New Students and Letting Go – wrong title

Special Lecture by Dr. E. W. Blighton, January 20, 1971

(Order tape 704) — wrong tape#

 

Don’t know as I need a light … leave it anyway. I’m going to talk to you about something tonight that I haven’t talked with you about the subject in almost two years, and that is the new student coming into the order, and this famous little phrase of “let go and let God.” This is one of the things that seems to be — Well, is there more coming? Some of you fellows, why don’t you move in here a little. Don’t be afraid of the altar. We’ve got a back door, you know, too, so don’t worry.

Well, perhaps one of the simplest things in all the teaching of our Lord and Master, and yet one of the most complex in the human anatomy, I’m going to call it, of living. Because you do not, and have not been trained and have not been schooled to understand and hear what is spoken to you. You have ears, and the doctor tests your hearing and he says you have good hearing. And he’s right, you do; you have good hearing. But your entire hearing is set up in accordance with what you have determined that you are going to hear, and nothing else.

I don’t know whether you’ve ever played with sound waves or any of these things in high school lab; we used to do this. But if you’ve ever used a tuning fork you know that you can’t direct that tuning fork and its sound waves, and let it pass through any air currents, without you get at least a slight change, if they’re severe air currents. Or if there is a screen of some sort, even a light screen of any kind, anything of this nature – a thin gauze of some sort – you are going to change the nature of that sound. Some of the wave lengths of that sound pattern are going to be lost. Some are going to be absorbed into material around you, and the other will be received, what is left, at the receiving station, no matter whether it’s a, what it is that’s going to receive it.

But there’s where it’ll be received and those things, there’ll be certain things screened out, always. Now it’s just the same with somebody talking to you. You only hear exactly those things that are enjoyable for your ears to hear. Unless the individual who is talking to you … the words and the sounds, and knows very definitely that this is going to get to you. And then you are hurt, you see, regarding that.

The simplicity of hearing what you are listening to out of the book, or from a speaker or from a tape, is something which requires as much concentration, as much effort in learning to do it, as to go out and learn to observe the things that are on the streets on your way to work in the morning. Like the exercise of going out and observing each building and seeing the different, the three forms that are used in the construction and design of the buildings, and observing the people that pass you each morning, always the same people.

Now it takes just as much effort to hear what is being said as it does to see what you are looking at. One of the things which is concentrated on in the government training for agents and other people of this nature where they must see things quickly is their being able to see actually what they were looking at. And this is a whole course of training in itself, because you must see it a great many times, now, as it appears or disappears, and you must know what you saw and not necessarily what you want to see.

There are these two different things which are the roots upon which you – oh, come in, Baker. Ha, come on over here and sit in the hall, right over here; there’s room there, comfortable room. If you’d like to, Father Baker, you can come up here and sit right in front of the altar here. [inaudible comment] Just put your things right in my room.

The art of listening, the art of hearing, the art of seeing is very fundamental to a person who is going to truly go into spiritual training. Because when you get to the point where you really have attained the presence and know the presence, and are able to see the presence of your Self, and you know you’re there, which most of you doubt very much. And you are able to ask a question in meditation or otherwise, you will only get one go at it, at a time, at the answer. And nobody announces that this is station QEED now answering your questions. You catch it as it flies past, and it is just a slight impression, it is just a slight impression that you’re going to catch.

Rossi, you have a couple of padres over here in the hallway. [comment and laughter] No, maybe they can hold yours. [more comment and laughter]

It is but a fleeting thing which you’ll hear, and then you are not going to be sure whether you heard something or saw it. You do not know at first, until you’ve had considerable experience, whether you heard it or whether you saw it. Because in reality if you will check out your physiological mechanism, there’s a great big question of whether you’re hearing something or seeing it anyway, in many cases. And it’s still a question to some of the long-hairs as to just what you see and what you hear, because it is both a case of the reception of vibration anyway, and wave lengths and wave patterns that describe these things.

