Life

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison; that is it which com­passeth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone.”

The “river” flowing from Eden is the consciousness which”compasseth the whole land.” It is that “urge” or acceptance of Power which is ready to “go in and possess the land” (new consciousness) instead of hunting and prospecting for bold on the out­side. Thus do we begin to see why the revela­tion of Jesus Christ is so important, for he draws the attention back to the source of Power and causes man eventually to see that all manifestation is the result of the move­ment of consciousness, and in no way is the manifestation responsible for the movement or urge of consciousness.

When we are told to “consider the lilies, HOW they grow,” we generally pass this invita­tion by lightly, considering the beauty and perfume of the flower, but the invitation is expressly on the “HOW” of the lily. It is amazing when we awaken to the knowledge that we have strayed into a far country where things have become so real as to hypnotize us. The way of attaining them as a natural expression of life, instead of through the hard “earn your living by the sweat of your brow”way of the conscious thinking, becomes a fable.

The sap in a tree rises and begins a constant stream of manifestation on the outside, changing from one form to another, never stopping until it has fulfilled its mission. The movement of life is ever for the purpose of bringing forth manifestation, yet many people are still trying to get this manifestation inde­pendent of Life. They are seeking the loaves and fishes and not the miracle, and hence they are turned awry.”You seek me for the loaves and fishes and not because of the miracle”means nothing to the man who is looking for things and is trying to demonstrate them by some new method. He does not know that health, prosperity, happiness, are the natural expressions of Life in action, and so he continues to seek these things apart from the Power.

It is difficult for the little metaphysician who believes that he can manipulate God by prayer to start with the premise that God is not healthy, wealthy, or happy; that all of these things are merely limitations of the glorify of God, and that every man has a different measure for all of them. Hence what one man, calls strength would be almost anemia to another, and what one man calls wealth would be poverty to another, and so on. He keeps repeating the verses of three­-dimensional thought that God is “happy” and wants him to be happy, etc. God is the impersonal Principle; manifestation takes place the moment the Principle is recognized. “If you make your bed in hell, I AM there,” but until this startling fact is recognized nothing takes place.

The moment you begin to understand the difference between the way of Jesus Christ and the conscious-thought-taking process, you will begin to “feel ” that it is impossible to manifest the limitations you formerly strove against. Health, happiness, prosperity, and self-expression are all limitations of the human mind, almost like a parentheses put about a thing, but they are life stopped clown to a point of visibility, to the Jesus con­sciousness.

The nature of God expresses in a million and one ways. We do not consider it un­natural for the apple-tree to bring forth apples, neither should it be unnatural for you—created in the image and, likeness of God, a little lower than the angels, and having dominion over the earth, etc.—to bring forth the manifestations of Life. Yet all the mani­festations of God apparently are impossible of attainment to the average man because he finds them so unnatural and so impossible of attainment.

Jesus knew this, and that is why he insisted on the fact that “I can of myself do nothing.” The unenlightened man who has tasted of the fruit of the tree of knowledge cannot find it natural to be well, happy, and prosperous. He eternally tries by one stratagem or another to receive special dispensations from the tribal Jehovah who is so personal in his imagination as to stop the orderly movement of life to fulfill some petty whim of the conscious thinking. It is only when he realizes that prayer can in no way change the mind of God, and that its only reason is for the purpose of aligning man with God and thereby permitting the God Power to have a free and easy expression, that he makes what the relative mind calls demonstrations.

The Life of God is eternally moving in the universe, and the moment man is aligned with this force he sees things taking place naturally which he formerly tried to demonstrate. “Not my will but thine be done “used to be the wail of a defeated sinner at the feet of a fierce tribal God who was constantly watching for an opportunity to punish him. It was the mark of complete defeat, and was at best a “defense mechanism.” When it is under­stood that man is for the express purpose of letting this unseen Power come into expres­sion, he then understands that “Not my will but thine be done” is as sure and certain an alignment with the principle of harmony as is the giving over of the childish ignorance of numbers to the law of mathematics. Would anyone complain, when he becomes one with the law of mathematics, that he is not havinghis way? Does he want his way when he once understands mathematics?So is it with the God Power. The resigning of the conscious-thinking process which has been getting man into a plethora of difficulties is gladly and joyously made when its benefits are understood. This resignation does not make man an automaton. The infinite variety of expression, its ceaseless originality, its glorious capacity to see a new dimension, keeps each manifestation in a never-ending field of differentiated expression.

