly.” What is the hearing that the Father doeth? The shouting of the name of God has proven futile in the time of trouble. Loud speaking does not in any way attract the ear of the Divine. It only shows a gross lackof understanding of the Omnipresence of God as here, there, and everywhere, and makes of Him an enlarged auditory nerve at best.

The Father hearing in secret, sensing, understanding, grasping that which is to be “established” on the earth—your earth, when you have gone within and shut the door. When you have shut the door of every human argument and every bit of human reasoning, and laid off the sandals of human under­standing, and spoken to the Father with the same joyous abandon and freedom that you might speak to your human father—when you have done this the “Father who heareth in secret shall reward thee openly.”

It does not say perhaps or maybe—it is definite and it is provable: “Shall reward thee openly.” No matter what you were, did, or thought prior to the moment you went within and shut the door and spoke to the Father secretly.

   “Leave all and follow Me” means just that. You leave all­—- all evil, fear, lack, limitation, and human reasoning just as you leave all your ideas about success and possessions and everything else that you have listed on the side of assets. You leave all, everything, and by leaving all you find all.

    It is glorious to contemplate that when the Father within says, “Leave all and follow Me,” He is asking that you leave the bondage to everything and follow the Me. When I say “bondage,” I mean just that. If a thing is binding you, if you cannot leave the bondage in it, you are still bound to it no matter whether you put it out of your immediate life or not.

   Many persons are controlled by things that they do not possess and which they feel they have put from their lives. To have an unsated longing for something that you have given up, and to imagine that because you have thrust it from you you are free from the bondage of that thing, is to mistake entirely the command, “Leave all and follow Me”—then you will find that you have left nothing except the bondage of it.

“The love of money is the root of all evil.” It is the love (bondage to it) of money, and not money, that is the root of evil. Money in itself is not more evil than food, clothing or anything else, but the bondage to it, whether it be much or little, is evil, and causes you to do all sorts of things either to get or hold it. A miser holding to the symbol while he starves is at the same point of expression as a beggar who is ready to commit any sort of crime to possess it.

All extremes are evil—too much food will result in the same thing that too little will, and so on. Being bound to things and the love of them puts the limitation on them. Coming out into the Presence with the new-born sense of hearing, the way lies perfectly before you. The guiding influence is as a voice from behind thee which says, “This is the way; walk thou in it.”

“This” is the way. There is that same note of definite direction, uncompromising instruction, contained in it, for, the Government being upon his shoulder, the instruction that is to come through the sense of hearing must be obeyed absolutely, and the human opinion must be put aside in order that the way may continue in peace.

If you salute any man you pass on the highway of life you are going against the instructions, “Salute no man you pass on the highway.” It is not an invitation to become unfriendly and unlivable—the saluting you are warned against is the exchange of opinions and beliefs and the “hearing” of some material information which changes your going on. Many a person would have been able to accomplish that thing set before him if he had not saluted some man on the way to his expression and heard something that spoiled his opportunity.

An actress accustomed to giving a more than brilliant per­formance was one night told that a famous critic was in the audience, and had come with the express purpose of finding some flaw in her work. In the parlance of the street, she “went to pieces”—gave the worst performance of her career—and after the show she was taken home in a state of hysteria. She was informed that it had all been a mistake, and that the said critic had not been present that evening but the one before and had found nothing but praise for her work. What caused her to give such a terrible performance? Anything? Well, you answer it, and then you will see why we are to “salute no man as we pass along the way”—and more so is this true in regard to the revelations of the Christ teaching.

If you have not arrived at a point where you are past the state of arguing, you have not actually heard the word, and will be busy comparing different systems to find out which one contains God. No system contains God, yet they may all be contained in Him. The coal of fire placed on your lips shall also be placed on your ears.

“Salute no man you pass on the highway of life.” He may be more interested in the personality of Jesus than in the Jesus-Christ. “Where does he live? Is he married? Any children—any money?” These are the eternal questions of the “man” you are warned against. He is eternally going out to see a person and not a principle, and he carries all filthiness that has accrued from the human hearing and the human “looking” at a person instead of “hearing a principle.”

  “I will hear what God will speak.” What a glorious reso­lution, and how hopeless it is to hear through the human understanding with its laws and limitations. But then, “I will hear what God will speak,” and if you are to do that it means that “your” speaking will have to cease and your human reasoning and understanding will have to give place to the new inspiration of the Almighty. You are sure to hear some­thing that will delight you, for it will carry with it the possi­bility of establishing it on the earth.

When you begin to “make yourself as God”—which is what Jesus did, and could not escape doing if he worked from the premise, “In the beginning God”—then you shall begin to “feel” your way with the new senses, then shall you under­stand how the deaf shall hear. “Then shall the deaf hear”—–at the instant of recognition of the Divine capacity of hearing the limitations of the human ear fall away and man hears, and hears things that the human ear is incapable of ever knowing.

“Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard . . . the things that are prepared.” They are already prepared for you when you can hear with the hearing that so completely transcends the human limitations that it breaks through the gates of Heaven and comes to the throne of the Presence.

The changing sense of hearing and sight can only be attri­butable to the human limitations, since it is impossible to conceive of God with impaired vision or hearing, and the changeless Power is not subject to degrees of sound or distances. The reason hearing and sight change in the human sense is because they are limited to the human organism and can be easily deceived.

Shaking a sheet of steel on the stage produces an impression of thunder—and this on the sunniest June day—and so it goes. “Having ears, ye hear not.” As long as your hearing is stopped down to the physical instrument of hearing it is bound to be limited and faulty.

   “Then shall the dead hear the voice of God and live” gives us some sense of hearing and its power. The true hearing pierces every belief of the human kind, even death, and so Lazarus heard—not with the human ear, but with the spiritual hearing, and picked up his body and brought it forth. The establishing of himself again on earth took place because of this hearing.

“Then shall the dead hear the voice of God and live” shoots through the walls of human belief and brings out the establish­ment of the thing on earth. When you begin to hear the “God spake” you shall begin to experience also the “establishing of the thing” or the “and it was done” state which instantly follows the hearing of the “God spake.” You cannot hear the “God spake” with the limited human senses, and God cannot hear the name, “Lord, Lord,” that is called to Him because it is merely a sound and has no power to “establish” itself.

“My sheep hear my voice”—and this My of the Father must come from the within that is cleansed of human reasoning, opinions, and beliefs. “He that is of God hearest God.” And when you hear God you are hearing the directing and govern­ing Power of the universe, and surely then you are to experi­ence the sure and certain joy which comes from the knowledge that “all things work together for good”—not perhaps, but actually work together.

   The overturning power of the Voice which speaks to the hearing ear keeps setting aside one limitation after another, one human belief after another, and causes the Lazarus to be established on the earth—though, if Jesus had “listened” to either Martha or Mary of the human sense testimony, he would never have spoken the word and caused the agreement in Lazarus to take place. Everything was against it—even Mary and Martha said, “If you had been here, our brother would not have died.” And when Jesus refused the opinion that Lazarus was dead, they still insisted that he was wrong and began to give all sorts of evidence to substantiate their human finding, hoping that Jesus would accept it as real and then perform a miracle.

But Jesus would have none of it—he would not “hear it” because he was hearing with the inner power, and when he heard the word of Life Eternal he called it to Lazarus, and, the agreement being made, he was “established on the earth” again.

The invitation to “hear” is open to all—there is no monopoly of it. It is not given to those who have studied a certain system or followed a certain teacher or leader. It is given to any man who will throw off the cloak of human bondage sufficiently to be clad in the all-encircling Presence of God in His fullness. The promise stands: “If any man hear my words.” That is all you have to do: to “hear” with the understanding of the inner hearing. Not nearly so difficult if you do not preface this hearing with the belief that unless you have made elaborate preparations you cannot “hear” God. How about the child who is given the Kingdom of Heaven?

Eventually, through the extension of the senses into the infinite reaches of God, through losing the limited personal sense of life and finding it in the Universal, does man come to the place of understanding, the place of “hearing” the state­ment:

“Behold I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me.” The first step in the becoming one with the Christ voice is to hear it. Many have tried to do this through the human sense of hearing, and have opened the door and nothing has entered.

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne.”

The beauty and love of Jesus, even at the last moment telling us of the human state that he also came through and making himself one with us showing that what was possible for him is possible for us, is the magnificent heritage that has to be accepted joyously.

 If you are to arrive at the stage which the human mind calls mastership, and come to that place where you are “set down with my Father in His throne,” it will have to be accomplished through the use of the extended senses as revealed to us through the teaching of Jesus. The only overcoming that actually takes place is the overcoming of the limitations of the human senses which judge from appearances and give forth the imperfect results thereby, their findings being imperfect, as well as their premises.

Finally, beloved, hear this:

“He that hath ears, let him hear what the Scriptures say unto the churches.”

The voice and echo are one. Like prayer and answer.

 

TASTING

THE sense of taste is virtually limited to the flavour of foods and a recognition of temperature of such foods. It is confined almost wholly with that which goes into the mouth, and yet every man knows that synthetic flavourings are so common as to fool very often the most exacting connoisseur. In view of this limitation it would not be very safe to found anything very definitely on the results of this sense; any wisdom gained from this limited and uncertain sense would surely come under the “foolishness” mentioned in the quotation referring to the wisdom of man.

In view of this limitation man is asked to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” How are you going to taste and see an invisible thing at the same time? The “Wisdom” of man immediately charges the whole idea off to an impossible abstraction. Not realizing the extensive possibilities of the sense of taste, he only uses it in its lowest and most uncertain capacity.