But of course you never stop to think about this, you are not trained in this to begin with, most of you, and those that are get frightened when they find out the reality that they truly are not sure whether they’re seeing or hearing. Now we have to make some subdivision so we concede that there is such a thing as hearing and there is such a thing as seeing, but both things are conveyed with wavelengths of vibration, and very often the things that we see also have sound, remember. They – also you can hear them as well as see them when it comes down to the fourth dimension. Now this is purely an introduction to what I wanted to really say to you.

We have generally two classes of people in religious work. We have a humble type of person – or three classes, perhaps. We have the humble people who are seeking very ardently to know Jesus Christ – will you shut that door and lock it, please? We need the air in here but let’s stop them coming in now.

There are the three classes, and one of those is the extremely humble person who seeks to know, through devotion, and with a contrite heart, so to speak, the reality of Jesus Christ; and to search, through him, the reality of our Creator and Father.

Then there is the other type of individual who is less humble, but who is a worker. And he works and he’s glad to help out and he’s glad to give his time, and all that, and he feels good when he’s doing it, but he’s not as humble. He’s a little more egotistical. And he is not as sure about what the teacher says, or the priest says, but he’ll do things just the same, even though he’s not sure, because he gets sort of a – all right, open it. How many people have you got there, please? Well, no more, no more. This is not a public place to begin with, but that’s all right, you’re here. God bless you.

There’s – this person is one of the workers or the beehive type that follows the rest of the crew, the rest of the group, and attempts to do something in service, and he feels kind of good, and if you were reading a cigarette ad, you would say, “Well, he gets a tingle out of it.” And this is true, absolutely true, and they’ll tell you so, even. They might not use those words but a similar thing.

Then you have the leaders who are convinced of things and they’re also convinced, very definitely, that they are leaders and that they know more than the rest of the group do, but you always have to have them, and once in awhile you get one of these types who are leaders, because leaders don’t come along every day, who truly have humility. Now there is two, these three principle types that come in students. We won’t say anything about the material that come into priesthood, but generally the student.

The difference between the egotist and those who are humble is, you might say, they both understand they can do it but one accepts the way of the cross with it. One says, “Yes, I will do it because the Master did it, and I myself, I know I don’t have the strength to, but I believe and I know that he will do, and he will help me.” The other one says, “Well, I know I can do it because I have the Word was given unto me and it works.” It does, absolutely does, but sometimes he pays quite a price for that too, if he slips. And the two different people you do not recognize in a student group, as a rule, in your brothers and sisters, but they’re there. And this is the thing that makes the difference in letting go and working with the power and the Spirit and the intelligence within you, and not doing it.

And the first thing the student asks you is, “Well, what do you mean by letting go?” Perfectly plausible question, of course, but probably one of the most abstract and one of the simplest ones. If you were hanging onto a rail over a – from a balcony and it was about fifteen feet to the ground, and I said, “Well, when you let go you’re going to drop to the ground,” you’d know, wouldn’t you? You’d have an idea. But you’d know there was no way of getting to the ground but letting go, if you were suspended up there like on a tight wire, for instance. Now the letting go is the same thing as walking away from it also. And I’ve used this phrase, I’ve used every phrase that you could think of, and some that I won’t repeat in the lecture here, [laughter] that’s for sure.

But there is no sense of you kidding yourself or trying to fool a teacher or the priest who is teaching you, or whoever he may be. You are going nowhere, and you’re going to go very rapidly, unless you are willing to let the power and the spirit work through you. And it will not as long as you’re hanging onto it, because it can’t. It will not, because you’re hanging onto it. If you were on that banister you’d have to let go to get to the ground, well, you’re going to have to let go to get to the ground here, to get on your spiritual feet, and be able to walk away under the power that you have from it. There is no way on earth of getting back to Christ except letting go of it and walking away from what you have declared and accepting the fact that through your understanding and your accepting the Master, the Christos also, the light which comes from it, that it will come to you. And also the use and the help of the teacher or priest that is working with you.

