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Transcript

Lecture by Father Paul Blighton
Tape 810, 6/10/69

(Reading the portions in quotes): “There is nothing more worthwhile of his being than the right direction and employment of his thoughts, since upon this depends his usefulness to the public. And you, being (?) trying to become ministers, this is where you are going to function. And his own presence and future benefits in all respects depend upon his reaction and the reaction of the public to him.

“The consideration of this has often obliged me to lament and be unhappy of mankind, that though too great a mixture of confusion of thoughts have hardly been able to make one admit at times that he saw the Light when it was with him. And it is hard to bring honest judgment of things we see around us. To this is owing the various uncertainties, the various times of confusion we see when we look into the world, and the intemperate zeal that occasionally occurs amongst us.

“In this class we come to find a medium or even plane of function upon which we, as individuals, may find a neutral companionship and brotherhood. To this also is to be attributed the imperfect knowledge we have of things, the slow progress we make in attaining to a better (?) like the children of Israel that were forty years upon their journey from Egypt to Canaan, which might have been performed in less than one.

“Clear, therefore, thy head, and rally, and manage thine own thoughts rightly. Never mind what thy brother is doing, for what you do he will be helped with his problems, and thus will save thy time and see and do thy business well. For thy judgment will be distinct, thy mind free and thy faculties strong and of regular movement.”

I would advise any student to be particularly careful of many of the bombastic things in the way of literature that he might use, that you see advertised and have all those exciting, wonderful, mysterious things in them, and glaring titles. And refrain from purchasing them until you have asked, have asked us about it, or attempt to secure them in the public library, or to find out something which your teacher doesn’t know, and something further about them. This precaution will not only save you time in your training, but will save you money and will save me work. Many new books are merely complications of well-established writings, rearranged with showy cover, to make them enticing to the public. Others need not to be purchased, since the subject matter will be thoroughly covered in our lessons. For there is little, when once you have finished this second series of lessons, that has not been that would exist even amongst the ancient sages.

And now about the series of lessons we are starting, they are the highest lessons of this order. They are simple lessons, somewhat childish, and you will note from reading them that they are intended to be read by those students wishing to attend, wishing to attain their rightful place amongst those who are the leaders of the world. You must keep that in mind when you read them, for they may seem strange.

In connection with the suggestions that we try to forget personally, the personal “I,” in a daily relationship with brothers, a brother might ask if his process in an elimination of all other things except the Self, or an attempt to make selfhood secondary, all of these strange approaches which some other school might have, Self is so closely related to what we conceive is our own individual I, that it is hard for us to think other than in relation to something we have always called ourselves. Actually, it is true that no man has accomplished great things without forgetting self. To think first of self is to promote selfishness, a word derived from the same source. In brief, of many Eastern religions, and in their comprehension, there is a continual inference that until man can think of himself other than an individual, and isolate his physical being, he can never partake of his true nature. Or to express it in a familiar word, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. And our Lord and Master said, “Unless ye be as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

A prerequisite to man’s fuller life is considered in the light of these teachings as being a renunciation of those things which tend to cause the individual to be selfish. God may be conceived as One Who manifests Himself purely for the purpose of service, or for the creation of better things. God is described as synonymous with love, and also with selflessness. God creates, according to this, not for His own pleasure, but in expression of the fact that the ultimate force of the power of the universe is one of complete selflessness, a force which manifests itself. It is constantly expressing itself in other forms. The emphasis upon Self and the creation of selflessness is a process entirely of man’s creation as a physical being. And as long as he tries to maintain his physical self or his mental self, as a result of his physical contact and acquiring of what he believes he looks like, or what he believes he is, he is continuing to create a barrier which will separate him from the true Source and meaning of life itself.