As this “taste” is extended into the place of understanding, man begins to learn that he “shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the Mouth of God,” and that “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead, but you have manna they knew not of”——i.e., the manna that cometh down from Heaven. We have treated all this wonderful wisdom for ages as nothing but abstract poetry, but gradually we see that the “years” have not produced through the “wisdom” of man anything more than the same old helpless and hopeless pattern of “birth, growth, maturity, and decay,” and so the “eyes” are beginning to seek out some­thing beyond this “foolish wisdom.” The mouth is beginning to “try” the words, and gradually is feeling its way into a new dimension.

“Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead, but”—are you going to do the same thing or begin to partake of the “bread that cometh down from Heaven” and live? Certainly if you are going to eat the bread from Heaven it will not be something put into the mouth which will be sour or sweet, hot or cold, solid or soft. “Not that which goeth into a man, but that which cometh out, defileth,” or maketh him. A thousand and one food faddists have convinced you that health does not always come out,even though you eat only the foods which are guaranteed to produce it. The moment you depend on anything for that which is a natural expression of God, at that moment the “thing” which comes out becomes unnatural and uncertain.

    There is such tremendous power in the sense of taste, when it is extended into its full capacity, that it transmutes that which is set before it. “Eating` that which is set before it in the name of Jesus Christ” is one of the capacities of “taste” which frees itself entirely from any power in food. At the same time this very taste excludes nothing. The automatic sense of selectivity which is in this awakened sense of taste will gauge, regulate, and choose without any confusion or outside help that which will perfectly sustain and manifest the necessary condition of body. Is it too far a reach to imagine that you may glimpse this glorious extension of the sense of taste, which, like all the other senses, does, in the twinkling of an eye, what a thousand years of the “Wisdom” of man cannot possibly do? “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” is enough to know that no reliance whatsoever can be placed in anything outside of God. There be those who know that food is more powerful than God, and so it is to them. It is poison to many, and meat to many; why?

     Yes, “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and they are dead, but—-” Does it not thrill you to contemplate that remark of Jesus-and more especially the inference that “death is not necessary to you,” whether you can sense it or prove it? It is definitely inferred, and it definitely has to do with the sense of taste. The foreshortened sense of taste which did eat the manna in the “wilderness” of human belief caused the death, apparently. At least, this very taste finds that food, or the lack of food, can kill a man. “But ye have bread they know not of—the manna which cometh down from Heaven.” Where is Heaven? Do not ask any man; ask Me. The Heaven to which Jesus referred was a State of Consciousness,and so the “Bread” which cometh down from Heaven and is eaten by you is to proceed out of the Consciousness of the Presence, and must be eaten and tasted by something more extensive than the limited sense of taste as known by the average man.

When Jesus came to the woman at the well in Samaria, he asked her for a drink, which she gave him. Then he said to her, “If you had asked me I would have given you living waters to drink, which if a man tasteth thereof he shall never die.” “What? Why, you haven’t a rope, or bucket, or any dipper, and the well is deep”—-and so she missed the great chance to use the sense of taste, and to be watered with the “Living Waters.” Immediately her human wisdom came into play. She drew water from the well daily, and knew just how deep the well was, and how impossible it would be for Jesus to “give her to drink,” and that settled that (just as you know how impossible it is for you to taste the Lord and see that He is good). So she rushed back to the village and said, “Come and see a man who told me all things”-in other words, “Come out and see the fortune-teller by the well.” What do you want to know? “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God”—-that is just as impossible to most people as it was to the woman who explained, “But you have no rope, or bucket and the well is deep.” “Have you no sense, man? Can you not see how impossible it all is? It is nothing but talk.”

“I sees what 1 sees and hears what I hears and I draws my own delusions,” said the old man who knew all about it, and so, “How can you give me to drink?” But yet it remains, “If you had asked me 1 would have given you living waters which if a man drink thereof he shall never die.”

“Eat my body and drink my blood.” The capacities of the sense of taste widen at each moment. It is so far removed from the limitations of tasting with the tongue as to be almost unrecognizable to the unenlightened, who for the most part will consider it pure mysticism, wholly impracticable. And yet it is the most practicable thing in the world, and when a man begins the use of the true sense of taste he shall never thirst again. Whatsoever things he does in Spirit shall imme­diately be done in the physical. If he can drink deep of spirit or of the living waters when the physical body is parched and thirsty, he will find “wells of living waters in deserts” of human belief, and food in abundance to assuage the physical hunger. When he learns the pure mysticism of “eat my body, drink my blood” he has solved once and for always the problem of food and drink. It is bound to manifest in the flesh.

“That which is told in secret is called from the housetops” —-that which you perform in secret is made manifest in the flesh.

