".....in the very protoplasm of our bodies, is contained the divine design for that which finds expression rightly through us on earth. It has seemed a very mysterious thing to human beings that such a diversity of potentiality should be contained in physical substance. ...Somehow or other there is contained within the flesh that which when drawn forth will reveal the divine nature and individuality of the person. Unfortunately few have either been willing or have understood what was necessary, and there has been in the world of man this tendency to become involved in drive patterns, where there is an attempt to force something, either in the realm of human accomplishment or in the building of a human personality. And we took note of the fact that as long as there is this forcing process it absolutely prevents the experience of the divine potentiality which is present in each one.
... the point of origination is not in the physical substance; but whatever is to come forth comes forth through the physical substance. There are facilities established by which this may be so. We do not at the moment need to examine too deeply into these facilities, but we may recognize this miraculous thing, miraculous to the human mind at least. Locked in each cell of your physical body is the secret of the divine identity and expression of you as a whole, as a whole person.
There is that which is coming down from God out of heaven, not necessarily from above our heads, in the sense of geographical position, but from a level which is vibrationally higher than we are, to flow through the form, which insofar as we are concerned has already been brought forth, to find expression in living, creative living, revealing the true nature of that aspect of God for which each individual is rightly and properly responsible.
The flower does it very easily. There is no labor, no sweat of the brow involved. There is what we might call work; something is done. It does not magically appear; there is a building process, a developing process, an unfolding process, and it takes work of a kind, but it does not require a great struggle or effort to do. The same principles should apply to a human being, but because people generally have a greater consciousness of lack than they do of the abundance of the divine provision, they imagine that they have to forcibly achieve whatever is going to be done. And the more forceful a person becomes, the more he deliberately applies himself in a drive pattern, the more he is liable to accomplish in man's world. And those who have the greatest drive are those who generally reach the top of the pile. But I do not know that that is any particular recommendation in view of the nature of the pile. It is not, in any case, true to the nature of man. It is not true to the divine nature of things. Where there is not this determination to indulge in drive patterns things grow and unfold on a little different basis, on what we might truly call a natural basis, something that is observable in nature. Man is not, properly speaking, separate from nature. He is a part of the whole manifestation of things here on the surface of the earth. He is not rightly separated or segregated from the rest of the forms of life here on earth. And the same processes of growth and unfoldment should apply to him and should, if allowed to operate, bring forth something far more marvelous, far more beautiful, far more complete than would be the case even with respect to the highest levels of the animal kingdom. ...Of course there are those people who rather tend to take on the characteristics of the vegetable kingdom. But it seems to me we should aspire to something a little higher.
..."Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," all you who are involved in a drive pattern. "Come unto me." Here was an invitation; something was being offered on the basis of attraction. We took note of this distinction this morning, the distinction of moving on the basis of response to something higher--so that there may be a drawing forth through oneself of that which is required to accomplish whatever needs to be accomplished--this on the one hand, and the human determination and drive pattern on the other, by which the individual imagines he is going to achieve. It is the distinction between the usual way of controlling a flock of sheep in this country, where the shepherd goes behind with his dogs and drives the sheep in front of him, and that which is the common pattern in the East, where the shepherd goes in front of the sheep and the sheep follow him. Looking at those two ways of doing things, which do you think would be easiest on the sheep? Obviously, following the shepherd, because--I don't know whether you could say that a sheep loves the shepherd--but there is an attunement of some sort between the sheep and the shepherd, so that they do follow him, and they go right along and he leads the way for them. On the other hand you have a big mass of sheep, and shepherds and dogs behind trying to force them along the way, and it is quite a labor and the sheep do not really know where they are going. They have constantly to be herded into the direction where they should be moving.
