　　　　Chapter Five

　THE FOG OF MATTER

　Sometimes, people like yourselves, who are immersed in the day-to-day work of your world, burdened with its cares, concerned with its problems, occasionally dissatisfied because of the uncongenial conditions in which you are compelled to labour and the too often unsympathetic atti-tude of those who should be colleagues, are apt to forget the great shining ideal which first presented itself when just as on the road to Damascus a great light shone.

　The pristine beauty of the vision is apt to lose some of its radiance and it is not always possible to recapture the glory in which it first manifested. And yet the tasks on which we are engaged, each in our several ways, fulfilling duties which we have undertaken, sometimes at our own request, have an importance we cannot always estimate. You who live in a world of matter, encased, obscured and imprisoned by a physical body, are unable to have that clear perspective as to the relationship of spirit, mind and body. The cares of your world press upon you, the requirements of your physical nature have to be met, you have to concern yourself with the necessity of obtaining the coin of your world. In this constant task, you are sometimes apt to get out of focus and are unable to feel the nearness and presence of those whose joy it is to sustain and uphold you.

　It is part of my willing task to remind you on such occasions as this that, whether you are conscious or not, you are surrounded by love which guides you unerringly in its divine purpose. It is not always possible, when you desire it, to show you the light of the spirit, or to reveal the beauties of the larger life which are around and about you, but they are there just the same.

　A fog may obscure the vision, but it is only a fog which can be, and is, pierced by the radiance of spiritual light which emanates from our world. Just as that light and that power guided you into this field of service, having often prepared you by years of constant watchfulness for the task, so it continues this mission, ensuring that feet do not stray and that, if occasionally you miss the track, you are brought back to it so that you may continue to walk on one of the many pathways that lead to the Great Spirit.

　The truth is that you are very richly blessed, for you are the possessors of a knowledge so priceless that all earthly riches are poor when compared with it. I say this in the hope that it helps you to understand your lives, as we see them. We do not see the earthly world through physical sight but from a realm where values are different and standards are not those of yours. Our judgment is, we think, the one that is more real.

　You are so engrossed in matter that it chains you down to its low vibrations. You awaken in the morning and before your consciousness is completely functioning a thousand and one material cares begin to engulf you. Before long you are so immersed in these problems, some large, some small, some real, some imaginary, but all of them transient, that you forget the power of the spirit is exercising its beneficent effect on you. You almost shut it out of your thinking and build a kind of wall that makes it more difficult for it to penetrate.

　It is such a familiar story with all the instruments of the spirit. The pattern is repeated time and time again, the enthusiasm, the despair, the Garden of Gethesmane, the Mount of Transfiguration, the constant see-saw of the human soul struggling to find itself, express itself and en-able the latent divinity to rise to the surface. This is nothing new. It is the history of every instrument, every seer, prophet, visionary, of every inspired man and woman. There is an ebb and flow, like the movement of the tides. But, as I tell so many instruments of the spirit, there is a pattern in their lives. If they look back, they can always see the guiding finger that has pointed the way.

　The divine plan exists even when you cannot see it. It works itself out ceaselessly to fulfil its allotted task. There are, in all human lives, times when you will fail to see the pattern and will ask questions, why? when? how? what? whither? which, of course, you are entitled to do. All I can say is the plan is there. In a universe which gives evidence of regulation by the greatest of all powers, it is impossible to attribute results to chance, coincidence, or haphazard happenings.

　Before you came into this world, like everybody else, your soul knew what it would undertake. The difficulties, the obstacles, the setbacks are part of the process by which the soul comes into its own. The richest prizes are the hardest to attain. If they were easy, they would not be worth attaining. That which is easily achieved is quickly forgotten. That which is most difficult to attain, the unfoldment of the Great Spirit within you, is the hardest of all.

　Life moves through comparison. Light and dark are servants of the Great Spirit. If there were no light and dark, then dark and light would be the same. If there were no morning and night, then night and morning would be the same. If there were no love and hatred, then hatred and love would be the same. It is the comparison that enables you to understand the difference, but they are only opposite ends of the one pole. You cannot go through earthly life with a monotone. You must have light and dark; you must have warmth and cold; you must have happiness and sorrow; you must have the variety of experiences to enable the soul to come into its own.

　Perfection is never achieved because it requires infinity to attain it. I hope I do not speak in riddles. In the constant process of seeking perfection each step forward brings another step in view. Like knowledge, the more you acquire the more you realise there is to be acquired. There is no finality to knowledge; there is no finality to wisdom, to truth, to understanding, to spiritual attainment, because these are all part of the Great Spirit which is infinite.

　There is nothing in your world to fear. Fear is the great enemy; fear saps the vitality; fear prevents the spirit from finding expression. Drive out fear. Perfect love casteth out fear, and love rules the universe; there is no place for fear, which belongs to the darkness of ignorance. With know-ledge you should live in the sunlight of spiritual under-standing. He who worries indicates that he is actuated by fear. You have nothing to fear but fear itself. Fear belongs to the darkness, not to the light. A soul that has complete, unswerving confidence in the power of which it is an integral part does not worry.