A woman once proved this rather miraculous thing of partaking of the living waters. Finding herself incarcerated in an institution of questionable character, and suddenly per­ceiving that the purpose of this place was to torment her until her reason had completely fled, she realized that no amount of struggle or railing would avail her anything. The thirst brought on by salty foods had been allowed no water for forty-eight hours, and the manifestations of this enforced fast from water were rapidly appearing. The adjoining bathroom was shut away only by a screen door, which was kept locked, but all the faucets remained wide open and gallons of water poured away. It was at the point of being almost too much to stand longer when the revelation of the true “taste” came into being. “If you had asked Me I would have given you living waters, which if a man drink thereof he shall never thirst again.” And suddenly she asked, and quite as suddenly she received, and a fountain gushed up within her and watered her whole being and body. So beautifully was this mystical thing accomplished that every desire for liquid of any sort ceased and the relaxation of the body took place. At the instant the “living waters” were “tasted” the attendant came rushing in with a large pitcher of water, almost as if some power had suddenly propelled her in against her wishes or under­standing. She did not then drink, for there was no need of it, but it was there to drink, and so will it be with you when you begin the “eating of my body and the drinking of my blood.” These abstractions take on a more real quality than the human mind can imagine or dream of. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good” is the universal substance feeding you eternally; and this “manna from Heaven” has to be tasted by something more comprehensive than the sense in the consciousness which consistently argues, “But the well is deep and you have no rope.”

“He that hath ears, let him hear what the Scriptures say unto the churches”—bodies, temples. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” Do you hear? Do you begin to see what Jesus was bringing to the world when he told us so definitely to “eat my body and drink my blood”? It is wonderful to contemplate the magnificent reaches of life as viewed or experienced through the extended senses.

“Come see a man”—and so the metaphysician rushes about from one “man” to another, finding out more about the life and history of the man than the principle he brings. “Come see a man” persists as the cry until the light comes, and then it is, “Come, see a principle.” There is nothing impossible to God, and presently this will be more than an affirmation; and,when questions of physical distance or inability come into the pictures, they will be disregarded, and the distance will be bridged by performance in Spirit. Jesus never tried to “fix” or “figure out” the appearances of things, but he did span the seeming gaps in the realm of the Presence, and then discovered these gaps or empty measures all filled to overflowing.

You—yes, you—have “manna” they know not of—but what about it? What does it amount to if you cannot taste it? Can you begin to see what hopeless things words become without the Spirit, and how the dead letter offers nothing worth while to live on? Philosophy, Christian or pagan, is all right for the open forum, but it is a poor meal ticket.

Do you believe that the Lord is God? Answer me. “Taste and see.” Whatsoever you perform through the extended senses comes into manifestation, and so the problem of eating and drinking is for ever settled. No wonder, then, that Jesus advised the journey without thought of the purse, scrip, robe, etc. What need to be burdened with all this if you have the power within you to “eat my body and drink my blood”—–if you have the power to “hear my voice” and to “look again” and to “touch me in the crowd” and to “feel after me” and find me?

     The Lord in the midst of you is strong and mighty, but you must find Him there before you can find the manifestation of this strength in your temple—body. The “searching” of the joints and marrows becomes more than a Bible quotation when the senses are awakened to their true capacity. The Lord circulating through the Temple. Nothing can separate you from this revelation—neither height, breadth, length, powers of darkness, not even the gates of hell. Do you begin to grasp what Jesus was giving to the dull ears?

The River of Life flowing through the midst of the “Garden” shall water the seeds of desire and hope, long since abandoned, and cause them to bloom in all their glory. Yes, the desert shall blossom as a rose, and the crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places shall be made smooth, as this River of Living Waters flows on and on through the Garden  of your body—embodiment.

“Come eat and drink without price” can be understood. The extended sense of taste causes man to see the great “free” gift of Life. “My grace is sufficient for you”—and now you are beginning to know that this “grace” is not a sort of sorrowful bearing up in the miseries of the human destiny, but a wide, sweeping sense of the Presence, nurturing and caring for you. “If your mother and father know how to be­stow good gifts, how much more do I, the Father of All, understand these offices”—or words to that effect—are said unto the listening ear. “He careth for you.” “Consider the lilies, they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet—-“

The Blood of Jesus is the Wine of Inspiration, which lights every man unto salvation. When the sense of taste is extended beyond the narrow confines of the human mind it can “taste” this Wine of Life and receive the “inspiration” which leads into all things. Until that time man tastes the “wines” of his own making, and for the moment he may ascend into a place of inspiration only to fall back into a hell of despondency later on. You cannot take the Kingdom of Heaven by violence. The drunkard is trying in his desire to get away from the limita­tions of the human taste. He “feels” while he is in his “cups” as if he were a millionaire, or he feels generous, magnanimous, and free, but this false entering into the Kingdom always ends in being cast out as a robber and a thief. When the sense of taste is extended to the mystical “eating of the body and drinking of the blood,”man enters at will into the place of inspiration. He begins to understand what it is to live and move and breathe and have his being in the Inspired Presence. Revela­tion after revelation passes over him, and whatsoever he performs in the Secret Place takes on a body and a form in the realm of the physical.

