Click on headphone icon at left to listen to audio of this transcript

Transcript

Lecture by Father Paul Blighton
Tape 808 10/29/1968

 

Tonight I’m going to talk about the awakening, along with the other things that happen. To man, this is perhaps the most important moment of his entire cycle of many lives. Most people do not understand what the awakening is. Now, those of you who have worked or studied with the Eastern groups, or some of the other Hindu groups, Buddhism, various others, have had all kinds of terminology you have used, and have all kinds of definitions. But actually this doesn’t make so much difference, because what we’re talking about is a realistic thing. An awakening is not just an idea, and it is not just getting an idea, and it is not just your coming to the conclusion that you understand something.

Now in this school, which hasn’t anything new to say except it has cut all the frills and all the fancy words out, and we have gotten down to the bare necessary terms that are necessary to describe the actions of man and the action of creation in his following his life-pattern and life-path through any incarnation, regardless of what it is. Some people have an idea he who seeks still has to contend with the same things, maybe not as severe, and this is true, as they were 2000 years ago or 4000 years ago.

There’s one thing that does not change. There’s one thing that does not have any great variances in, and these are the great initiations which man goes through regardless of whether he belongs to a lodge or a church or whatever it may be, or none at all. He is still going to go through certain types of general experiences whether he lived 400 years ago or today. And he is going to have certain experiences. Now he may not be fully conscious that he is going through an experience of a certain initiation, but he will well know that he has had this experience, and he’ll take it with him when he leaves the physical body to carry it on to his next cycle of life. This is for sure. And that which he carries with him will be increased and he’ll get straightened out in between-hand, and he will learn many things and then return.

If you were to look closely on the, for instance, the New Testament, you would find many things going on in that history and the actions of the individuals that were partaking of them at the time, and if you look today you will find incidences and happenings which are almost the same except they have got different names and different names and different people connected with them. The man who is seeking to the awakening is the individual who is seeking the illumination and realization. He is seeking to know himself, as it is said, “Man know thyself,” in the great school of Delphi. It is a little more than that also, but if you put a capital on that S, why then you’ll have it.

But it requires a good deal more than just understanding some words, because we are talking about the forces of creation in action and a permanent change that takes place in man when he goes through these initiations, when he goes through these experiences. There is no question that there are some schools and there are some churches and other organizations that talk from the standpoint of words and understanding. Well, this always reminds me of a little statement in the Testament that says that “much reading wearieth the spirit,” and there’s a lot of truth in this.

Sometimes I sit down to a class like this and I feel sort of guilty. I wonder why I should continue to teach, because I may talk from now till tomorrow morning and you will have reached no nearer to what you seek than when you started. You will have more knowledge, but you will be no nearer to illumination or realization than you were when you started, because all the knowledge in the world will not gain you the Christ consciousness. Neither will it gain you God-realization; and this is where the hitch comes in this for most people. It takes definite work, definite effort, definite progress and definite determination in order to attain it. This is what we seek, because once it has been attained, then you have the answers yourself. You have the answers to the problems of life, and you need not books to tell you what is right.

If you wish to describe a lot of very beautiful things, I might spend an hour in describing the beauty with great eloquence, the color and the magnificence of the Self, and I wouldn’t even approach it; I would have fallen far short of having been able to describe it to you. If I were to describe the great light of illumination, this would also be a failure, because words do not describe it. I’ve read many authors who have tried, who are very eloquent and very marvelously equipped with words, and they have failed too.

So there’s only one real Path. Now it doesn’t make any difference whether you’re going to a Buddhist teacher or a (?), or a Sufi teacher, or a Zen teacher; when it comes to the illumination and realization, they can’t do it any different than anybody else. They’re going to have to adhere and accomplish the same things that they would in this school here, because it is the same Path at that point. Earlier in the progression of man, earlier in the early initiations of man, and attainments, then there may be many paths. In fact there are I think thirteen, if I remember right, twelve or thirteen. There’s nothing wrong with any of them, but here we know that this is the direct relative Path. We (?) for instance in the Eastern school you study the chakras and all the various aspects and how that they work, what they do, the various things that they unravel to you and all that sort of thing, and this is all very true; but we sidetrack these things. We do not try to play with these things or to master them because it isn’t necessary. We go directly to the two final initiations, because this is the last days of this old earth. There is a new one forming now, and there is a new acceptance to these things, and it has become a little easier to approach these particular attainments than it was four thousand years ago, or two thousand years ago, either one.

