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2Cooperation

“Thoughts are deeds and may become crimes or miracles in their application.”

One of the most difficult steps along the spiritual path is to accept responsibility for what it means to be a soul. In our society perhaps one of the most real barriers to the acceptance of ESP search findings is a resistance to the notion that the mind has extraordinary power. If telepathy is in fact possible, then my inner, mental world impinges on everyone else’s and I cannot really isolate myself from others. If psychokinesis is in fact possible, then it may be that my every thought has some effect on the material world. In a sense it is far easier not to have to take responsibility for being a spiritual creation. If the unseen worlds of thought and spirit were only meaningless theory, then an individual could simply drift through life and never have to face what it means to be a part of a greater whole, a community of souls working together in the earth.

For many individuals, responsibility is assumed first by becoming aware of the tremendous creative potential of thought. So important is this capacity of the mind that the readings say “the mind is the builder.” It is within our own making to attune our minds so that our thoughts are healing and uplifting to ourselves and others.

As has been seen, the application of will, as toward influences in the life, alters or changes the development of the inner man—the soul. When these are in accord with the divine, or the Creative influences, hold to that which is good—cleave to that which is right, irrespective of the thought or the speech of those who would be questioned in same. In the building up, keep thyself aright. Avoid even the appearance of evil. Keep so that, that committed unto Him will be answerable in the acts, material and mental, for thoughts are deeds, and may become crimes or miracles. These are within thine own making. Think right, live right, be right!

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Experiment: Live with the awareness that what you are thinking is actually creating and is very real. At the end of each day, review your thought patterns. Record those that you feel were especially constructive or helpful. Without a sense of self-condemnation, record those that you feel were not consistent with your ideals.

“In whatever state we find society let us meet it upon its own level: as we look up, we lift it. That is cooperation.”

This beautiful definition of cooperation calls to mind the necessity for sensitivity and humility. We can rarely help another person unless we are sensitive to and aware of his place in consciousness. We must listen to hear what his special needs are and adapt that which we would give to meet those needs. It does little good to talk over the heads of others, even if one is expounding spiritual truth. Jesus was no doubt a great scholar of the Torah and the mysteries, yet he spoke to the common man in parables.

It also takes humility to cooperate in this way. Outwardly it may appear that one has given in to the way or concerns of others. However, in meeting society or someone else at his own level, one must retain a sense of ideal and purpose. It is then that one can truly add something meaningful to the perspective or awareness of another who is seeking. This process is demonstrated by a young man who is a student of the readings and other spiritual teachings. In an effort to make available the teachings of spiritual law to many who might otherwise be closed to such considerations, he has made a detailed study of the esoteric and spiritual symbology of the Great Seal of the United States, as well as the spiritual interests of the Founding Fathers. Through lectures, writing and painting he has given many people an avenue to a deeper understanding of life by allowing them to grow from where they are.

The principle from the readings is that a soul can grow only from where it is at that time. We must respect that principle as we look for ways to practice cooperation. This was the approach of the Master.

… for He took individuals where they were, in their own environ, their own surroundings, and transmitted to their consciousness—either by act, word or deed—that necessary to awaken or allow that necessary to bring healing to those who sought for same.

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Experiment: Work on being sensitive to where others are in consciousness. Without compromising your own ideals, be willing to speak to others in their own language; show concern for the problems and questions in their own minds (not so much the questions you think they ought to be concerned about). Record the experiences in which you are able to be helpful to someone by meeting that individual at his or her own level.

“We must lose ourselves in Him …”

Referring once again to a model of the nature of man suggested in a dream of Edgar Cayce (294-131), let us consider what it is that keeps us from letting go and losing ourselves in the awareness of His presence. Between ourselves as conscious, physical beings and the superconscious awareness of the oneness of all life, there exists storehouse of memory patterns we can call the subconscious.

We might think of the subconscious as a collection of our habitual patterns of response: karma. Although we may have built habit patterns that are constructive and consistent with the divine (so-called “good karma”), the vast preponderance of the memory patterns of the subconscious are limiting and self-centered (e.g., tendencies to feel sorry for oneself, tendencies to hold resentments).

It is only as we withdraw our attention from these patterns which form a barrier that we can expect to regain the awareness of His spirit moving through our lives. Perhaps the most difficult of all patterns to let go of is the one that says, “I’m really pretty satisfied with the way things are and I don’t want to risk change.” The law of inertia pertains not only to physics but to growth in consciousness as well. Don’t we all suspect that dramatic changes in personality and life direction might happen within us if we were able to contact His presence regularly? To the old, habitual self, which is caught in inertia, this is very threatening. It can throw up very resistant barriers to keep us from losing ourselves in Him.