 If you ever “hear My voice and open unto Me, I will come in to you and sup with you and ye with me.” The thin shell of belief which is holding all these lovely things away from you suddenly bursts, and the disbeliefs and fears of a lifetime are washed away by the torrents of the Presence coming into expression through the extended senses.

As you begin to understand the glorious possibilities of the extended senses, you see how they widen out and include much that has not been even dreamed of before. It is stated that the “power of life and death are in the tongue,” and this very sense of taste extends out until it includes the spoken word—-The Word which is made flesh and the “yea, yea,” and “nay, nay” which instantly puts to flight the manifestation or brings it into being with the Authority of the Christ Jesus nature. “Only speak the word and my servant shall live” and the word “I will” which the servant tastes restores him to life. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” You cannot live on the manifestation alone, else you will manifest the living—-dead state of the unawakened. You have to live on the word of God if you are to experience Life instead of a limited sense of it.

“The Power of Life and death are in the tongue”—the dying of a belief, as the cracking of a shell releases the flower or bird, with you releases the desires of your heart.

   “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is Good.”

 

TOUCHING

             “Two shall agree as touching anything and it shall be established on the earth.”

  “I WAS glad when they said unto me, let us go into the House[consciousness] of the Lord.” It is impossible to get into this consciousness of the Lord through the human foreshortened senses, since we are told that we are not using any of the sense organs correctly, and that all the wisdom gathered therefrom is foolishness in the eyes of God.

The consciousness of the Lord is not a place of demonstration. God is not concerned with making impossible things come into manifestation. The action of Spirit is natural to Spirit; it is only unnatural to the three-dimensional mind which sees miracles happening, if it sees at all, being separated from this consciousness—self—-separated, it is true, but nevertheless separated.

“Oh, that I might find him,” is the wail of man looking among the husks of human wisdom for a power which will offset evil. It is stated that “Ye shall find Me when ye feel after Me.” We “feel” with the sense of touch. Until this sense is extended it is merely concerned with surfaces. We touch a thing which is soft, hard, wet, dry, hot, cold, etc., etc.; but who is going to “touch” spirit on the surface?

 Thousands of people are busy trying to “feel” after Me with their human hands; and with their limited sense of touch they run into statues, shrines, charms, glorified leaders, organizations, places, things. A modicum of help may come from their belief in any of these, but finally it fails, and finally the hopelessness of any definite “touching” Me in any of these makes them all worthless.

Yet it is certainly stated, “Ye shall find Me when ye feel after Me.”

Of all the crowds that milled up and down the narrow streets of Jerusalem it is recorded that but one woman “touched” Jesus. Strange, since owing to their narrowness practically everybody who passed him came into physical contact with him. Yet it is recorded that this woman”touched” him. It is interesting to see the attention being so definitely called to the true sense of “touch.” The Master asked, “Who touched me? For I perceive that virtue has gone out of me.” It is to be recognized, then, that whenever you touch Me something takes place. “Virtue” goes out and an embodiment takes place, and the woman is healed. “If I could but `touch’ the hem of his garment I should be healed.” There is an important healing factor in the sense of touch. It is worthy of a little consideration.

The hem of the garment has no more healing power than the statue, and vice versa; but the quality of “feel” or “touch” that accompanies the gesture causes “virtue” to come forth­—causes that something which is necessary to imbue the form with life and activity.

   “What went ye out for to see,” a person or a principle? What went ye out to “touch,” and where did you go, and why? The “touching” of the Presence in which you live, move, breathe, and have your being gives you the ability to “feel” your way about in the Kingdom. Every one of the senses as they are extended gives you a new method of moving about in the God Atmosphere. It is wonderful to contemplate the infinite avenues of expression which open to you when this great oneness of the Presence takes place in you. You begin to feel the Presence, here, there, and everywhere. “I will never leave you”; yet, “It is expedient that I go” is under­stood when the “touch” is understood. The going of any manifestation takes nothing from you as the spirit, which you can always feel, cannot depart. The symbol of money may depart (in fact, unless you let go of the symbol it has no power), but the “feel” of the substance is always with you in this awakened consciousness, and can and will come forth in whatsoever manifestation necessary.

“You shall find Me (the all) when you feel after Me” does not mean a feeling after things on the outside. Many a bank clerk feels or touches money all day long, and in the course of his career may “touch” millions of dollars, yet he may experience a distinct “feeling” of lack during his life. To be associated with symbols does not indicate the possession of them. The banker may rarely come in contact with great masses of gold or silver pieces, yet he can “touch” the money at any time. The richer he is the less contact he will have with the actual symbol and yet the more use of it. “Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee light.” Back in the dark ages of metaphysics, people were very often taught that the possession of symbols made for riches. Visualizing courses by the hundred told you to see yourself handling vast sums of money. Others recommended that you move in atmospheres where the so-called wealthy lived, and to assume the pose of riches. But all of these have produced nothing but more acute poverty, and it was because of the trying to “feel” after Me in the symbol. It is perfectly true that I AM in the symbol, but unless you “eat my body and drink my blood,” and throw away the skeleton of demonstration, you do not experience the “touch” of substance—you have only the “feel” of hard, cold metal, none of which may belong to you.

