AMORC, Practical Truths Revealed in Esoteric Teachings (1954)

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ROSICRU Cl AN ORDER A M O R C T R A D E M AR K

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Supplementary Monograph PRINTED

IN U . S . A.

The subject matter of this monograph m ust be understood by the reader or student of same, not to be the official Rosicrucian teachings. These monographs constitute a series of supplementary studies provided by the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC, both to members and nonmembers, because they are not the secret, private teachings of the Order. The object of these supplementary monographs is to broaden the mind of the student by presenting him with the writings, opinions, and dissertations of authorities in various fields of human enterprise and endeavor. Therefore, it is quite probable that the reader will note at times in these supplementary monographs statements made which are inconsistent with the Rosicrucian teachings or viewpoint. But with the realization that they are mere­ ly supplementary and that the Rosicrucian Organization is not endorsing or condoning them, one must take them merely for their prim a facie value. Throughout the supple­ m entary series the authors or translators of the subject will be given due credit whenever we have knowledge of their identity.

R O SICRU CIA N PARK, SA N JO SE, CA LIFO RNIA

"Consecrated to truth and dedicated to every Rosicrucian"

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AMORC - Rosicrucian Order ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS (Supplementary Lecture) PRATICAL TROTHS REVEALED IN ESOTERIC' TEACHINGS The Divine Drama There is one feature of the inner experience of the soul along the Mystic Way that we have but touched upon. It is the acutely personal side of a relationship that constitutes the Divine Drama. In this Divine Drama, the dramatis personae are two: God as the Logos manifesting Himself in and thru the Higher Self, and--Y0U! It was the aim of those scientific investigators--the alchemists--to enact this drama; it was the aim of the Hermetic philosophers. Indeed, it was "ever the ardent aspiration of the seeker after God in all times, and of all lands, whether Egyptian, Epopt, Hindu, Yogee, Greek, Neoplatonists, Arab, Sufi, or Christian gnostic." It is the highest aspiration of the spiritually awakened in all religious today. Whoever so wills may become an actor in this drama— ■a play concerned with the living of one’s life. But the individual must wake up and understand that the light of wisdom has something to show him. "Sweet are the uses of life. The morning breaks again over the world as a thousand and million times before; The light flows rippling in, and up to the window-pane, and passes thru and touches the eyelids of the sleeper. It says: ’Come forth, I have something to show you.1 And the sleeper arises and goes forth-~and everything is the same as yesterday. Then he says to the light, ’You have deceived me, there is noth­ ing new here’— and he goes back sullenly to his chamber. But the light is not huffed, but comes again the next morning (thinks nothing of the long journey across) and slips through the window-pane and touches the sleeper's eyelids as before* ’Come forth, I have something to show you,’ And again the next morning and the next, and the next. And the sleeper wonders what the light would be at, but the latter says nothing— only fails not to keep his self-made appoint­ ment ." What the light has to show, this soul has not yet prepared itself to see; for in his waking hours he must lead a life of preparation. Be­ fore he is eligible even to the first act of the Divine Drama, he must find the secret spring of the door which only he himself can open. What can we say of this Great Spirit in the Divine Drama Who descends to share with you His Glory— He Who has prepared for you such wonders that eye hath not seen nor yet ear heard?