Experiment: Choose and write down a habit pattern that is especially characteristic of your own limited, ego self. Pray each day that as your real self you may let loose of your involvement with that pattern. Cultivate an attitude of openness to His healing for this part of your life. At the end of each day, record any situations during the day where you experienced losing this particular limited sense of self.

“Let us replace our negative thoughts with positive ones, thinking not unkindly of anyone but rather speaking and thinking kindly of all.”

One definition of kindness is caring for the feelings of others and anticipating how our words and actions will make the other person feel. A kind word might be one that awakens a feeling of hope, joy or appreciation. An unkind one might awaken defensiveness or guilt. And yet kindness does not mean that we always say yes. Since there are many levels of feeling and response within us, saying no is sometimes the better, kinder way to awaken positive feelings deep within the person, even though the mind and body of that individual may feel disappointed or hurt.

Keep it [your soul) then in patience, in love, in gentleness, in kindness … For these are indeed the fruits of the spirit … And remember, a kindness sometimes consists in denying as well as granting those activities in associations with thy fellow man.

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We must also be careful not to judge our own kind words and acts too soon. The promise in the readings is that “the soul never forgets” and growth will come from the good we do to others. We simply must not put time limitations on the manifestations of that good.

Yes, yes, here we have an entity meeting its own self. These are not desirous and yet it is for the unfoldment and development of this soul-entity. Physically, only helpful influences may be brought for the mental and soul-self. Much may be the contribution for this entity in the present in kindness, patience, love. All of these are needed in the body. These will aid the soul. For, remember, the soul never forgets and that which is practiced to the soul, in the soul, will bring eventually a growth in the knowledge, in the understanding of the love of the Creative Forces.

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Experiment: Work on relating to others with kindness. Especially focus on speaking kindly. Record those instances where you were able to replace an impulse to speak harshly or thoughtlessly with kind words. Record as well, without a sense of self-condemnation, those instances where greater kindness than you expressed would have been helpful.

“As we open our minds, our hearts, and our souls, that we may be channels of blessings, we then have the mind of the Christ, who took upon Himself the burden of the world. So may we, in our little spheres, take upon ourselves the burdens of our world.”

What was the work completed by Jesus who became the Christ? Some would say that it was simply to serve as an example, that He was a soul just like we are and was simply the first one to make it back to God. Such a response would also assume that we are all on our own to make it back to God and that we cannot expect any intervention from Jesus, except as He serves as a source of inspiration. At the other extreme are those who say that the work of Jesus was so all-inclusive that we merely have to profess faith in Him and we are saved. We no longer have to face responsibility for the things we have built.

The approach in the readings takes a middle course between these two extremes. It suggests that we are individually responsible for dealing with that which we have built in many lifetimes, yet Jesus did a special thing that makes our work easier. He took upon Himself the weight of all the self-centered patterns that mankind had built (the subconscious minds of mankind) and through His death and resurrection was able to build a new, unique pattern within the subconscious mind of every individual. The superconscious awareness was moved one step closer to man’s physical, conscious mind. To redraw the model of the nature of man we have:

We are not asked to take on the burdens of confusion of all mankind. Yet we live His pattern and attune ourselves to His consciousness as we do the same thing on a much smaller scale: taking the burden of responsibility for helping others among our circle of friends and acquaintances.

Experiment: Take upon self a new responsibility for helping some other person. Don’t try to make decisions for that person or do things for him that he needs to be doing, but take on a sense of responsibility for loving and caring about that person, even though it may be a burden (time-wise, energy-wise or otherwise).

“It is a oneness of mind … which we must all seek … not for self-edification, but that power and strength may emanate from us to others less strong.”

When asked to list qualities and personality characteristics that we feel we need to change or improve, most of us have no trouble in creating a lengthy list. Yet many people find it very difficult to write a corresponding list of qualities and characteristics they manifest which are in accord with the highest they know. We all have these, even if we aren’t able to express them with regularity, so why is it so hard for many people to create such a list?

It may be that we realize that in recognizing these qualities we assume a greater responsibility for expressing them more often (i.e., if I don’t admit I have this potential, then I’m not obliged to live up to it). Or, perhaps it is because we have been taught that we need to be humble. Yet we fail to be humble only as we set ourselves apart from the source of the good manifesting through us and claim all the credit for ourselves. It is false humility when we refuse to recognize the ways in which the Spirit is in fact working through us.

For some that work might be a musical ability that can help lift the consciousness of others; for others, it may be a special ability to be sensitive and listen. We all have these capabilities to channel the qualities of the Spirit. We experience a deeper awareness of the sameness that unites all of life as we find ways of sharing our individual gifts with others who may lack them.