 The sense of “touch” when freed from its surface limitations extends right into the idea of Agreement, one of the great words which every man must take and return with to Jehovah.

 “Two shall agree as touching on any point, and it shall be established on the earth,” shows the importance of the sense of touch.

The Agreement which is made with words may be broken, distorted by the inability of the human mind to carry out; but when it is “touched” in the Atmosphere of Spirit, then it is as impossible to change, set aside, or misdirect as is the arrow which has sped from the bow. Once this “touch” or”feel” is made, the whole process moves on into the place of “establishing” itself on the earth. It begins to draw from the unseen the “substance of the thing hoped for and the evidence of the thing not (yet) seen” by the human limited senses.

There is something interesting about the word “established.” It has a fine sense of solidity and realness about it. “God does not bring to birth and not bring forth.” The Power of Agreement when this touch is made does not fail to establish.

The development of the sense of touch or feeling does not produce the super-sensitiveness which some people attribute to Spirituality. You can easily determine the amount of Spirituality developed or recognized by the sense of ease, poise, and balance present. Hyper— or super—sensitiveness may be a glorified emotionalism, but it has nothing to do with the harmonious, rhythmic movement of the Presence. Hence the penchant for “taking on” conditions (and more especially “evil’ ones) which some people imagine is Spiritual develop­ment, but which is nothing more or less than a renewed belief in evil. Hiding behind the mask of mental tricks, the “feel” becomes so degenerated as to sense the perpetual coming of evil. This has nothing to do with the “touch” of which Jesus asked, “Who touched me?”

      You are invited to be “absent from the body and present with the Lord” and at the same time told to “live in the world and be not of it.” You begin to see that all manifestation is the Presence in its most transitory state. When you are absent from the body and present with the Lord you are exactly as the banker who is absent from the symbols but present withthe power back of them, and hence in immediate control of them. “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust and thieves,” etc., does not mean that you shall not have possessions, but it does mean that you are absent from the “body” and present with the Lord. It means that you are not to be possessed by things, but rather are to possess them for your expression of the Power. A miser grows, to all intents and purposes, poorer and poorer, as he hoards more and more of the symbols. So with the Spirit; if you are feeling after it in a human way, you are not finding it. If you are watching the demonstration, and not the Power back of it, you will suddenly discover that you cannot find Me, and that you are in the desert without bread.

“And He laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.” The importance of “touching” the Presence through the agreement cannot be over-estimated.

In the quiet place of understanding, though the body be moving through the crowded streets of Jerusalem, you will touch Me and virtue shall go out of Me and you shall be healed. It is wonderful to contemplate the functioning of man in the temple embodiment. Whatsoever you touch within the temple shall be established on the earth, regardless of the enchantment of human belief.

“Then touched he their eyes”—the sense of “touch” ex­tended into its new and divine dimension may open new vistas to you in all the other senses.

“You shall find Me when you feel after Me.” There is no question about that; and when you have found Me you have entered into the Kingdom here and now. It is wonderful! The sense of touch and the agreement of life are revealed through the “Feel after Me.”

When agreement is made the touching takes place and con­ception is. From that moment the idea gathers its body for manifestation.

 

SMELLING

“There is the odour of sanctity.”

  “HE BREATHED into him the Breath of Life and he became a Living Soul”—something alive, not something that had to be kept alive. Once he becomes a “living” soul he has no begin­ning or ending, for it is Life Eternalto be inbreathed with the Breath of Life; living and functioning on all planes, instead of existing with a bit of “breath” in the nostrils.

The sense of smell which man has been using is stopped down to a matter of odours. A thing may be sweet, sour, pleasant, or unpleasant. Outside of this the sense of smell has no function. Since the limited sense of smell can be easily fooled and made to believe that a synthetic odour is the real one, what reliance could one put on any information or wisdom gathered from this source? Do you begin to see why Jesus stressed the fact that “the wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God”? All the wisdom of man is founded on this very uncertain basis of the foreshortened senses.

The sense of smell has directly to do with the “Breath of Life,” and is one of the avenues through which man feels his indissoluble connection with the Presence. When the sense of smell is extended beyond the limiting shell of conscious thinking, then it reaches out into the universal Breath of God.

All this symbology is to better acquaint man with the Oneness of all things, and presently all this scaffolding of words, parables, books, lecturers, teachers, and organizations will fall away from the revealed Presence in which you live, move, breathe, and have your being. It is wonderful to contemplate.

“And he came near, and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him and said, See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field [state of consciousness] which the Lord hath blessed:

“Therefore God give thee of the dew of Heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.”