　The power that enables you to breathe is the power that fashioned the universe; the power that gave a place to every star and planet; the power that gave the sun its inexhaustible radiance (no matter what your scientists say); the power that controls every ebb and flow of the tides; the power that enables every seed to fulfil its purpose and grow into a multi-tude of different forms of sentient life. That power through-out all time has never failed. Has the tide ever ceased to ebb and flow? Has the world ever ceased to revolve on its axis? Has any natural law ever failed to operate?

　The world of matter is only part of your life. It is not your eternal home. It is because, unconsciously, so many of you think that you are living in the world of matter all the time that difficulties arise. You and I are in the same uni-verse. We are not in watertight compartments. The universe is one in which every aspect blends and harmonises and merges into the other. By dying you will merely express another aspect of your consciousness and cease to register in the physical body.

　I know the problems that confront you, but those with knowledge must learn to strike a balance and not give to matter the preponderance of their attention. The power of the spirit must dominate. If you have the right perspective, if your focus is true, if your daily outlook is balanced, you give to the requirements of matter what is their due and no more. Then you allow the spirit to work its will, to permeate and flood you and fill you with that dynamic which can transmute the whole of daily life, until you reach the stage where you know that nothing material can really touch you.

　You cannot judge eternity by your daily happenings. You tend to make judgments based upon the coloration of your mind, by the circumstances which surround you. It is because, being encased in matter, and faced with the daily problems that throng about you from the moment con-sciousness wakes in the morning until it sleeps at night, that you are apt to forget what has been achieved.

　Turn back the pages of the past for your comparison and that will show how the finger of the spirit unerringly has pointed the way all the time. Those who are blessed with knowledge should be able to live from day to day with their heads upturned, never with their heads downcast. Know-ledge teaches them that the power of the spirit cannot fail. Men and women in your world can fail the Great Spirit, but the Great Spirit cannot fail them. What you require for your sustenance is always available to you, if you put your-self in harmony with that law which provides infinite possibilities. These are the spiritual truths which all must remember.

　He who has seen into the world of spirit has caught a glimpse of that larger life. Knowing something of the cosmic pattern he cannot be irresponsible, for such a person is more conscious of his duties and responsibilities to the world in which he lives. He does not neglect them, nor does he allow himself to be overwhelmed and to give an undue pre-ponderance to the things of matter. All security and sus-tenance are to be found in the spirit. The whole world of matter and your physical bodies exist solely because they are expressions of spirit.

　As this truth begins to dominate your life, so there comes that inner tranquillity and serenity that accompany the knowledge and enable you to give a true assessment of everything which is part of your daily life. I am not sug-gesting for a single moment that any individual in your world should falter in duty, or neglect a single responsibility. What I am saying is that the common fault, even with those who have knowledge, is to forget the underlying important spiritual truths on which the whole is founded. Once you have seen with the eyes of the spirit and learned the founda-tion on which all life rests, then you can banish fear which is the great enemy. Knowledge is the armour which will always protect you; fear corrodes and rusts.

　If the Great Spirit allowed me to transfer one gift, what I would love to do is to give the power to see to those I love, because I have such pity for you in this dark world in which you live. You have no idea of the radiance which is around you. You cannot see this beauteous universe in which you dwell. This fog of matter clouds everything. It is as if there is a thick bank of cloud obscuring the rays of the sun all the time. If you could see the radiance around you, you would know that there is no real trouble that could pene-trate it.

We are subject to laws and conditions. We can do only that which lies within our power according to what pre-vails at the time. Whether visible or invisible, audible or inaudible, tangible or intangible, the power is there to fulfil its function of guiding, maintaining and sustaining. I have always said to those who serve that, no matter how dark the days may seem, they will come through, for the power of the spirit is the power of life itself. Life cannot exist without spirit. Life, its whole essence, vitality, potential, dynamic, all these are due to its being spirit, precisely the same in essence, though differing in degree, as the Infinite Creator of all things.

　It is hard to appreciate all this when you live in a world of matter with all its illusions, but it is my duty to tell you that reality is in the invisible and must not be confused with what you see purely in glimpses. It is only when you withdraw into the inner planes that the vision is clear. I am not very concerned with labels, or troubled with organisations, except if they exist to be instruments for spirit power. My task is to try to be a guide, a teacher, to offer a little wisdom, based on garnered experience, to those who are ready and prepared to receive it. Another aspect is, in conjunction with col-leagues, to help the flow of spirit power so that the divine will can be more easily seen and more people harmonise their lives with it.

　To me, what is important is the instrument. It is only through human instruments that the power of the spirit can operate. Thus, the problem remains a constant one, to find more and more instruments through whom spirit power can be registered. The power is infinite; the number of instru-ments is limited. There cannot be too many because there will always be power available for however many through whom it can be expressed. But just as it is said that the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb, so the power of the spirit can be absorbed only by the capacity of its instru-ments. They cannot absorb more than they are capable of receiving.

