Conscious Identity with Ultimate Reality

To identify with the highest is to attune your mind to the highest. To attune to the highest is to live in the ideal. As the flower can not bloom without sun, the life can not flourish without high ideals. There is no greater employment of the mind than meditation upon ideals. An idea is a mental image. An ideal is a standard of perfection and excellence. The highest physical ideal is the manifestations of nature. The highest mental ideal is the mind of nature. The highest spiritual ideal is the union with the source of nature.

The greatest instructor for the lessons of life is nature. To function as nature intended, is to function perfectly. Animals function in perfect harmony with their environment and the laws of their being. Animals, however, have little choice in this matter as they function almost entirely upon the instinctual plane. If the guiding intelligence, which is inherent in your nature, were allowed free expression in and through you (as in the insects, birds, and animals) you would experience the same high level of physical perfection and perfect correspondence with your environment.

The guiding intelligence we are referring to is not something separate or outside of yourself, it is YOUR "SELF." As the deep sea diver descends through degradations of light and passes into darkness, so the Spirit in its descent into matter loses sight of the bright light of the Real Self. The source of all light and knowledge can not be seen beneath the depths of matter.

Man can know only that which he is aware of. Spiritual unfoldment is the increasing awareness of ones total Self. As ones awareness of Self expands, he finds it blends into the Spirit of all things. The spark he sees in the eye of others is recognized as an emanation from his own source, the Supreme Self. In a completely dark room, nothing can be seen by the eye, yet in total darkness we may fall asleep and have dreams of cities and forests where everything is lit up. Where does this light shine from? With what eyes do we see our dreams?

From the Spiritual Plane, the source of all our light and energy shines into our mind, illuminating the fields of consciousness and providing light for the mind's eye. When we are in the dream state, the physical world is non-existent and the dream state is real. When awake, the dream state ceases to exist and the physical world is real. When in unconscious slumber, neither the physical nor the dream state exists. What we identify as "real" is really that which occupies our field of consciousness. WHAT WE ARE AWARE OF IN THE FORM OF SENSATION (MENTAL AND PHYSICAL) IS OUR OBJECTIVE REALITY. The question of supreme importance is, who is it that is conscious? Who is that is aware?

Let us consider a man in unconscious, dreamless sleep. He is aware of nothing; his mind is blank. As early morning arrives, faint glimmerings of the dream state dawn upon his consciousness. Soon, fleeting images and impulses take on the form of a coherent dream state. The individual not knowing he is dreaming, undergoes numerous experiences which he feels and reacts to as if they were real. For him they ARE real.

As the morning progresses, the sound of a bird singing penetrates his consciousness. A vibration from a higher realm has pierced his "reality," his senses for functioning on this higher plane have been lying dormant through his long slumber. As his attention turns from the dream state to the waking state, the dream state fades into non-existence, the singing of the bird becomes louder and clearer and other sounds register on his consciousness. The shift of attention from one plane to the next brings with it the activation of the sense organs necessary for function on that plane.

The sensation of the brighter light of day brings the realization, "I am awake, all the rest was a dream, illusions of my own creation." As the man begins to function on the physical, all the faculties are activated from dormancy and he becomes "awake" to a new reality. He sees the sky, the sun, trees, flowers, animals, etc.; he hears sounds and perceives distance; he smells, feels, and tastes the delights of what he calls the "real world."

From within himself comes the necessary urges to insure proper function on this plane. The drive for food, water, propagation, etc.; these urges result in active participation of physical plane activities. Throughout the day, the individual has seen and undergone a multiplicity of experiences. At the end of the day, our hypothetical individual lies down, calms his mind, centers himself, focuses his mental energies and directs them inward, and with one pointed concentration he penetrates to the source of his own existence. In this state the dream state and the waking state fade into nonexitstence. He has passed from one plane of consciousness into another, each appearing real, until at last he exalts his mind beyond all appearance to the unconditioned essence of all appearance and transformation, the Supreme Self.

As the deep-sea diver ascends from the depths of the dark ocean through ever increasing degrees of light and at last re-enters his native environment, so the Self (that which IS), ascends through the dream, the physical, the mental, the ethereal, and at last reunites with its homeland, the realm of Pure Spirit, beyond time and space, the unknowable, unspeakable reality, the shining, blissful Self.

The highest stage of realization is Self-Realization. It has been said that "for the Self-Realized man, nothing is impossible." Self realization is to enter into fullness of power and peace. To live in full recognition of the Real Self is to live in the Ideal. Of this sublime state, the sacred writings of the East, the Upanishads has this to say concerning knowledge of the SELF:

"What is there in this world that remains to be desired to a man who has known the Self? Nothing in all the treasures of the kingdom, nothing in all the charms and beauties of this world can draw his attention. What happiness, what supreme joy, what an ocean of bliss, that infinite happiness ye are, that is your Real Self."