Is there any questions, any comments? It’s perfectly all right; feel free to speak or ask questions or anything else.

Q: You said that you feel guilty… (A gap in the tape here)

….will not mention his name, and I made this statement: I said I am not interested in dogmas, I’m not interested in churches, I’m not interested in any of these things. The only things that I am interested in are the things that control the forces of nature, and can put and bring an answer to any prayer I pray. I want results. And I said, “You tell me that prayer is answerable; I want you to show me this. You say there’s illumination, I want you to show me this. If you say there is self-realization, I want you to show me this. You prove it, I’ll believe it. I know it, so I don’t have to believe it.”

Now let’s be honest with one another. There’s one or two things that have to exist in every class that we teach: you are either here for amusement, or you’re here to find something that can increase the fruitfulness of your life and make it more joyous, one or the other. Isn’t this true, …? It has to be one of the two, doesn’t it?

And if you’re looking for amusement, we’re pretty childish here. We use very simple terms and not too many words. If you’re looking for eloquence, this isn’t the place to find it, because I’ve geared myself (?) oh, I could be eloquent if I wanted to be, but I’ve geared myself to the one passage that says, “lest ye be as little children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven”, if this is what you seek.

And that kingdom of heaven is within, and the Bible says so; the Master said so. The teachers of the East have demonstrated this. We’ve demonstrated it here. There are ten realized beings in this house that live here every day. Now they aren’t any grand and glorious people; they just opened the door. Now this may go on for many years, as far as realization; because realization doesn’t happen and then from that time on everything is accessible. You have to develop this once the door is open and the veil is rent, then you may learn to use it.

Did I say use it? Yes, I said use it. Because you wouldn’t catch me spending my time, wasting my time on something that didn’t produce. Because I don’t get paid anything for it, and I don’t draw any salary here. I get two rooms to live in and three squares a day. I have no axe to grind; I don’t need it.

God is a realistic sentient Power, and It’s very much alive. It’s very much a reality, and you can use It, because the Word was passed to us and it will release that power; the Testament is full of it. Buddha speaks of it; that’s 600 years before the Master was here. The Essenes taught it, I don’t know how many thousands of years before that. The Rosicrucians taught it over 1200 years before that. Masonry has taught it ever since it was originally formed, and that was before the Master was here, I think too, if I remember right, and it is one of the most powerful organizations in the world. At least they get along fine.

Now, I’m not here teaching Masonry. I’m talking about the Word, your word, and how it will work, when you learn to know the existence and power that is within you, when you can get to be like a little child. For not only through the entire scheme of nature, and this universe, there is one simple saying that reveals the actual state and condition of every individual who has become master of these things, and that is “In humility there is power”. And this is the truth.

And when you reach toward realization, one of the first things, I’m just sketching this now, because I’m not going to try to go into any long-winded discourses. I’m giving you the essence and kernel of these things. When you go toward realization one of the first things you have to learn is to get that busy little mind of yours quiet, because it doesn’t know anything anyway. And when you learn to control it, so that you’re not thinking about dishes and Greta Garbo at the same time, and trying to think of what your minister told you last Sunday the next minute, when you learn to control this mind, then you can learn to approach God, and you can learn to approach and use the powers of nature and God, because they’re all of it.

Now you will hear, and I have heard; I am sure you have, various young people, and God bless them too, I say, talking about unity and oneness, brotherhood and oneness with God. They mean well but they haven’t been coached in what that means. When we’re talking about oneness with God, we’re talking about a lot more than what we realize we’re talking about. We’re talking about unlimited power, and I mean Power. I mean energy in action. And the strange part of it is, I’ve seen this energy in action many times, and used it, and a number of my boys have seen it and felt it. And it isn’t an uncommon thing for us to feel it in our prayer services every night. Oh, we miss occasionally, but it happens.