He is God in His manifested, knowable aspect— not the unmanifest, unknowable Universal Deity. In the Mysteries it is taught that God became manifest, entered into matter, took on the limitations, became the "Heavenly Man in whose Body all forms exist, of whose Body all forms are a part." In the New Testament it is taught that He is the Logos, "the Creator and Sustainer of this universe--the Logos Who in Christianity was made flesh and dwelt among us." "Go, go, my soul, stream out on the wind with this one . . . Go, shout on the winds that the world is alive, that the Arisen One controls It." In "Collected Fruits of Occult Teaching" it is said, "There is a level at which we find definitely in manifestation a Being from Whom the Christ principle actually emanates . . . There is a Specific Being at a certain level within the Divine Hierarchy of the Solar System to Whom we may definitely look up as the conscious Source of all spiritual influence." It is He--the Lord of Compassion and Wisdom— Who always stands ready knocking at the door of your heart. Without you he cannot play in your particular drama. He needs you; His world is perfected only with your assistance. He longs for the sign of your coming. He speaks: "Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come unto him, and will sup with him and he with m e ." With startling suddenness the first act unfolds within your soul. Simultaneously with the opening of the door comes the consciousness of the Divine Presence spreading thru and permeating your being. Suffused with unmistakable spiritual force, you are lifted Into a rarer atmosphere which refreshes and renews your soul. The illumination experienced is added to the normal consciousness and is the outcome of spiritual contact with Supreme Spirit. Between acts, it is necessary to try to lay hold of this exalted state of consciousness--thru meditation and incessant appropriate daily living. It re­ curs during each act at a progressively advanced Initiation. This illumination transfiguring the consciousness seems to be the acme of human experience. But no! it is but the beginning of the Divine Drama enacted within the soul; the Ego is still a separated entity. Not till the conclusion of the last act when all the requirements have been met will the ascending and descending Spirit meet and unite. It is then that your Divine Drama is completed at the end of your journey along the Mystic Way. Transcendental perceptions are manifested in the sublime heights of this earthly experience; we must beg audience with those who have lived the part--we must listen, compare, and weigh their assertions. What more Is said of this Divine Being, this Lord of Wisdom and Love Who takes part in your Divine Drama? St. Theresa--the Spanish saint of the sixteenth century— recognized In Logos "not only the brightness of manifestation of Deity, but also

the personal inexhaustible and responsive Fount of all life an Object of all love. Because humanity is taken up into the Godhead, the manifested Lord— the Logos--is the one and only bridge between the finite and the infinite, between the individual and absolute Life, hence in true Mystic language, the ’true bridegroom’ of every soul." As the drama approaches its conclusion, the separated self finally becomes one with the Whole. Of the encompassing love that breaks forth from the individual to this Prince of Love, Edward Carpenter speaks in "After Long Ages": "And the sleeper wonders whatever the light would be at, but the latter says nothing--only failed not to keep his self-made appointment Then after many years, after many thousands of years-After many times lying down to sleep and rising again, after many times entering again into the mother’s womb, after often passing thru the gates of birth and death--the sleeper says to him that wakes him: "Ah! beautiful one, ah! prince of love, so many times with thy • fingers in vain touching my closed lids! Now at last thy love pouring In upon me has found an entrance, filling my body breaks the bounds of it, and bursts forth back again into the regions whence thou earnest. Ah!, prince of love, lord of heaven, most beautiful one, of thee I am enamored and overcome with love; Beholding thy beauty, hearing thy words thou sayest to me, being touched with the nearness of thy breath and the divine odor which ex­ hales from thee--being sick, constrained with love, rending the chains which detain me-Henceforth the long chain of births and deaths I abandon, I arise and go forth with thee--to begin my real life." The end of the drama brings the completion of the growth obtainable on the earth plane. The prophet Isaiah made this promise to the righteous: Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty. "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God," was the literal promise of Christ Jesus. "Follow peace with all men, and holiness," said Paul, "without which no man shall see God." And yet we recall it has been said, "No man shall see God at any time. "True, the MAN cannot see God. But the divine in man sees God. And this occurs when, by means of the soul’s union with God, the man be­ comes one with the Father, and beholds God with the eyes of God." And therefore we may not be surprised to find at the apex of the mystic union of Divine Spirit with the man's soul-Spirit--the union of God and the perfected man— that which is the crowning experience of the climax of the Divine Drama: It is that stupendous event which happened to the prophets, to the mystics of olden and modern times that supreme beatific experience:

