(Q) [
379]: Please interpret the dream I had the night of
May 1st or 2nd in which a member of Group #1 and I were
climbing a mountain and later I was separated from her and
could not find her.
(A) As there has been given, dreams are of different
natures, and have their inception from influences either in
the body, in the mind, or from the realm of ACTIVITY without
the body through the desires and purposes of the soul itself.
Hence there are the various applications of such experiences
in the individuals, as visions, dreams or nightmares may
affect the body.
In this it arises from seeking and, as is understood, it is
an emblematical experience in the mental development or
application of experiences in the body-mind. Through that
vision it may be seen that the mountain represents the
reaching higher and higher in the mental development of self
and those associated with self, that in climbing these
heights of mental or spiritual experience there come
separations; which is not to be wondered at, but rather as
experienced. For the body will find that in the studies
there will come at times separations as to the purpose or
application of that found.
Then, in making use of same, know in what ye have believed;
for there has been set a standard through Him, and IN Him,
that ye may measure thine self without condemning thy
brother.
(Q) [
379]: How can we discriminate between selfish and
unselfish desires?
(A) As to what has motivated and does motivate the desire.
If it is for the self, or for the glorification of the Christ
Consciousness in thine experience. That this or that may
appear to self as being well, if such and such an experience
were thine own. But, as has been given, each soul may find
in self an answer to that it seeks or desires to KNOW from
what source it (the desire) HAS originated, or is in its
impelling force. First ask self in the physical
consciousness, and answer - and find an answer - yes or no.
Then enter into the inner self through meditation and prayer,
and seek the answer there; for "My Spirit beareth witness
with thy spirit as to whether thou art the sons of God or
not," in thine activity, thine desire, thine purposes, thine
aims.
(Q) [
303]: What should I do in order to bring into material
manifestation my desires? Are not physical needs in life
spiritual in essence?
(A) If the desires for the physical things in life are
SPIRITUALIZED, they are indeed then as necessary as the
higher motivative force in spiritual things. But who is the
judge? He that is the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.
Even as He prayed, "Father, let this cup pass from me, but
THY will - not mine - be done." Again and again do we see
in this the manifestation of the flesh warring with the
spiritual life itself. And we are to be in that position
in our desires that His pattern, His life, is the pattern
for our lives. Seek ye ever, but THY WILL, O GOD, BE DONE
IN ME, THROUGH ME, AS THOU SEEST; FOR THE DESIRE OF MY HEART
IS THAT I MAY BE THE CHANNEL OF BLESSINGS TO OTHERS IN THE
WAYS AND MANNERS THOU SEEST; NOT MY WAY, O LORD, BUT THY WAY.
(Q) [
585]: I saw the Christ again - early in the morning
of May 24th. This time it was a radiant Christ and the
morning seemed to be breaking just above His head. What
does this mean?
(A) What indeed should it mean to each soul, to any soul,
to thy soul, that thou hast been through thine experience
granted a privilege of such a vision! It should make thee
the more humble, the more self-sacrificing, the more glorious
in the praises that thou art even in the way of being shown
MANY things - if ye will but live the life. What did He give
as thy standard? "Inasmuch as ye do it unto the least of
these, my brethren, ye do it unto me." Then, see rather in
that thou wouldst give in word of mouth, in deed, in act of
body, that thou art ministering unto thy Lord. For of such
He said, "I will come again to you, and comfort you - I will
receive you unto myself - I WILL abide with you." Art thou
living in such an atmosphere? It is being opened before
thee. Turn it not aside.
(Q) Please explain Haggai 2:7, "And I will shake all nations
and the desire of all nations shall come; and I will fill
this house with glory, saith the Lord of host [hosts]."
(A) In the interpretation of that spoken by Haggai or any
of the prophets, take into consideration first to whom the
message was being given. Yet know that any message that
bespeaks of God's dwelling in the heart or in the temple of
man is to the individual a lesson now, today. Here we find,
however, from the literal interpretation, that a wayward
people had forsaken their temple worship, where they had been
appointed to meet with the living God. For there alone they
had heard the words, and there alone they had received the
instruction as of old. And the interpretation was that these
should be turned again, as they were only a few years later,
in how that even those that were called the heathen were
shaken to the core and GRANTED the peoples again to establish
the desire of their heart in rebuilding the temple. As ye
have received from Him, "The day cometh when neither in
Jerusalem nor in this mountain shall ye seek or desire to
know the Lord, for ye will find Him in thine own heart, in
thine own conscience"; and if the desire of thy heart will
be that the temple of thy soul (the image of thy Maker; the
soul, not the body, the image of thy Maker) shall be renewed
in Him, thou shalt be able in self to know that - and the WAY
that thou shouldst go.
(Q) What is the difference between the desire of the heart
and the desire of the will? And is it not possible for
harmonious coordination of these? How may it be attained?
(A) Only in Him. In speaking of the heart and of the will,
analyze for the moment as to what they represent in thine own
experience. The heart is ordinarily considered the seat of
life in the physical, while the will as a motivative factor
in the mental and spiritual realm. To be sure, these may be
made one. But how? In that the will of self and the desire
of the heart are selfless in the Christ Consciousness. Even
as He gave in the shadow of the day when the Cross loomed
before Him on Calvary, when the desire of the heart and the
will of self were made one. Indeed, as He gave, the flesh
is weak, the spirit is willing - if the spirit and the will
of the inner self will be made in accord with the spirit of
truth, in the desire of the heart to be one in and with and
through Him. For, the soul is in Him; yet, as the promise
in the Christ is, the soul shall be free in Him through that
love, through that manner of making the desire and the will
one in the Father as did He in Gethsemane.
(Q) What is desire? How does it build physically?
(A) This has been given. And how does it build physically?
Desire, as first given, was in the motivating force that may
separate or make the soul one with or separate from the
Whole, through the manifestations in the will. And it builds
in that the spirit moves in the direction in which it is
motivated by will and desire.
(Q) Is it necessary to give up physical desires for
spiritual development?
(A) Rather spiritualize the physical desires as He did in
the Garden. What there is shown thee as to how the physical,
the spiritual, fought - as it were - one with another?
"Father, let this cup pass from me." This is as every
experience in the physical man when there is the fear of
the loss in this or that direction. There is the constant,
"Father, save me from this - from this." Yet, even as He,
if there has been builded in thine experience as was in His
experience - offering Himself for the world - then thou must
pass through same, in making the physical desire and the will
of the Father as one, that there may be the cleansing in the
soul of those things that may bring the consciousness of the
oneness with the Father in whatever realm.
(Q) What should we hold in mind when we hold the affirmation
in the present lesson, "Let thy desire be my desire," etc.?
(A) What to hold in mind? Hold the Christ before thee,
ever. For, He has promised to take His own self and to take
thy burden upon Himself, as he bore same. Rather would thy
prayer be: I CANNOT BEAR THIS ALONE, MY SAVIOR, MY CHRIST.
I SEEK THY AID. And such a cry has never, no never, been
denied - the believing and ACTING heart.
We are through.
BACKGROUND
Subject of Reading - "Norfolk Study Group #1."
5/21/34 See
378-44 giving a new version of the Lord's Prayer.
REPORTS