The Spirit that animates your physical organism is the Spirit that animates all. The intelligence expressing itself through you, is the intelligence expressing itself through all. To turn the gaze steadily inward, with one-pointed concentration, is to experience the Real. Like a mirror reflecting the cloudless sky, we gaze upon our Self and sense the Infinite.

The Real Self can never be made an object of observation by the Self. The knife blade may cut everything except itself. The eye may see everything but itself, for the eye to see itself, it requires a mirror and then sees only the reflection. So it is with the Self. The highest and loftiest perception of the Self is at best a mere transitory image reflected in the mirror of the mind.

The self can not be cognized by the conceptual mind. The mind can serve only to construct concepts and abstractions which it may dwell upon as the Real Self. But at best, these states are feeble creations of the mind to satisfy its own feelings of inadequacy in the face of the Real. What the Mind can not invision, it will create a concept of how it thinks it should appear.

Due to the inadequacy of your mind as an instrument for comprehending your own infinite nature, it thus becomes necessary to transcend the mind and "know" through pure experience that which is "unknowable." It is in the deepest stages of meditation, when the mind has been brought to a perfect calm that we may sense the infinite. Only in silence may we know the Self. It is only after the meditator has mastered the art of calming the senses and quieting the mind, that he may experience the higher states of Being which bring the realization that "he" and his creator are one and the same, and that which is conscious is the Ultimate Reality.

It is in this illuminative state that he realizes that his long pilgrimage through the material plane and imprisonment in a physical body has concealed from him his Infinite Nature. Like the man waking from the dream state, he realizes that what he accepted as "real" was actually a dream, an illusion of his own creation. It is in this state that the individual awakes to a new reality, the Ultimate Reality. The unknowable part of his own nature, his own life essence he discovers to be none other than Pure Spirit. The Spirit of ALL things.

Many persons will never obtain the discipline and mental control in this life time to experience directly the "mystical union," but this is of little import in the light of the Real. We are sent into this transitory existence to gather experience, to learn the lessons of the physical plane, to perfect the soul, to evolve from the lowest to the highest. If it takes a thousand years to learn one lesson, the Universe has a thousand years to offer. It must be kept in mind here that the purpose of the internal experience is not only the enrichment of soul but the enrichment of the material life as well. It is by dispelling illusion that we free ourselves from fear and other limitations that prevent us from accepting our rightful heritage as Lords of the Earth. It is by coming into full realization of our own infinite and eternal nature that we understand the purpose of our existence on the physical plane.

Through an understanding of the unalterable laws that govern every phase of our existence, we not only see the reasons why we have had the experiences we have had, but we also gain the power to determine the effects they have upon us. When seen by a higher light our suffering takes on purpose and becomes our greatest teacher. Hence, we transmute pain from an enemy to a friend.

When we have reached this pinnacle of wisdom we can stand and gaze in awe at the Whole. From this vantage point, it can be seen that there is no evil, only Infinite Good. That which appears as evil is only misunderstanding of Natural Law. There is no such thing as negative experience, only misinterpretation of Natural Law.

Understanding of Natural Law brings with it the power to apply it. Correct interpretation of Natural Law brings with it the wisdom to apply it properly. Proper application of Natural Law results in perfection. Misapplication of Natural Law results in destruction. Through knowledge of our own nature and faith in our Real and Higher Self, we become unafraid to set upon any path of achievement. Understanding of our Omnipotent Spirit and our purpose in life becomes the magic formula through which life's perplexities are reduced to simplicity.

Like an acorn from the parent oak, we have fallen to the earth plane. It is here that our latent potentialities are germinated by the physical elements. Through the intelligence and power inherent within our own nature, our latent possibilities unfold and in time we develop into the majestic splendor of the mighty parent from which we were created. The potential of the oak lies vibrating in the atomic structure of the acorn. Within you lies the seed that will mature into a God.

As the tree grows within the crevice and breaks asunder the mighty boulder, so too must we allow the eternal power to evolve freely within us, until we burst the chains and fetters that bind and limit our expression of life. As the flower overturns the stone reaching for the sun, so must we push upward through illusion and turn our faces to the light of the Real. As the energy from the sun stimulates the growth and increases the life of the plant, so shall knowledge of our true nature aid us in our growth and add immeasurable joy to our life.

As the caterpillar encloses himself in the sheath of his cocoon and undergoes the physical process of metamorphosis, from which he emerges the brilliant and beautiful butterfly. So too must we surround and envelop ourselves with the cloak of knowledge and truth, within which our soul undergoes the mysterious process of Spiritual Transmutation from which we emerge complete, whole, and one with the Self.

It is only after we have cast off the brittle husks of the intellect and ego, and our spiritual wings have been stretched and dried in the sun of illumination, that we can fly freely and taste the sweet nectar of Godhood found growing in the garden of the Soul.

In closing this lesson, we must ask you to reverently tune your mind to the still, small voice of the Omnipotent Reality within yourself and know:

"'I AM,' AND FOR ME NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE."

"HE THAT SPEAKETH, 'I' AM HE."