Working from the revelation as given to us by Jesus Christ, we begin to see why he insisted on “Take no thought.” Man’s three­-dimensional capacity is based upon results and ideas gained from judging from appearances, most of which are faulty and untrue, or at best shifting and changing. Until the LIGHT of this Jesus Christ nature comes to man, he imagines that he make_s his consciousness by taking thought of and about things. Later lee finds that all conscious thinking is only an emanation of a state of consciousness real or imaginary. Hence as man_ythoughts can flow from an imaginary state of consciousness as from a genuine one. That the whole mass of mankind thought at one time that the world was flat did not in any way change the facts. So is it with all the “thought-taking process.” Just thinking or imagining you are well or prosperous or that God is busy waiting for you to tell Him all about your petty personal woes is to misunderstand the Pres­ence which is eternally ready to express through any avenue that is ready or open to receive. Grass will quickly grow across the most heavily paved city street, if it has half a chance. If, however, you keep treading the whole surface with the heavy feet of conscious thinking, little can take place.

It is wonderful, the refreshing, lovely sense of Life that comes to one when he begins to understand the way of Jesus Christ, unbound from all the religious appendages and barn­acles of metaphysics, and from the foolish, foolish idea that you can make “demonstra­tions.” Who are you, or your teacher, or your leader, to presume so much upon this magnificent Power as to think that you could change the Divine Destiny of the universe?

Do you begin to see that Jesus “went unto his Father,” ascended into the place of pure recognition which is possible to every man. He then “let” the Power operate through him “in the way ye know not of.”The manifestation was what the unenlightened refer to as demonstrations. The only trouble with the demonstration system is the great lapse of time between demonstrations, whereas moving with the consciousness of God there is a constant stream of manifestation.  “According to your faith be it unto you.” This is merely the degree of your acceptance, merely your measure or your ability to receive, hence”One man’s meat is another man’s poison “—one man’s wealth is another man’s poverty. You hold the measure to the universe—that is your degree of what you can accept as possible to the Presence.

The drama of the ejection from the Garden of Eden is merely what has happened to every man. Somewhere along the line of Life he allowed himself to transfer the Power of God to the manifestation. From that moment on he has been. “seeking the loaves and fishes” instead of the miracle, and conse­quently all sorts of complications have set in. He has tasted of Power wrapped up in a symbol; he says, “Money talks,” “Money is power,” etc. This wholesale denying ME has brought dire effects. “I will deny you, and then the struggle for attainment of those things which are the natural, possession of man begins.

“O that I might find HIM.”

“If I be lifted up, I shall draw all mani­festation unto me.” If I be lifted up to the consciousness of anything, I shall bring that naturally into manifestation. If I am seeking the “loaves and fishes,” no matter how badly I need them, I am mistaking the Power. I am still trying to feed upon the fruits of: the tree of good and evil.

So subtle is this matter of consciousness that, even after one begins to see what took place when the beggar was told to “rise and walk” (after forty years of trying to do this very thing by conscious thinking), the doubt­ing, curious mind wants to observe the work­ing of the Power. The tendency to “peep” is merely the old doubt coming forth in a new guise. You cannot get into the Kingdom of Heaven by observation. This is one of the laws which has to be obeyed. The magnifying of the Power, and the keeping the attention away from the”how, why, when, and where;” is the only way of attainment. It is wonderful what the God Power moving in you as the temple of the Living God can and will do for you. Do you begin to see that your body is the temple of the LIVING God, and was chosen for the expression of God? Do you begin to understand that the will of God being done in the temple of your body—consciousness—results in the fulfillment of all your desires in their highest interpretation? It is too good to be true, but it is the way the Master showed us and it is the way of Heaven.

“Thank you, Father; I knew that this was done.” What will you do with a state­ment of this kind? Do you believe that it was already done? He was talking about the bread and fishes which were to feed the hungry mob. Do you believe that it was already completed and done before anything ap­peared? Do you believe that the plants of the field were already there, and there was yet no man to till the soil, nor rain to cause them to grow? Do you see how utterly the Jesus Christ dimension takes you out of the dimension of the conscious thinking? You cannot think these things, because they are not true to the relative mind.Neither are any of the things you are trying to do true or possible to your present state of con­sciousness. If they were possible, you would have already done them long ago. It is because you realize they are impossible that you are turning to the next state of con­sciousness. When you realize just what you are doing, you will “go in and possess the land”(the new consciousness) and let the new dimension function from its new level.