If God, the supreme Being, the Cosmic Force or whatever we may wish to term this ultimate Reality, is selfless, at least in manifestation, it is logical to conclude that if the individual is ever to be mystically associated, isn’t that a good word, though? mystically associated with the Absolute, he too must have secondary the manifestation of self. He can develop a degree of selflessness to the extent that we give more thought to our being that and its relationship to its Maker than we do to our physical possessions. We can actually be so selfless that we are supreme egotists. Selflessness can be attained by degrees. We can try to eliminate certain selfish desires, ambitions or hopes. A little practice will direct us as to where such a cause is beneficial or useful or practical. There is little use to theorize the idea, conditions, too much. Too many conditions, too many ideas. The better plan is to try to see if the result is worth the effort. The better plan is to listen when you are in class, when you are studying under someone.

You know for many months, and of course many years really, I have taught classes and taught people individually, and it always takes about six months before they wake up that you’ve said something. Because when you have an egotistical person, there is one thing he is not going to do! He’s not going to accept anything you say until his outer being has forgotten it. And then he remembers it, and then it is his; you never told him. That’s the reality; that’s the reality of teaching, and that is a fact.

Many times when you are being taught how to do something, to approach realization or to approach illumination, you listen. Oh, you’re respectful to the teacher, you’re respectful to your young priest or someone that is teaching you. Oh yes, you sit quietly with both ears on each side of the head; I didn’t say they were open though, because while you’re sitting there looking at him, you’re thinking about something else that you want to think about. Now you know, just because you’re thinking inside your head is no sign that we don’t know about it, you know, so don’t fool yourself. But we aren’t going to stop to call everybody in the place because they’re sitting staring at us with the two ears here, and then doing their own thinking inside. We wouldn’t be bothered. You’re just going to have to wait, and try, and sometimes do a little bit of suffering too, because you can’t do it, you can’t listen, or you think you just can’t seem to get rid of this or that.

Well, of course, you can’t. Of course, you can’t because you haven’t been listening. Oh, you’ve gone through the physical motions, but someplace in here you drew a line, drew a line here. Nothing came in except (?) and then you thought of all the rest of the things you wanted to think about, then you were perfectly comfortable. Because you were rejecting the teacher or the speaker at the time.

Now, let me tell you, you aren’t going to laugh when you get to be the preacher or the priest in the pulpit, and you look out at the audience and you see about three or four people that are really listening to you; and you know the rest of them are thinking of everything from diapers to champagne. And you know there’s only three or four people that are really going to hear that sermon that you’ve tried to prepare for an hour the night before, or that you’ve given so much consideration to in meditation. Now, that’s what you’re up against. Because they don’t care how nice you are or how much you’ve tried to help their boy, or if you’ve come down and healed them in a case of pneumonia, or anything else. Don’t ever expect to get any consideration for that, because you’re not going to. And they’ll stop listening to you just as quick as they would some stranger, and probably quicker than if you had a total stranger come in and speak to them. Because there’s all those imperfections that you’ve got that they don’t like. Yes, sir. You are going to work with the most inconsiderate, most selfish bunch of people in the world, that mass out there, and when you come (?) that’s the truth. I’m just laying it right on the line. If you’re going to be a priest, you’re going to take it and take it, day after day, day after day, three hundred and sixty five days in the year for the rest of your life. And you strike one day when one thing goes beautiful, that nobody’s tried to get under your skin with any of their trite little remarks; or Mrs. Jones comes down and she thinks that one of the Sisters did something that she shouldn’t have. She probably looked at some man and smiled: she committed a terrible sin. Mrs. Jones was drunk that night, you know? Ha, ha. Oh boy, I can tell you right down the line, right down the line. I know my a b c’s. Yes?

Q: Isn’t that what we’re doing now, trying to get these people together?

Sure we are. Bit I’m trying to prepare you and take all your false imaginations out of you, and see how much guts you got. So that when you get out there you don’t fold up because you get hit the first time out. And you will, you will, there’s no question about it. Yes?

Q: So that’s the reason for patrols, isn’t it?