This is the usual human pattern of control--control from the standpoint of fear, for instance, we noted again this morning. If people can be controlled by fear to move along the way which is supposed to be the right way and the compulsion of fear is taken away, do you suppose those people will continue to move along that way? No, because it was the drive of fear that was making them go along that way. When the drive is removed those concerned will not continue to go along that way. All these different drives that are used in controlling human beings, and that which finds expression through human beings, are contrary to the divine design. And when our Master used the symbol of the shepherd and the sheep to portray something, He was talking about the shepherd going before the sheep. In fact that is mentioned in one of the passages. The shepherd goes before the sheep, and the sheep know his voice and follow him. The way is opened by the shepherd. So there is a drawing-forth process, that which is portrayed by the words "Come unto me."
In the drawing-forth process which we may observe in nature here on earth, in the springtime for instance, the true nature of the plant or the tree is more or less locked inside the organism during the winter. For instance, in a deciduous tree there are no leaves, the branches are bare and the tree looks as though it were dead. When the spring comes there is an increase in warmth, the direct radiation from the sun, and the substance of the tree responds to that. It responds to something external to itself. Within the substance of the tree is locked the beauty of the expression which is to come forth. It remains locked inside until there is something brought to bear outside. There must be the increase of the warmth of the sun. This is the primary thing in the springtime. Of course there are other factors involved, such as moisture. But it is the warmth of the sun impinging upon the face of the earth, upon the vegetation, that begins to draw forth from inside the substance of the organism that which will allow the manifest expression to appear. Now here we see something along the lines of the hourglass in relationship to vegetation. There is the invisible pattern inside, all the essential provision is inside so to speak. It is there, it is real, otherwise it could not come forth; and it moves through the substance of the form of the particular organism and comes into manifest expression. In the tree, for instance, there are the leaves and the flowers, etc. It moves from the upper part of the hourglass through the neck into the lower part.
If we recognize the principles at work here we may see also that there is need for something which permits the unlocking of that which is invisibly contained within the very flesh of the individual human being. Something needs to be brought to bear in the external sense. Now we are not just vegetables, so the warmth of the sun is not sufficient. It is necessary, of course, because we have some correspondence to the vegetable kingdom in this regard; we need the sun just as the vegetation does. But there is required not only the physical warmth but that warmth which relates to the mind and to the spirit which will permit the blossoming forth, the drawing forth, of that which is locked inside the person, to reveal the divinely designed beauty of individual being. For instance, when our Master was on earth He spoke those words: "Come unto me." And of course the invitation was extended not just on the basis of those words. The invitation was extended by reason of that which was radiating through Him, as from the sun. This was brought to bear on people, and those who were not so thoroughly engaged in forcing, in drive patterns, undertook to respond a little. And there were those who did respond, to some degree at least. It is evident that there were great numbers who were still thoroughly indoctrinated in the drive patterns and consequently they were not aware of that which was being offered, the invitation that was being extended; it did not have any effect upon them except on a basis which tended to intensify their drive patterns. But if there is to be a drawing forth of that which is inherent, the potential which is in people, there must be the provision in the external sense. It is not enough, even though it may be the truth, that God's love, for instance, is radiating freely at all times to all people. It is radiating at a level where human beings have no awareness. It is only as it begins to come down into the range of human awareness that it begins to have meaning. We can talk about a heavenly realm, for instance, and there is much consideration given to that; but it is merely imagination, because there is no means by which human beings can get to that realm. We recognize that if there is a higher vibrational realm the only way by which we can become aware of it is to let it come down and find expression where we are, because we have the facilities to be aware of things where we are, not somewhere else. We need to provide the neck, the open neck of the hourglass, so that that which is invisible, incomprehensible perhaps, above us may have the facility to come through into the hourglass below, where we have the ability to understand it, to comprehend it, to experience it. But it must be drawn forth. It is as though it was behind us, hidden because of us, and until it is allowed to come through and out in front of us it remains hidden. There is no awareness, no evidence, of true identity. Because there has been so little awareness of true identity on the part of human beings--they have been standing as a block in front of this, so it did not come out--there has been a blank. Human beings have looked at the blank and they say, "There's nothing here. We've got to put something into it, we've got to make something. We've got to enter into this drive pattern, we've got to produce a human personality, and we've got to do great things with it so as to have something worthwhile in the world." Well, we look around the world and there may be a few things that are worthwhile but there are a lot of things that are not.