And it certainly depicts a lot of things, this attitude of man to the things he says he’s searching for. Because this unity that he’s talking about, now that’s the answer; he’s talking about it, that’s what he does, he talks about it, but as quick as you ask him to do a simple spiritual exercise, I’m not talking about yoga or anything like that. There’s nothing wrong with yoga, because I have many friends in yogi, yoga. In fact one of my good friends is a yoga master.

But as quick as you ask them to spend fifteen minutes night and morning to approach either of these spiritual realities, you know they can’t find time out of the whole twenty-four hours, they haven’t got twenty-four hours, they haven’t got time to do that. They can sit cross-legged in a yoga class or something like that and dream for hours, though. Do you know why? Because fifteen minutes of actual work and concentration will teach them something that they don’t want to learn within four or five lessons. And that one thing it will teach them is that they’re pretty much uncontrolled. And then some other things will come up that’s probably some of the things they don’t want to think about, some of the things they don’t want to meet. Because every man, before he goes through the greater initiation, meets himself! Sometimes you’re not very good to look at.

These are plain and simple facts. This is nothing hallucinatory or imaginary; this is reality, cold stark reality. If there’s anything man wants to get away from, when he has infirmities of the flesh, as it used to be called in the body, in the Bible, when he has infirmities, and he has things he’d like to get rid of in his personality, is don’t start with the cold, hard facts. “Let’s get away from that and get down to something that’s going to salve over and smooth out those bumps. Try to give us a more slippery, easy ride.” I’m sorry, it can’t be done. There’s a price to pay, and that price tag is on every initiation in this solar system. It is on every attainment in this solar system. There’s a price tag. If you had a million dollars you couldn’t buy it. And that price tag is that you let go totally of the world around you.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t have a job, have money, but it means you let go of it and you follow the first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” And it means just that, it includes your wife and your sweetie, and the whole works, right down the line. He said, if thine eye be single, thy body shall be full of light. And my young friend from the Jesuit seminary this afternoon said, that’s right. Now, what’s the interpretation of this? There isn’t any! It means just what it said. Childish, isn’t it? What, you don’t have to get the dictionary out to understand it? No twelve-letter words? No, it means just what it says, nothing else. When it says “light”, it means light, period! Light: not understanding, at all.

Excuse me, but here’s a young lady sitting here with her hands over her ears; she’s afraid it’s going to get through. And you know that’s the truth! She is afraid she’s going to hear the truth and it’s going to get through. Man cannot help but tell the truth; no matter how great a liar you are or how professional, you are going to tell the truth, either in word or act, or demeanor. Every single person relates his whole personality through all the little movements, through all the little things that he does during the day. Believe me, I know this young lady, and I know her brother real well; he’s just as mulish as she is …?…

But truth is truth and there’s no sense of beating around the bush and saying you want to reach the Christ light and realization, if you don’t. Skip it, forget it; you’re better off. If you don’t want to know anything about God or the fundamental truths of the universe, please, will you do yourself a favor: never come into one of our classes again. You’re better off, I mean that seriously. Because when you come into this class, and you listen to the truth, not my truth, not what some Bishop taught, not what some author wrote. These are provable truths. You have a responsibility for all the truth you learn, and this is true.

One of the things that the ancient teachers and the sages did, and was a very common thing, I’m talking back, oh, 3000 years ago and thereabouts when you couldn’t walk into one of these meetings and listen (?) into a class and listen to somebody talk. If you came and sat by the door for maybe ten, twelve, fourteen months you might get to the point where they might let you come in and sit in next the corner. But to talk to one, unh-unh. It would probably take you two years or thereabouts before you’d be able to speak to one of the teachers because you wouldn’t be permitted to. This is an absolute fact. One of the things they used to say, and used to do, when someone finally did approach them for guidance, they would say, “Are you sure now that you want to learn? You’d better come back and see me next month, and think about it! Think about it, because there’s a responsibility with it.” And you might get that two or three months in a row. Why? Because that’s to release the teacher of the responsibility, that while he was teaching, as long as he taught the truth, he did not hold any responsibility for what the individual did with it. And it’s that way.