The Aroma of Spirit comes from the Breath of Life in­breathed into man.

Man is inbreathed by the Breath of Life and he becomes a “living” soul, and the Aroma of Spirit is exhaled from him. He is surrounded by a halo of the Presence. He has the “smell of a field blessed of the Lord”—a fertile field full of seed and ready to bring forth its abundant harvest. “Thrust in the sickle.”

The dews of Heaven, the blessings of manifestation, follow the recognition of the “fatness of the earth”; the unlimited expression of the Presence comes forth. There shall be plenty of corn and wine. The deep inspiration of the Almighty has taken place, and the smell of “a field that the Lord bath blessed” comes from you. The blessings of the Lord have no sorrow added. The blessings of the Lord are not after the limited measure of man, neither is their capacity nor quantity discernible by the man “whose breath is in his nostrils,” who is dependent upon a series of events in order to bring forth, and whose best efforts may be crowned by the worst kind of fail­ure. He is alone with his breath in his nostrils, and hence at the mercy of any human belief that may come along.

“And he breathed into him the Breath of Life and he became a living soul.”

     “The inspiration of the Almighty shall, when it has come, lead you into all things.”

     At the very thought of Inspiration the breathing becomes deep, profound, and tingling with life.

     “Flee from that man whose breath is in his nostrils.” There is no inspiration to the breath that is only in the nostrils, and hence no life. It must be the deep breathing that fills the entire temple body that accomplishes Life. The symbolic man whose breath is only in his nostrils has not yet experienced the “Breath of Life,” and hence he has not yet become the living soul. He is in the strictest sense of the word unenlightened, and has to do with all sorts of beliefs and theories concerning God. He is still at the point of comparison and argument regarding the unchanging principle, or Breath of Life, hence you are warned to “flee” from that man, for all that he knows is gathered from his foreshortened senses.

What a glorious “feel” to know that you are inbreathed with the Breath of Life. Not a temporary sense of life, but Life Eternal, unchanging and vibrating with power.

The Breath of Life, the true sense of smell rushing through the temple of your being, permeating the joints and marrow, taking life out of the narrow confines of conscious-thinking, i.e., health and sickness, and freeing it into the Universal, where the beliefs of frailty are non-existent. Nothing is ex­pended because you make a physical movement when you are inbreathed with the Breath of Life, when the sense of smell has broken the bonds of its former limitation. One moment’s contemplation of this oneness with the Breath of Life dissipates the sense of fatigue as you “smell” the Presence. No one can imagine God as becoming tired, or fatigued, and likewise when you are one with this Divine Breath you cannot experi­ence what Life cannot experience. “You shall find your life when you lose it” indicates that we have not yet experienced the thing called Life. Certainly we have tried hard enough to find it through the foreshortened senses, and have been sharply rebuked for having all the capacities of these senses and yet not experiencing any of them.

“The Lord is in His Holy Temple, let all the earth rejoice.” The Breath of Life is moving in and through the holy temple, and every manifestation (earth) shall rejoice because of this thrilling, moving Presence. Suddenly you become alive; you are “smelling” out the Presence, just as you taste and see and hear and feel the Presence. You are aware of the freshness and eternal newness of life which is not under the ban of the limited conscious-thinking. You have become a living soul, alive in all ways, mentally, physically, financially, morally. Alive, awakened, transmuted into the substance which is permeated with the Divine Breath. It is wonderful.

You are a Living Soul—you are alive mentally. Do you know what it means to be alive mentally? It does not mean the gushing forth of facts and data regarding everything in the universe. It does not mean the development of a colossal brain or a quality attributed to what the world calls a “prodigy” or “genius.” It does not mean an abnormal memory nor a”lightning calculator.” All of these states immediately introduce the thought of “brain-fag.” You have the feel that these states of mind would have a brief moment and then have to retire utterly worn out.

   When you become a Living Soul mentally you begin to sense that you are endowed with the Divine Memory, the inspired memory which says, “I shall recall unto you what­soever I have said unto you.” Everything that is in the Uni­versal Consciousness is at the disposal of the one who has become “alive mentally”—he does not have to go through the ordinary processes. The consciousness that has ever been established on the earth of anything mental is ready to be tapped by the Living Mentality. It has broken down the limits of the excessive or limited capacities of conscious ­thinking and moves out into the new dimension. It knows and can call and can dispose of, and yet it does not have to bother with the accumulation of material. “When I say go, he goeth, is the law of the mentally alive one. It is wonderful when your mentality is awake, when you see it is for the pur­pose of releasing wisdom and not for the limitations of human intellect. It is true it may absorb all of this intellect, just as the egg is absorbed into the eagle, but in doing this it instantly breaks the shell of limitation and frees itself into a new realm of manifestation. This being alive mentally gives you the power to know whatsoever concerneth Me—there is “nothing hidden that shall not be revealed” which concerns you. So far is this faculty removed from the curious mind that would meddle with the lives of others that the gulf dividing them is greater than that which separated Dives and Lazarus. At the same time this alive mentality can, if recognized, give you anything and all information concerning you and your on­going. “Call upon Me and I will answer you.” Do you begin to see what Jesus was working with? Call it out on this Divine Breath; nothing shall be hidden from this searching Breath which scents out all things. It is said that the savages can scent the coming of a stranger miles before he arrives in camp. This capacity has been lost to most people, but even this quality is a limitation to the Divine sense of smell. You are alive mentally, and if you need the name, place, or word it is always there in the Universal Consciousness awaiting the simple “letting” which takes place when you are once alive mentally.

