IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 268

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LV

We have spent much time on the idea of discipleship as part of our exploration of the Holy Spirit which may still seem to some as two ideas with little in common. However, when we look at the our understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Activity of the Christ and the Christ Within in the World and in the man in the world, we should be able to understand the necessity of discipleship as the way to manifest the Light of the Soul which is the Illumination, the Holy Spirit in form. When we understand that the Holy Spirit is a spiritual Aspect of God and man, we should be able to also understand that it is not an aspect that can work out in the Life of the carnal man by which we mean, the man focused upon the things of the world. It is also important for us to try to understand the Oneness of the Trinity of Aspects and to see them each as a particular part of the Spirit which is the True man and of God. The Master went to great lengths to expound to us the interrelationships of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; He did this in His parabolic way of teaching which speaks only to those that hear, that are listening, trying to understand and, at the same time, striving toward the goal on Oneness with God. We showed several examples of the Master’s teaching regarding Himself as the Christ and symbolizing the Christ Within, Him being in the Father and of the Father being in Him and how He extended this mystery to us as well. He also speaks of sending the Holy Spirit from the Father  and from Himself as the Son and speaks much about the idea of abiding which we understand as living.

Today we will look at a different slant on the idea of the Holy Spirit; still the Activity of the Christ Within and the Illumination from the Light of the Soul but also some new idea of what that Activity Truly is. So much is said regarding the Holy Spirit from Christian doctrine and dogma that it is difficult to understand exactly what He means to us but, if we look closely at the words of the Master we can get a better idea of the profound meaning that His teaching provides for our guidance. At the outset of our discussions on the Three Aspects of God we said that the Holy Spirit was perhaps the most difficult to understand and discuss and we have now come a long way into the development of our ideas regarding Him. From our basic definitions of the Holy Spirit to the numerous essays here on the meaning of discipleship we have tried to put into words an Aspect of God that we really do not comprehend in a real sense. We have come to the point where we should recognize the idea that the Holy Spirit is active in the world of form from both the perspective of God and the perspective of man; from God because it is His expression on the Earth and from man for the same reason and in this we should see that this expression requires our focus and our discipleship for our conscious wielding of this power and activity that we call the Holy Spirit. Note here that we say conscious wielding for there is this power in our lives of some degree because there is almost always some degree of Light flowing from the Soul through the personality consciousness and this is likely largely dependent upon our individual capacity; that is our ability which is based upon the form that we have built and our karmic responsibility (In the Words of Jesus part 238 and 247).

We begin with a look at one of our more popular sayings as in this can be found the beginnings of our understanding of this new reality of the Holy Spirit; not new in the world but new in our understanding. The Master tells us: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). This is the whole of our story in a single line which says that we are to let the Christ Within which is that Light of the Soul “so shine before men“, that is that it should be the expression of our personality on Earth and this idea is not new as we have said this many times in our posts. Today however we look a bit deeper to see what that expression is; according to the Master that expression is our “good works” and our new understanding is to say that the Holy Spirit is, from the perspective of the man in form, the “good works” that he will do. This is the Activity of the Christ Within. Can we see the revelation in this parabolic saying by the Master and can we see the great depth in such a simple saying as this? This will not be apparent to all as it is contrary to much of the doctrine and the dogma of the church but it is apparent to us when we look at this in the openness of the True nature of His teachings on Love and on bringing each and every man to the Path that leads us to the strait gate which opens into the Kingdom of God. This Path is the Christ Within for as much as the Kingdom of God is within, so too is the Path to it. The idea of works is truly a controversial subject in the many churches of Christianity and the denial of the benefit of “good works” likely keeps many from a True realization of their own spirituality.

Moving on from here we pick up next a series of sayings by the Master that ties our idea above, in the form of fruit, to our opening statement regarding in the interrelationships of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Again, this is a parable and it is one that is spoken to the disciples alone and we should understand that the right understanding of this is as disciples or, aspirants to discipleship; to others this is likely a cleaver play on words that is not nearly understood. So much of what the Master teaches in the Gospel of John falls into this category, spoken to disciples for their later understanding for as we know there was much that even they did not comprehend. The scripture goes thus:

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing . If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will , and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified , that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love” (John 15:1-10).

In a broad stroke we should be able to see the ideas that the Master is teaching; first that He refers to both Himself and to the Christ Within for this is how He abides in us and how we, as disciples, abide in Him. The Christ Within, the True Self, requires one’s focus and through this focus He abides in the personality consciousness and is expressed through the form life. At the same time we must see that the Christ Within abides within the Christ Principal, the Second Aspect of the Trinity of God. This view can only be understood from the perspective of a disciple looking at this as the Soul in form. Going further here we should see these ideas as:

• Abide in me, and I in you. This is as we say above but we should understand its twofold nature. Spoken from the view of the man in form, the disciple, it is he that must remain focused on the Christ Within; from this perspective this is Abide in me and in this the other part is necessarily True. If the man is focused upon the Christ and the Christ Within then that is what he expresses in his Life in form. 
• As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. Here we have the natural understanding from our saying on Light above. Above the fruit, the “good works” is the result of the Light of the Soul flowing through the personality in form; in this saying, when one is focused upon the Christ and the Christ Within, then this is his expression, he bears fruit and, as we have posited above, this fruit can be seen as the Holy Spirit, the activity of the Christ Within.
• I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. There is again here a twofold nature. The one is that as a Soul we are part and parcel of God and of the Second aspect of God and hence the Christ is the Vine and the individual Christ’s Within are the branches; this is a Truth but it is not the point of the teaching. The point is always that which will help a man to achieve Him, to become His disciple and to remain as one and, from this perspective we have a repetition of the prior sayings with the added emphasis on the Holy Spirit, the fruit. When the Christ Within is alive and living in the personality consciousness this is the Christ Within in form and He abides in the disciple and, again, the converse is necessarily True, the disciple, by his focus, is alive in Christ. 

Can we see how the ideas here take into consideration the whole of the man and of his relationship to God as the Christ Within and the Holy Spirit? All of the ideas here so far are telling us that it is through our ability to focus upon Him and the Christ Within that we can become disciples of the Master. The whole of the saying tells us that first a man can become a disciple by keeping His word and to remain as such one will express the Holy Spirit as the fruits of one’s life. This narrative does not go in this order nor was it likely intended to be understood in any particular order; There is much here yet for us to discover and we will pick this up again in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day