That’s one of them, that’s one of them. Toughens you up. You know how they take a boxer and they put him through all the teaching of him, you know, and that, and he gets up and punches the bag, you know, and then he goes through all this shadow-boxing and that sort of thing, you know, and then someday they put a real kind of a half-way good pug in the corner, and then they whisper to the pug: they say, “Let ‘em have it.” You get up there, you know, and you’re perfectly confident. Of course, you’ve had no experience at all. (because?) you’re all emotions, you see. And you get up there; he comes, dances around you a few times and you go through some of the motions, make a few jabs at him and pretty soon he hits right on the button, and the lights go out. Don’t tell me; I’ve been through it.

That’s just what happens to you when you hit that field out there, if you’re not toughened up to it. Because you come out all bright and shiny, going to do good for people. And probably the first day that you’re in church or you preach a sermon, there’s going to be some heckler down there — you wouldn’t call him a heckler, because you won’t say anything out loud — he’s going to attract your attention, he’s going to act as if he were bored to death. He probably is, because you’re telling the truth, and that’s for sure. And brother, when you get down out of that pulpit, unless you’ve got it, and

you got the shield up there, your armor, so that you aren’t bothered by anybody or anything, you’re going to say, “What in the world did I work all that length of time to go through this sort of thing for?” Of course you see, it’s that guy or that woman that’s the one that will get through to you, because that stands out so vividly. The rest of the little people out here, they really don’t do anything to you, you know. They don’t do anything, they probably don’t listen either, but they’re there respectfully. Then is when you need this Light. It’s the only way you can exist. You can’t live any other way unless you’ve got this power with you. This is the truth. There’s no other way to live. And you know, it is a most beautiful life just the same.

I just give you a few of these things to see if I can scare you out the back door out there, that’s all. It’s the truth, but I want to find out those that can’t make it, because I’m not going to have any failures, that’s for sure. But the life that you do lead, and those that you do reach, they pay the benefits. Because in them comes out of this your feeling of total freedom. And this is something that you can only realize when the Light is there, this is for sure. This is the most beautiful thing in the world. Because you will meet people along the way that have attained some of this. Some of them don’t even know it, some of them don’t even know it, but they are (?) they’ve reached it. Any questions?

(reading) “One of the first things we must understand on the way to illumination is that there is no exact way” (Now tonight we had three of them go through when I started giving a prayer and a blessing. So don’t be surprised; maybe it’s your time tonight. You don’t know.) “or exact process or method or series of exercises that will work with every person in the order given. Because each person is different and has led various lives over and over, in the past thousands of years. Therefore, what you are going to get takes into consideration that you are under the direction of an intelligent teacher of some description, who can give you some guidance.” That’s for sure.

Many people say to me, “Well, how long does it take to go through illumination?” And I said,

“How long do you want it to take? You tell me.”

Well, this is just about right, you know. Because they don’t know it, but they’re setting the Law in action. And that’s what it’s going to take. They say, “Oh, gee, it’s going to take a long time.” Ok, that’s what you want, that’s what it’s going to be. Yes?

Q: … in some cases, due to some other circumstances for a person to go through illumination, and in some cases, you know like you say it may take them long or less time. But in some other cases where they have to pay off things, is that due to their karma condition, or (?) you know like…?

Not always. Jesus went on the cross of Calvary for atonement, didn’t he? All right. There’s nothing that can’t be done. He’d even forgive me for smoking a pipe, I’m sure. There is no way in which this can be done. Therefore, what we‘re going to give is in consideration of what you are trying to accomplish. We take for granted that you are not a habitual alcoholic or have any other dominant negative traits, but are a person who has to a certain extent some control, an average life. Of course, this can be pretty nuh, you know.

(Portions being read are shown in quotation marks): “The first step before all else is to learn to control your mind through concentration. This must be done!” That’s for sure. This must be done. There is no other way. You have to learn to control your mind.

The second step is to learn visualization, so to speak. We call it concentration upon a candle. We call it meditation, and we think of certain things, and we (?) certain answers, or we visualize certain things and the prayer that we want to happen, or we want to receive, and we learn to do this.

The third step, we learn to really meditate, so that we tap the source of intelligence in this way, within us, so that there are some things that will come up.” Now, we haven’t reached realization yet, of course.