“If ye be in the Spirit, ye are no more under the law”—of what?Of your own belief, of course. The conscious thinking pulls you down to accept the relative values of the appearance world. Conscious thinking is the only gravity there is. It pulled Peter under when he was functioning from a consciousness of no gravity. This cannot be understood by the reasoning mind. It is utter foolishness in the eyes of man. Remember that the teaching of Jesus is founded on the premise, “The wisdom of man is foolishness in the eyes of God.” If you cannot start from this premise you cannot start, but will flounder about with a theory or a system or a philosophy which is merely a pastime of the conscious­thinking mind.

We are not inviting unconsciousness when we refer to the teaching of Jesus Christ. For the first time you become conscious of the reality of life, and then thoughts emanate from this new state of Life as rays falling naturally from a light.

“See that you tell no man” is as important as any of the other laws governing this new venture. Who will believe you? Not any man. And so you are warned to “flee from that man whose breath is in his nostrils.” He has an argument, and he is going to talk from the basis of human reasoning about something that is founded on the basis that all human reasoning and wisdom are foolishness. Hence the stupidity of trying to meet on such a ground. There is a gulf separating these two states as unbridgeable as that which separated Dives from Lazarus.

Returning again to the illustration of the beggar at the gate, we see that he must do something entirely outside of the conscious thinking. This is exactly what Jesus was trying to put across to the disciples and those who followed him. He knew that they had tried for ages to think their ways out of difficulties; but the way of revelation was so past finding out by thinking that it was hope­less to even try to explain it. Always the conscious-thinking mind would rush after the demonstrations, only to find themselves in the desert of waiting.

“Be still and know that I AM God” gives you a chance to see just what your idea of life is. Do you still belong to that mass of individuals who look upon health, wealth, happiness, as unnatural?All the expressions of God are “too good to be true,” and are impossible to the thinking man. Therefore Jesus said, “I can of myself do nothing,” but “ALL things [not some] are possible to God.” You become conscious of God through the Father consciousness (the mind which was also in Christ Jesus) which is in every man when he “arises” or recognizes it.

The moment the prodigal REMEMBERS, and arises and goes towards his Father (symbolic­ally speaking), the Father moves towards him with the fatted calf, robe, ring, etc. It is wonderful what therecognition of the Presence will do for you.

The “demonstration” of wealth has been proven to be a total failure. Thousands of people are declaring all sorts of grand and mighty statements about God and His wealth who are, and who will remain, in direst need. It is self-hypnosis to imagine that because you shout affirmations to a Principle it will start into operation and accomplish the impossible. It does not happen in music, mathematics, nor any of the other sciences, that because you make affirmations of and about them something happens. Mathe­matics is not moved into action because of your praise, but because you become one with the law and are mathematics in opera­tion. So is it with God. “I and my Father are one” is not in any sense of the word “using” God. It is a moving with the Power into a certain and sure manifestation— “by the way ye know not of.” You can only become conscious of God in your own con­sciousness. Jesus called this place of meeting the “Father within.” “He made himself As God “—not God, for what manifestation can possibly encompass the universal?

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence it was parted. . . . The name of the first is [note present tense] Pison: that is it which compasseth [surrounds, enfolds, possesses] the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of the land is [present tense] good.”

This revelation of the manifestation of wealth and how it proceeds out of conscious­ness is so startling as to make the puny efforts to make financial demonstrations seem empty indeed. Do you begin to see why Jesus went into this consciousness, instead of trying to make a certain manifestation on the outside. Do you perceive the symbology of the river flowing through and about and encompassing the whole land of good—gold­—and how naturally it possesses it?

“Return unto ME, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved” from the fearful desolation of the conscious thinking which is filled with strife and limitation and every abominable imagination.

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion.”

This dominion is only possible when you are moving with the Power, and when you begin to realize that the “government shall be upon his shoulders.” Then the stream of desires becomes the chart or a map of the Divine Destiny.

 

Walter C. Lanyon