Now, there is no way, as they’d say on the street, “to beat the rap” at all. You can’t do it. I’ve seen hundreds try and I’ve seen hundreds go by the board, and there’s nothing you can do about it. There is no – there is absolutely no sense of trying to study philosophy if you’re not going to go the rest of the way to receive the light of Christ and illumination. Forget it, because it’s just so much words and it just isn’t much use to you, because you will never know Jesus Christ until you have experienced him. You will never know what we mean by illumination until you have experienced it. Because I have so often spoken and told you folks when you came in here, this is not a school of philosophy. This is a school of reality. It’s where it is, and it’s there it is, and if you’re not interested in that, please don’t waste your time, because that’s what you’d be doing.

Because you can listen to very fine words, and I could sit here, stand here, and orate to you for the next two hours without repeating anything, and you would have had just a lot of sounds which would mean nothing to you. It is a waste. It is what the Master said when he said the soul gets weary from much reading. And this is the truth. And there are many thousands of them today that are weary from much reading and much listening, because there is nothing that is being able to be produced from the listening or the reading. And unless you produce something that gives you an experience from it, what is the sense? It will not come with long lamentations, it will not come with long prayers, and it will not come because you’re sorry you didn’t get it before. That way it will not come.

You know, I’m going to tell a little story here, and I love this story because of its extreme simplicity. But I heard one boy, three boys, one time, down at camp – it was south of Palomar, anyway where they – oh, this was about eleven years ago. And they were talking. They were Religious Science people that were there, and two of these fellows were talking quite fluently about what they thought and how they prayed, and how they did, and so forth. And the other fellow was not saying very much; and he was one of these very quiet individuals, you know, who’s very happy to be with somebody else, and listen to their experiences, you know, and he was reaping a harvest all the time, don’t you ever think he wasn’t, and he didn’t have to listen to himself, you see.

And he got down to, he got down opposite a tree where I was standing, right on the beach practically, it was; because I’d gotten up to see the sunrise that morning, and then went up to services. And I got along and then I stopped and said, “Hey, Jim, you haven’t said a word here. What do you do? How do you use the law and prayer?”

“Well,” he said, “you know, I don’t know whether I do it right or not, but I get results,” he said, “when I get something that I don’t know how to handle and I haven’t been able to do it otherwise,” he said, “I just say, here, Jesus, you take it. It’s too big for me. And then I walk right down the street.”

And you know, that fellow really had something on the ball, because he was using the law of the trinity as perfect if you can use it, because he was – he not only gave it to the Lord of earth to handle, and the Father, but he also told them what he wanted. And he left it as a broad statement which said, well, you can do however you want to, but I want the results; and then he walked away from it. And he was sure when he walked away from it that he wasn’t going to start to, you know, handling it and trying to find out whether it happened yet, or one thing or another. You’ve probably seen this done, and probably done it yourself. And this is one of the reasons why you don’t get results, and it’s one of the reasons why you don’t come into the light.

You know, one of the most profound prayers that I ever heard a man give was: he came and knelt at the altar and he was not one of the group that I was with at all, but he said, “Jesus,” he said, ” I just want to pass right out.” He said, “I want to go all the way. I don’t know how, I don’t know what, but I want it and I want it now.” And he lifted his hands and he got it right then. There wasn’t any fooling about it, he got it right then. But he meant it. And most of us don’t mean what we say.

And this is where the test comes. Do you really mean what you say? Because in order to let go you’ve got to mean what you say and you’ve got to mean the act that you perform, or the prayer that you act out. And when the majority of people would never have let go if it hadn’t been for some teacher or priest hammering over the top of their head, and they were a little bit afraid of the next blow, so they ducked to one side and they had to get out of the way of that, and they went plumb right into the other. I’ve seen it happen and I know, that’s for sure.