“Then we are ready to start a concentrated effort so that we may realize the Christ Light.”

These are very strange things that take place amongst people and amongst students, both. When you use the words, “Christ Light”, they immediately attach it to the Bible, and then it ceases to be the light. Because it is very difficult for them to imagine anything that’s got the name of Christ, or any other religious thing, to be a reality. And if you don’t believe that, when you’re out sometime amongst some businessmen, and you’re in collar, either as a student or a priest, and they start to talk about anything and they say, “Well, I don’t know as we’d want to do that.” And they, of course, are a little bit conscious that you’re there, you know, and they’re about ten degrees better than they would have been otherwise, and, that’s a fact, and you say, just unconsciously you say, “Well, I’m sure Jesus wouldn’t want us to do that.” And you can just see them move away, you know. They’ll move away. (laughter) No kidding, it’s a fact.

(They’re thinking) this guy, he talks about it and he don’t even think about it. He, why, he isn’t in a church; he’s here in an office; or maybe he’s down in the saloon someplace trying to get somebody out. And he’s talking about Jesus Christ down in this dirty hole? How could he even be thinking about that? You know. I mean, this is just the way it works. When you say “Jesus Christ” when you’re here in a saloon, why they, if you don’t hurry up and say the rest of it, they think you’re cussing, see? (laughter) This is a fact; this is real serious business.

Mr. and Mrs. John Public have never gotten to the point where the things that you and I are talking about are really top-drawer. These are only the things that the archbishop or the Pope could think about, you see. That’s right. That’s right. And they don’t understand this, because this is philosophy, you see, and it really hasn’t anything to do with your living and breathing and your happiness. If you can get enough of this so that you can create some imaginary idea about something, and you want to imagine this, why you can live in a nice little dream world of your own, you see, and it hasn’t anything to do with your living and breathing and your happiness. (repeated?) If you can get enough of this so you can create an imaginary idea about something, and you want to imagine this, why you can live in a nice little dream world of your own, you see. And that’s the way religion helps people. That’s their idea, you see. Now this is the truth, this is the truth.

I’ve had more than one person tell me that they went to church and they came in during the week to go into the church to pray. And they went into church and they sat down or went to the altar, according to what kind of a church they were in, and started to pray, and somebody else would come in and they’d plank themselves right next to them, and here the whole half of the church was undoubtedly only eight or ten people in it, and they’d plank themselves right next to ‘em and they’d start to try to pick up a conversation with them while they were praying. Oh, yeah, I’ve heard this lots of times. You see, you can’t just understand how people can do this, but this is a reality.

And then when you talk about meditation, why then “you’re an Easterner,” you know. “That isn’t Christianity, that belongs to Buddhism,” you see. Or you’re a Confucianist or something of that sort. You can’t associate meditation with Christianity. It isn’t a reality; in their mind this isn’t a reality.

Now, I’m not talking about the people around here on the street, the young folks, because God knows they know different. But I’m talking about the people in the churches and in the places amongst the middle class of people, amongst the “nice people”, you know. The nice people, these are the people that don’t know anything about God. They’re the nice people that go to church every Sunday, but they don’t know anything about God. They haven’t had a chance to know anything about God, and you’ve got to remember that. You’ve got to remember that. That’s what we’re preparing for. You see.

The strange thing, you’ve either got to go to the top of the ladder or the bottom of the ladder to find anybody that knows anything about God, one way or the other. But you go to the people that made it half-way up, why, that’s a real job. And you’ve got to remember this when you’re out there trying to help somebody that is in a formal or social organization of any kind that’s a church. Because you’ve got to trim your talk and your language in accordance with it, so they can understand you. Because if you don’t, why, they’re just going to be lost; you’re not going to get the communication at all. Now that’s why, the last part of this, you’re going to have a lot of reading to do that is written by church men. It isn’t that you haven’t learned the facts and the things, and the workings of the priesthood by that time, but you must learn their language, of the ones out there. You must do it in order to be able to tell the same story in their language, you see. Because if you don’t, you will never be able to make it with them. And these are the people that we want to get. I’d rather convert some minister out there in some church than I would four or five of these other people out here because, boy, he’s going to do something with it. It may cause a revolution, but that’s happening anyway.