The Vision of God as the Lord Of this v.ision--The Vision of Adonai, as it has been called by seers— we can but quote the words of those who have beheld, and who are not bound by vows of secrecy: "Enshrined in this light is a Form radiant and glorious beyond all power of expression. For it Is made of the Substance of Light, and the Form is that of the ’Only Begotten,’ the Logos, the Idea, the manifestor of God, the Personal Reason of all existence, the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord Adonai. . . . In Constitution and form, Adonai is dual, comprising the two modes of humanity, and appearing to the be­ holder alternately masculine and feminine according as the function exercised is of the man or the woman and is centrifugal or centripetal. . . . And whereas of these forms the inner is the feminine, the be­ holder learns that of the two modes of humanity, womanhood is the nearer to God . . . All of God which can be revealed, all that the soul can grasp . . . is revealed in Adonai." "The son of Man— yes, shall--appear in your midst. 0 beating heart, your lover and your judge shall appear . . . the Son and so equally the Daughter of Man. The breathless wonder and reverence of the vision is expressed by the mystic, Horace Traubel: "The clouds part: 0 face--0 face--0 face! face smiling upon me--smiling me wings, buoyant beyond the discarded, cheapened present. Divine Form--mother, father--sex only now stand revealed, the union irreversible: Divine Form, I made whole in you, The elements diverse here blended. God! I am circled--I am drunk with the influx of life— Wheeled in your orbit--given the word I would speak yet must withhold-Leaving you, 0 my brother, each one, to say it for yourself: 0 my questioner! you do not suspect me--you suspect yourself: Tomorrow seeing yourself, you will see me. And the illuminated spirit, passing the portal. God-grown, will hail me proudly." Thruout literature the inspired words of those who have completed the Divine Drama shine forth illuminating the way for those who have eyes to see! What wonder that the soul of man, yearning for the unknown, is led irresistibly onward and upward! Eager passsionate prayer, un­ flinching courage in the acting of the part, daily waiting on God the Logos in silence, aspiration in meditation, reverence— create the for­ ward, progressive, evolutionary movement in the Divine Drama. He who truly seeks with all his heart shall surely find. But in the sincere search all the soul's forces are focused to the one point to be achieved--cooperation with God’s will in the living of one's life. This it is that leads to the identity in will and wisdom of wills human and divine and brings forth a glorified humanity.

The Gift of Days Not what has happened? We have momentarily withdrawn from the onrushing crowd of humanity to consider the meaning of life and its goal. We have passed from material science into the realities of Spirit and find there equally Law and Orderly Sequence. We have found ground for supreme optimism and have found Incentive for living at the top notch of endeavor— gloriously. It has been necessary for many of us to leave home and search for happiness thru the wide world. The experience has enlarged our total vision, it has enlarged our understanding of the stranger without our gate. Indeed, we have found that he is not a stranger at all, but our brother. The experience has cleared our sight to see the bliie bird dwelling in our own homes. We find ourselves inexpressibly enriched from the journey; we thank God humbly that we were incited to start out on our quest for the Holy Grail. For we have taken a tour thru the Great Religions of the World and in _so doing we have arrived at the simple, basic, literal truths of our own Bible I We regard that sublime figure on the cross--Christ Jesus--with in­ creased reverence. That Lord of Wisdom and Love! Not knowing what they did, they crowned this heaven-sent messenger with thorns and crucified him! He who had shown them--totally ignorant of the true source of Light--a method of escape from a soul-darkened life. Jesus the Christ came to save the world from sin, sorrow, sickness-from all discord of the soul. He came to renew the import of spiritual life, to accentuate things eternal. He came not to die in our stead-how could he when each individual must work out his own salvation along the lines that he himself laid down for us? It is unthinkable that Deity to be propitiated requires a vicarious shedding of blood! He came to enlighten us, to show us the next ascending steps in the on­ ward march of the race--the way of peace and happiness. He lived and died that the world might enter the path of spiritual truth and spirit­ ual understanding. "Seek ye the kingdom of heaven which is within" was among his paramount messages--a search which leads to an unfolding of the Inner man leading to Cosmic Consciousness. This is the quest that leads to the goal of earth-life--the conscious union of every soul with its Divine Source--God.

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