It’s the absolute simplicity, the absolute simplicity that gets you into the grace and the light of Christ, the grace that comes with it, and the light of Christ, the Christos, that brings and starts the illumination, that starts the regeneration of the body and the reality of it.

I’ve watched missionaries in the field do a wonderful job as a missionary, as far as helping other people is concerned, and for nine or ten months fight it out, fight it out, deny themselves, fight it out, fight it out. They go out in the field. They could do most anything with anybody else except themselves. And then they put up a grand fight when this happens, didn’t they? (You’re not the only one, ha ha.) There are many of them like this. But you must remember that it’s better off if you just say, “Well, I’m not going to do it yet,” and leave it alone, than it is to try to do it your way. Because you only get into a state of confusion. And that state of confusion is more dangerous than an adder’s sting, because it disturbs the entire physical balance of the body and you have real problems. And it cuts down your possibilities of doing other things lots of times.

Now there are many times that, (better keep that door open so we have a little air? I don’t need it, but I notice the humidity is getting high here. Open it right up, it won’t hurt anybody. That’s it.) The adder’s sting is more generous than your confusion which you build within you. Jesus told you in the New Testament, “If thine eye be single, thy body will be full of light.” If you keep getting confused, look out, you see? This is all the way through the whole Testament, one thing at a time.

You never see him give you a dual law. He always made one statement, one statement at a time, and this is the reason why you know and feel as you do when you start for something and then turn around and deny it yourself. Those are many things which we this day are going to have to learn to do with ourselves that weren’t necessary in his time, and this is a reality. So the sooner you get with it, the sooner you get the use of the law and the word, the easier will be your way of function, and the easier you will get rid of the disturbance which exists within them, and this becomes a real reality in your life. What’s going on out there? [inaudible comments about goings-on in the park outside.]

Is there any question now? I’m not going to make a long speech out of this because I want you to get that one thing on your mind and get it set, and outside of that, forget it. Yes?

Q: [mostly inaudible, about diet, or desire?] …where does desire come from … you don’t even diet any more.

You can diet when you make a major declaration of the word, of your word. That’s your desire.

Q: Desire isn’t a repetition. It’s just once.

That’s right. I do not desire things. I declare things that I want; I want to serve Jesus, I want to serve Jesus. I don’t have to desire anything, because he said I could. The Testament says that you keep the Father first, then all these things shall be added unto you, period. You don’t desire anything. You may have a feeling about the statement, or in regard to what you want to do, but it isn’t a matter of desire, it’s a matter of the proclamation of the word and the decision. You see? Any other questions? It’s the desires that change potential and change their potency, and therefore they go off on another track than where they started, lots of times. Yes?

Q: You mentioned the different types of students when he … In all these different types of students, most of them have one thing in common, and that is, they don’t let go and let God … more or less … ?

I’m saying that if you have an egotist, a person who is an egotist, that’s the personality – I’m saying that he is probably the most confused individual, and afraid, that you could see. And I can say that when you have one of these people that you call humble types, look out because he’s dynamite underneath and he’s got real power. But don’t sell him short down the river because his apparent humility is usually just opposite to his real fundamental personality.

Of course in psychology they go at this the other way around, because they don’t know anything about the other side, you see, of things, and the reality of the real individual. But the difference between the two, you take a person who is extremely egotistical and he’s usually scared to death most of the time inside, but he puts on one awful good front, and that’s why he’s such an egotist, because he doubts his own ability, and he doubts his own faith and his own power, you see? Yes? Any other questions?