Man within himself, man’s body is ever-changing in this day and this age, and this is the day and the time when the changes will take place. Radical changes are taking place right now, quietly. Many things are happening which are not being guided, or the reason for them happening they don’t know, the average person in the field, but they nevertheless, it is the truth, these are happening.

For your own edification or as an experiment, go home. When you do, and sit down, look at the hands of the clock and see; sit down quietly and relax and see how long you can watch the hands of that clock and think about the hands of the clock, and the time and so forth, without another thought coming into your mind. Try it. See how much you’ve got control of your thinking. And unless you’ve actually trained yourself, I’ll guarantee you can try it eight or ten times in a row, and you’re going to foul up within three minutes at the longest. And if you do this without other thoughts coming in, be sure to come back and see me because you’re the guy I’m looking for, because you’re going to be a pipe cinch to bring into realization, that’s for sure. Any questions?

“All things shall be revealed.” That the truth and what is commonly called Christian mysteries would be revealed. And this is the day of revelation.

Q: You call it the Christian mysteries.

Well, that’s what they’ve always been called. They don’t really (?) the term Christian came out of the fact that they acknowledged the Christ; and the Master, of course, taught these things right in the Testament, they’re all there.

Q: (inaudible, about Jesus)

I’m teaching the Bible, yes. And I’m teaching the mysteries along with it. Pardon?

Q: The mysteries were much before Jesus Christ.

Well, they were, they are, and they always will be. They are the teachings that tell man how to use the power and forces of creation in his everyday life, to make life good.

Q: Yes, but that has nothing to do with so-called Jesus Christ. These were taught long before the day of Jesus Christ, which only started 325 b.c. uh, a.d. Three hundred and twenty five after the crucifixion … Jesus Christ came into the world.

Jesus did, yes. The word “Christ” was there before that. That’s right, that’s the Christos.

Q: Why do you call it the Christian mysteries.

Well this is a common term that’s been used, and is understood by many people. It doesn’t have to be called Christian. The Hebrew rabbis know these things, and are taught these things. They have not been taught to the laity, only in, I understand your (?) oh, I think it was about twenty or twenty-five years ago they started classes, if I remember right, instructions for people over forty, I think it was, in the church. Those who were, well, I guess you’d call them elders, I believe, or something of that sort, of the church. I don’t know the proper term of that particular person. And they did teach some (?) they taught more to them than they did to the laity of the church.

Q: ….the ancient mysteries… before Christian…

Oh, yes, sure. But God, I’m teaching God. How can I help but teach these things if I teach God and creation? Because there isn’t anything else that I know about.

Q: Are these the Eleusinian mysteries?

The Eleusinian mysteries? Well, I refuse to call them Eleusinian mysteries because they certainly (cooperate?) and they are certainly possible, at least mathematically proved, most of them, the fundamental ones at least. This is not wholly the right term either, but I won’t go into that tonight because that comes out of some of the history of the Hebrew race, and also out of the Talmud, comes out there. And these things are fundamental things, and they are backed up by the use of symbolism and the fundamentals of symbolism in creation, and they’re very factual. And anything that can be mathematically or technically shown and proved that still exists and we’re using it that way, why, then it does not in my mind have anything to do with anybody’s mysteries, but God’s. And this is our approach. Does that answer your question, sir?

Q: It clarifies a lot. Do you have a beginning to a class, or the …?

Yes, we usually do, but these Tuesdays and Thursdays I just teach philosophy. I kind of look at my group and I say, “Well, they might be interested in this,” and I teach in accordance with this, just extemporaneously, more or less.

Q: Well when does the school, the actual school, convene, a regular class?

A regular class in the school would be (?) let me see, this is, it will be, it will end, the class here will end about June first, here. Because we have fifteen hours a week, our boys do here, you see, and they hold down certain jobs, and they do patrol work and a few other little things like this, and charities and that sort of thing along with it. And they manage to keep busy.