You are a living soul—you are alive morally. The idea of morality has been so mistakenly narrowed down to mean sex with most people that its grand mission has been com­pletely submerged. Hardly anyone will deny that a great deal too much importance has been placed on sex. Gradually the beliefs of man, who was only recently in the throes of believing that everything he did, said, heard, or saw was traceable to the all-important thing, sex, are being somewhat released.

 To be alive morally is to experience the Natural Integrity of Life which is so necessary. It enables you to “judge not from appearances.” It causes you to see the necessity of fulfilling your own contracts. It causes you to be as good as your word. It brings a sort of human decency, which is fearfully lacking in most people, to the surface. It enables you to live in the world and be not of it; and yet keeps you from the fearful, self-righteous habit of condemning everything that does not fit in with your own ideas of life.

    You are inbreathed with the Breath of Life. You begin to employ the sense of smell and are conscious of the aroma of the Presence. There is no separation between you and this Presence any more than there is a separation of the air in the great out-of-doors. You are a soul alive. Alive for the first time and conscious of the substance of the resurrected body of Jesus Christ. You are the Word of God made manifest, nothing more or less. When will you begin to claim this heritage and see it through into manifestation? When the senses unfold into their true function, when they extend to the capacity which has so long been unrecognized, then will you begin to “sense” the Presence. When the sense of smell is awakened to the place of the inbreathing of the Breath of Life, it is as if the heavy, limp canvas of a balloon were suddenly to be inflated with gas. Suddenly it expands into new dimen­sions and possibilities. The impossible takes place; the heavy canvas, with its ballast-loaded basket, rises through the air. This illustration is inadequate—the coming of this Divine Breath to you permeates every cell and segment of your being.

    You are a living soul, inbreathed with the Breath of Life. The old subconscious ruts and patterns are suddenly straightened out—the “rough places are made smooth and the crooked places straight.” There is no offsetting of one habit by intro­ducing another, but a releasing of the heavy creases and crevices which stored up the memory of evil. “The former things shall pass away; they shall not be remembered nor come into mind any more”; because when the suggestion is made the former place for the reception of this evil is not there—the old subconscious pattern has not only been broken up, it has been completely obliterated. It is not a state of overcoming evil but an arising and following Me out of the Sodom and Gomorrah of the subconscious mind. It is wonderful.

 The sense of smell extended into the Divine Breath opens the door of Inspiration. When the breath stops in a man he is pronounced dead. When he is separated from the great Spirit, or Presence, he dies. The little breath (a human lifetime) which man has in his nostrils must be extended into the great Universal Breath or else it is soon snuffed out. Its very limita­tions bring upon it all sorts of evils from which there is no escape. The more the breath is stopped down to the human organism the more affectation of the throat and nose are visible. It is impossible for you to go out of the presence of God. You are living, moving, breathing, and having your being in this Presence, in this Atmosphere, now, and presently you will recognize that at the same time you are performing this it is also “living, moving, breathing, and having Its being” in you. Then in the great Oneness of this recognition do you experi­ence the sense of Life Eternal.

 You are inbreathed with the Breath of Life and you are a living soul financially. To be alive financially does not necessarily mean the handling of the symbol, but it does mean the consciousness of substance which out—pictures itself in five thousand loaves of bread or a simple meal. It puts one con­sciously in touch with the “substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” When Jesus raised his eyes to Heaven and gave thanks, he was recognizing this substance, and the symbol had to take place. He was alive financially, and produced the loaves and fishes by a telescoping of the ways of man into the instant manifestation of that which was needed. Instead of demonstrating the money, sending for the baker,etc., the “way that ye know not of” was able to bring forth what was necessary at that particular instant. Yes, it must be true that we have eyes and have not seen. “He careth for you” is only true from the height of the understanding of what it means to be “alive financially.”

It is written in the Law:

“They have ears but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not.”

When this sense of smell is extended to the Breath of Life, the Inspiration of the Almighty fills you, and it is this very quality which is to lead you into all things.

 Beloved, you are inbreathed with the Breath of Life and you have become a living soul. Do you hear? It is wonderful.

 The Breath of God is not mechanical. It is as a cloud of sweet smelling incense enfolding all, and revealing its radiant creation—inbreathed forever.

    A living soul is immortal.

Walter C. Lanyon