Experiment: Choose one of your characteristics or abilities which you feel is often able to serve as a channel for the expression of your spiritual ideal. Be sensitive to those who may lack this particular characteristic or ability and find ways of sharing this strength with them.

“As we enter into meditation, let us visualize the force of harmony and love in action.”

There is frequent discussion as to just what role, if any, the readings indicate that visualization should play in meditation. Consider the following two passages that seem to give contradictory advice:

Q-3 … How may we avoid becoming rote in meditation and our daily lives?

A-3. By visualizing in such manners those meditations that are given out for others, for self; for in aiding others does one aid one’s self most. And unless this is so visualized from without self, it becomes rote. But when made, set, or so experienced by the inner self as being an active, living principle within self, it ceases to become rote.

Q-4. During meditation I have experienced a strong vibration—the whole body vibrating. Please explain. And have I been able to direct this current to those we are trying to aid?

A-4. As the vibrations are raised within self through this very visualization, this experiencing of there being those activities, the body—as everyone—is able to send, or direct, or create an environ—to such an one to whom the thought is directed—that is helpful, hopeful, beneficial in every way.

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Q-12 … To bring a desired thing or condition into manifestation, is it advisable to visualize it by making a picture or just to hold the idea in prayer and let God produce it in His own way without our making a pattern?

A-12. The pattern is given thee in the mount. The mount is within thine inner self. To visualize by picturizing is to become idol worshipers. Is this pleasing, with thy conception of thy God that has given, “Have no other gods before me”? The god in self, the God of the universe, then, meets thee in thine inner self. Be patient, and leave it with Him. He knoweth that thou hast need of before ye ask. Visualizing is telling Him how it must look when you have received it. Is that thy conception of an All-Wise, All-Merciful Creator?

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The answer to the question of the role of visualization in meditation may lie in the observation that two different functions are being described above. In the first passage (281-15) there is a clearly understood spirit or awareness that the meditator seeks to awaken; and the use of imaginative, visualizing forces is a tool for the desire to awaken that spirit. In the second passage (705-2) the focus is on the condition, form or materialized manifestation that is desired. In this case, the readings strongly recommend that visualization not be used, since the meditator is creating an image or pattern (remember, thoughts are things) and, in a sense, worshiping that image rather than the spirit of love and oneness.

The experiment for this line from the Search for God text asks you to try the first approach: Get in touch with your desire to awaken a particular spirit (i.e., love or harmony) and then allow the imaginative, visualizing forces to operate in response to that spirit. This experiment is only for the preparatory period of meditation; when you move to your affirmation in meditation, try to hold the spirit of the affirmation in silence without visualizing.

Experiment: As a preparation for the period of silence in your meditation, take about a minute and recreate in your imagination some way that you have seen love or harmony manifested in the past day (either by yourself or by another person).

“May our united efforts go through the ages to those yet unborn, regenerating them to that awakening which makes the souls of men safe in the knowledge of Him who made all things …”

The concept of reincarnation opens up a whole new way in which we can see our life’s work in the earth. We need not feel cut off from the future we are helping to build. We will likely be a part of that new society in another incarnation. This kind of perspective may help us deal with the frustrations of our present society (concerning educational practices, governmental decisions, etc.). For lifetimes we have helped build the world we now experience.

However, the same principle holds true for the work of healing our society, a work that we are now doing—our efforts to build a culture in which the awareness of spiritual reality serves as a basis. We should consider what kind of life experiences we want in our next incarnation and build toward that now. We build first by changing ourselves, but also by working constructively to create understanding and change in the world at large.

The readings suggest that we also keep the awareness of the continuity of life, not becoming frustrated if the changes we want fail to come immediately.

Then, know what thy ideal is; of the spiritual, not of the temporal; not that around which there may be put metes and bounds, but rather put thy ideal in those things that bespeak of the continuity of life; the regeneration of the spiritual body, the revivifying of the temporal body for spiritual purposes, that the seed may go forth even as the Teacher gave, “Sin no more, but present thy body as a living sacrifice; holy, acceptable unto Him, for it is a reasonable service.”

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Experiment: Take time to consider and write down the kind of world that you would like to come into for your next incarnation. Select one quality of that futuristic world you imagine and write down ways that you could be helping to build that right now, even though it may not show fruits in this lifetime. Work on manifesting those things that you could be doing now to make the world a better place to experience for your next incarnation.

Example:

quality:	everyone meditates
what I could do now:	meditate daily myself; make a special effort to share my books or understandings about meditation with friends who might be interested.