“Then we get ready to start a concentrated effort so that we may realize the Light of Christ. Those of us who have not studied metaphysics or occult or mystical teachings must realize that there are twelve great solar initiations on the lower level, and that man must not be conscious of this, or he would not be so set against the varied religions of the earth. But he enacts them in the passage of time, in his lifetimes and the experiences of them.”

And this is why it is so much easier when we are studying the Bible with the New Testament, and we become acquainted with the mysteries as we do, to be able to understand Jesus, what he says; to be able to understand the teachings and the universal teachings of creation. Because we have the keys that go right along with them, you see. Here is the Testament and its teaching, and here is the great mystery teachings and they fit together and complete the picture that is told in the Testament. And that‘s why we teach them. If we could teach the Bible just alone, why it would be fine, if we had people that had let go of everything, we could do this (?) and had their own intuition and their own knowledge working within them, God’s knowledge, why it wouldn’t be any trouble at all, just teaching the Testament. But you haven’t, and the only descriptions that fulfill the pictures are the pieces which come out of the Eastern Wis-, out of the Christian mysteries. And then when we start to use certain things they think we are experiencing, they are experiencing, someone speaking out of some Eastern faith.

“One of the preparatory steps is to learn to visualize yourself in a small room alone, with one chair, one table, and one cot and a bench or bed. This room should be about four feet by about seven foot high and nine foot long.”

This is the making of your little meditation room, your own cell, as they call it in a monastery. And this is a good way to be by yourself. If you will learn to visualize this, and you’ll learn to go in it when you go into meditation or concentration, or you’re working on the Light or on the Self, then you will be alone and there will be nothing to bother you. Nobody will be bothered. But don’t try to do it laid out in bed, because that’s effortless, your spine is not straight up, and you are not going to get the same results. There’s one result: I guarantee you’ll never get through it awake, that’s for sure.

Now it’s going to take several days to do this, but it is a method, not only of concentration or visualization, it takes both of these things at the same time, but it prepares you to be able to be alone so that you will have no troubles in your working. And it does work, it does work. You will also get a better understanding of what sort of creative power you have in doing this, because you’ll be able to really get down to some of the knowing, of working with your own mind and your own power to create anything, pretty near, that you want. And then that makes sure that your prayers will be answered, that’s for sure, because you’ve already got it started on the way.

Oh, you can put a little door in it which is shut, and that you have barred from the inside. Sounds peculiar, perhaps, but it’s there, it gives you the mental concept. Did you have a question? Oh, all right.

Q: Could you do this too, by extending your atmosphere?

M’m. Well, if you can hold this strong enough you can do this, but with, by doing it this way, you can make it soundproof if you want to. Remember this, once you have got to the point where you can actually create this, visualize this room that you are in, you can have a perfectly quiet place where you can work without being disturbed by anybody in any place. “For what you declare will be as you declare it. After you have been successful at this, you are then ready to go on the actual work. One must remember that he is attempting to take on the Light of the Christos, Christ, and that if he has anything else in mind, I say ‘beware’, for it can have its reactions.” Yes, somebody said something somewhere, or did I catch somebody thinking? Somebody call me? What? Oh, all right, go ahead.

Q: I was wondering, could you just like concentrate your atmosphere, just … it, so to speak?

Yeah, but you’re working here with a figure, a form, a distinct form, a distinct figure that’s got walls and ceilings and floor and a bed and a chair, and a little table in it, and a window and a door, and so forth, and it’s mighty good exercise, mighty good exercise. Yes?

Q: I was thinking concentrating into a ball, and then sometimes, and other times.

Ha, ha. Trying to skip across the easy way, huh? Well, you won’t get that way, that way. I mean you won’t get the same results, the same exercise. You won’t gain the same controls, and so forth, because these things have things in them that, in their form, that really give you a good workout. Yes?