Q: Is a leader an egotist, … ? [loud laughter]

That’s a good question. There’s a lot more truth in that than what you think, perhaps. The ego must be used in leadership, yes, absolutely. But a leader, a true leader, walks a line. He swings neither to the right nor to the left except for the purpose of bringing power to bear one way, or the spirit to bear one way or the other. His actions and motions, should I say, in the community are essentially today his prayers, regarding that community or vicinity. With the Master, you might say he has had a shade of egotism there because he knows, if he really does and is a real true spiritual leader, he knows that the Master is, and he has had probably an experience with him, or should have, I would say and believe, had an experience. And he knows that beyond the question of a doubt this is a reality, that what he’s teaching is a fact, and that there is eternal life, and that this is the way it happens.

So as far as the mass mind and person in psychology is concerned, he’s an extreme egotist in that respect. Because if he doesn’t use this, he would not be able to summon the concentrated effort. But if he has the humility to know that the power that he uses, and the law and the word that he uses, is not his but a gift of God’s and that they work through him, then he’s in perfect balance and he can walk the line without injuring his own future or anyone’s. So there is some truth in the statement. Any other questions?

There’s one other thing that I want to bring up here while we’re at it, and that is something that you can pass along down the aisle of communication, and which I’m going to get a letter – I got a letter out in the HOOM, but I want to detail it a little bit more here.

We are as mass-minded people, those of us who have a tendency toward that – and some of those traits kind of hang on, like the feathers that are broken loose, you know, on a bird’s tail; they sort of hang and flutter in the breeze, you know. We are a little prone to look at the things that are mass-minded of an individual or a teacher, or a preacher or priest or class teacher, because we know those things so well. We’ve acted in them and we recognize them thoroughly. So we are very prone to see these things without seeing the true effort and the true work that that person is doing in the community and with the students. And we’re wont to find fault with him, much more easily than somebody else would, because we have learned to observe to a certain degree better than the average individual has.

Well now, you’ll have no troubles with this if you’ll just remember. I don’t care – I say that, but I mean it won’t make any difference if this individual has got one wife or two, if he preaches the word of God and can bring the power to bear and into operation, he’ll do you just as much good. I’m using this as an example, of course; but it’s whether he functions or not that counts. You might have a venerable saint up there teaching you something that could produce nothing in your life whatsoever. So don’t look for saints amongst the Holy Order of Mans; they’re not there, not here anyway.

And remember that the high point of each man’s work in this order is his work and his effort and his accomplishments with and for other people. With and for other people. That’s what we’re vowed to, that’s what we’re here for, and that’s what I want to see done. And you see, if you do this you’ll never have to worry about gaining spiritual attainment because it will come just normally … with the mantle of the order. But we look at the little things that some of our brothers do and we magnify them, and this is not good, either for ourselves or our brother.

There is no man that ever went into the priesthood or that came in as a teacher, whether it’s this organization or another, that didn’t need about five years of solid training afterward, at least five years anyway, to really say he’s been fully trained, because he doesn’t know what the priesthood’s like to begin with before he takes those vows; and he couldn’t, because he couldn’t experience it. And neither can any one of the brothers.

And if you will just look back yourself, each one of you, and think of the way you felt and the way you thought before you came into the order, and you had a very distinct idea of what you knew, what it was to be a brother in the Order, I’m sure. You could have told anybody in the city of San Francisco, until after you’d taken your first vows and then you changed your mind You discovered you didn’t know very much about it, but you were beginning to learn fast, and you did begin to learn fast and this is a pretty easy situation in first-vowed for anyone. But you see this is just a proof of the reality that you didn’t even know what it was to be a brother.

Well, how do you suppose that one of your brothers is going to know what it is to be a priest? No matter how much we talk to him, he’d never hear the experience. He might be called by the Almighty, and I don’t question this because I’ve seen and heard many experiences of some of them who have been, and they were valid. But that still – that gives them a little more confidence, a little more taste of reality, but that still does not prove the whole picture of the reality that they gain after they have taken those vows finally.

So I think that’s all I have to say; and that’s about forty-five minutes. And I think that’s about all you can remember. If you remember that and go to work on it, you’ll do a remarkably good job.

Good night.