The flower so easily reveals something worthwhile. Why should we not do the same?--allow that which is potential to be drawn forth, so that it does take form at the level where we are, become experienced and known. This requires the springtime to come, in the sense of the essential warmth, or that which corresponds to warmth, impinging upon the flesh of our bodies actually, and the mind and spirit which are present because we have flesh.
...There was a statement made in connection with our Master when He was on earth, at least with respect to those who had been close to Him. It became evident that they had been with Him because something of the divine nature was being drawn forth through them. It was not as though our Master somehow said, "Well you can have some of my nature. I'm going to put it on top of you." No, that which is to appear is the truth for that person alone, the truth for you, for no one else. Certainly we are not trying to get something from someone. We have the opportunity to open ourselves in response to the divine radiation which is offered externally and let the divine expression be drawn forth from within ourselves. Then we begin to share in the process by which spring comes for others. This is the reason why there is a need for servers, ministers on earth, those who truly are giving expression to that which comes down from God out of heaven. Because unless this is provided in the external sense there is no means by which spring can come on earth. Human beings can struggle all they want; they can indulge in all kinds of practices and drive patterns of every sort, even religious drive patterns--and there are lots of those too. But it is all a drive pattern which absolutely prevents the individual from experiencing the coming forth through himself of that which is of the divine expression, that which is his true divine nature. Perhaps it requires a little trust, a little faith, to start with at least, that there is something to come forth, but I do not know why it should take much faith. We have life at least. We know that. There is that much: whatever amount of life is in us, we have experience of that already. Why not let it come forth more fully, more completely, not only with respect to the physical body but to the mind and to the spirit, that we may begin to reveal on earth that which is whole, that which is divine, made in the image and likeness of God, that which is altogether beautiful and glorious. If there are those who are willing to let it be so, what has been called the kingdom would come, because the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is or has been invisible and incomprehensible to human beings; but coming through the neck of the hourglass, it can take form on earth and become understandable, can be seen as something practical and meaningful, something which enables the achievement of wonderful things.
How good to play a part in making possible the experience of divine springtime on earth. This is what is called the resurrection, the resurrection of mankind out of the state of the drive pattern into the state of the kingdom of heaven, not something particularly mysterious or incomprehensible, because we begin to let it come and then we know what it is. To keep it locked up in some invisible realm somewhere and then try to figure out what it is is a futile undertaking. There are all kinds of people who are theorizing about what is in the invisible realms. Well what difference does it make? It is not going to be right or true in any case. It is all there; we don't need to worry about it. That which is of that higher vibrational level of being is there and we can discover the truth of it by letting it come here, but we can only let it come here as we permit our divine natural expression of individuality to come forth, and it comes forth as there is response to the radiation of the provision which the Lord makes in the external sense, so that there is a sharing in that radiation, an increase of that radiation. The sun begins to shine more warmly, in other words, because it expands. There are more who are participating in letting it be so. And it gets hotter and hotter. That is wonderful. Those who respond begin to blossom forth. Those who do not respond begin to find that this heat is a little uncomfortable, and it has been described well as hellfire. But it is the divine radiation. It is not the product of some mysterious devil somewhere, stoking the boiler. It is the radiation of God's love, and if there is response and yielding to it as it is experienced here on earth the unfoldment takes place from within the individual. The sap rises, so to speak. There is a process of resurrection, the bringing forth of the leaves of the tree of life and the fruit of the tree of life on earth. This is the way of salvation, we might say, the way of life on earth, the way of the resurrection and the life. Let us respond to the warmth of the Son of God and consequently share in letting that warmth be increased to all the children of men.