Q: (from Sr. Gail Rest) Could you replace this with the orange exercise?

Uh-uh. Uh-uh. The orange exercise is all right in the beginning, but we want to get something more.

Q: No, I don’t mean (?) I mean instead of doing the orange exercise, do this one.

Oh, yes, sure. Oh, I thought you were trying to put the orange on the table. All right. Yeah, that’s true. But you’ll find that for every ten or fifteen minutes you work on things, you’re going to find that you’re going to get that much more results, and things will come easier. You shouldn’t have to labor under these things or hold yourself in extreme concentration, because it should come natural. Just cut it out, everything away from it, and boom! When you get the pattern tight enough you can (?) this will happen within five to ten seconds. Five to ten seconds is an awful long time, when you’re in this state and condition. You could pretty near see half of the world’s history in that length of time. There’s some truth in that. That’s why we don’t want to become too conscious of time, because it is a barrier. There’s no question about it, it is a barrier.

“One must … having accomplished the art of building your own meditation chamber so that you may produce it at any time you wish, vividly and strongly, then you should sit quietly in it and develop the consciousness of the sphere of your own atmosphere.” You see? There you go, Sam. See, after you’ve made the place to do it in, you go and sit in it. “That you fill with white light and sit in meditation, not for an hour or two, but for oh, maybe 27 minutes, and if you set this time in mind, it will work. You will know when the time is up. This is to start with. Setting time elements is a very useful art in many things.” Not just to get you out of bed in the morning, either, but many things beside that. Of course, that’s quite an accomplishment.

“After you have accomplished this, you have practiced it at least once a day, if not twice, for a period of twelve days, then you should, after placing the sphere of white light around you in your meditation chamber, look to the center of the sphere, which should be the solar plexus of your body, or at the rear of the solar plexus, and meditate until you see center or the nucleus of the sphere of light which you have created become part of you.”

My time’s up; somebody else wants to go ahead. Just remember one thing. It sounds funny that you would create something that would be a sphere of a center of light, when you’re seeking light. Well now, I’ll tell you something. If you can find any other around, why, of course I want to know all about it. And there is some in your body, too. And if you don’t separate (?)… yes?

Q: Are there other centers of light in the body?

There are other chakras in the body, and there is light that comes from some of them at times. But those are not nice things to play with until you’ve been trained in that And we go to the Christ light, and attain this, then we don’t have to worry about them, because they, the Self takes care of it itself, and you don’t have to worry about turning this on and turning that off, and something else; and pretty soon, you know, if you start to play with these chakras, you’ll get to be a regular engineer of some kind. And if you don’t set the time clock right then, why, you’re going to have problems, you know, and you’ll be taken off and you won’t even realize you’re going to take off. And it’s true; it has happened. But in this approach, it’s a pretty sure-fire, safe approach, that you’re not going to get fouled up with anything else, that’s for sure. We went over this many times, and I have gone over it many times, in many of the ways, and I know that this one you can‘t foul up if you follow directions. And you certainly, there’s nothing in this practice that is conducive of any hallucination. And you’ll keep all hallucinations away from yourself, that’s for sure. And this will do you a lot of good, because you’ll be able to be happy about it. When people start to get hallucinations, then they start to get worried and then they start to get serious and then they lose their smile and, oh dear, when that happens you got time to repair, because when you can’t smile and talk about Christ, or the Father, why there’s something wrong; you haven’t got it inside. You’ve got problems. And one of the gentlemen that came the other day, about three weeks ago, and he saw the people were running around here and they acted, some of them, as if they didn’t quite know where they were going, but even then they had a smile on their face, so at least they’re happy. And he said, “I don’t know.” he said. “What is this? Why is this so different from any other place I was ever in?”

I said, “Well, I suppose probably it’s because Jesus Christ is what we worship, we work for.” And he looked at me. He said, “What?”

And I said, “Well, the Master of this order is Jesus Christ.” I said, “So we should be happy.” He stopped to think a minute, and he said, “Hey,” he said, “That’s an idea.”

You know, there’s a lot of truth in that.