　The law of evolution is seen at work in the individual, as well as in the race, or in the nation, or even in your world. So you are bound to get the ebb and flow of the tide in the various assemblies that are concerned with the flow of spirit power. What you must not confuse are the assemblies, the buildings, the organisations, with the flow of spirit power. You cannot monopolise the power, you cannot command it to flow this way or that way. What you can do, as individual instruments, is to offer service, making yourselves the purest possible channels and thus the greatest amount of power that can be absorbed will come through you.

　Having said that, I would add that there is more spirit power operating in your world today than there ever has been, and through countless channels. It is not even restricted to mediums. It operates through many who are unaware that they are instruments. The self-same power is utilised in other movements.

　The plan does not change. You have to change and fit into the plan. If you place yourself in harmony with that divine power and allow it to guide you from day to day, then you will fulfil the purpose of your being. The power of the spirit does not work according to earthly standards; it cannot be hastened or accelerated and forced into this channel and that. The wind bloweth where it listeth.

　The stars wheel in their courses, the tides ebb and flow, the seasons follow one another, all as an integral part of this majestic, stupendous, sublime scheme. You cannot change it now, but as part of it you can allow it to work through you and thus help to share in the infinite processes of an eternal creation. You, by virtue of your heritage, are spiritual beings, part of the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit is you and you are the Great Spirit. In lesser degree, in embryo, in miniature, you are the microcosm and the macrocosm is the Great Spirit. Thus there is for you access to all the infinity of the Great Spirit, as by increasing spiritual attainment, growth, progress and evolution, you make yourself recep-tive to it.

　Gradually, as light triumphs over darkness, knowledge triumphs over ignorance. The law is growth, change, evolution, progress, unfoldment, development. Know that always there is a tide, an ebb and a flow, a circle, a cycle, a spiral, all part of the evolutionary process, simple on the surface, but complex and profound beneath. You will get the surge and the regression. You will get, in times of material prosperity, an ignoring of spiritual realities, and equally you will get in times of difficulty a demand for spiritual realities. It is all part of the warp and woof of the plan behind the whole of life.

　If you ever become satisfied with the progress you are making, then you are making no progress. If you are dis-contented, searching, seeking for new fields to conquer, then you are evolving. It is said in your world that nature abhors a vacuum. You cannot stand still. You must go for-ward or backward.

　The spirit is restless because it is part of the creative power of all life, always seeking new outlets, and thus it cannot feel content. If it cannot find an expression through mediumship, it will thrust its way through the artist, the philosopher, even the scientist. Concern yourself with what you can do to increase your spiritual awareness and the service you can render to others less fortunate than yourself. Labels do not count. The arguments in your world over the labels of religion, politics, art or economics are of no importance. The service that the soul renders determines its evolution.

　The Creator is not mocked. The law operates, effect follows cause, reaping what has been sown. There are no miracles, no dispensations. The natural law will always operate with unfailing regularity, immutable, unchanging, inflexible, mathematical in all its exactitude of precision, irrespective of man's systems. You will have victories and defeats always, but the soul that is aware should not let itself be troubled by either. There will come a time when the scales have fallen from your eyes and you will be able to judge by eternal standards.

　I would not attempt to minimise your problems and difficulties. I am too familiar with them. But I would be failing in my duty if I neglected to point to the eternal values which you cannot, at present, assess. Throughout all history there have been times when some beat their breasts with lamentations. They thought all had failed, that they would be swallowed up in the darkness and no more heard of the things for which they stood. But the universe has continued to function and so it will.

　All I can do is to reiterate for you the truths that will stand for all time. It is for you to adopt them and mould your lives on them. It is not easy, but if it were easy it would not be worth the doing. Nothing in spiritual exploration is easy. The path of the spirit is the hardest of all to follow. Saint-hood, mysticism, mastery, these cannot be accomplished with ease. It is a long, slow, arduous, tortuous path which has to be followed, with constant sacrifices. Renunciation is the law.

　If it were possible for the highest prizes of the spirit to be gained without struggle, this would be making a mockery of eternal wisdom. Put that way you must accept it. I have never said that the Great Spirit is not the author of light and dark, of good and evil. The Great Spirit, being the Great Spirit, must be the author of everything. You cannot exclude some aspects of universal activity and say that some-thing, some body, some power is responsible for those. To me the whole of the universe is in a state of polarity. You cannot have anything without its opposite.

　You only know there is darkness because you have seen light. You only know there is light because you have seen darkness. You only know there is good because you have seen evil. You only know there is evil because you hav seen good. The power that causes the light and the dark, the good and the evil, is the same. The way that the power is expressed is not the fault of the Great Spirit primarily but in the free will of the individual. That is his choice, that is his development.

　Your world was never created perfect. Individuals were never created perfect, but only with latent perfection. The latent perfection is their spiritual heritage, its unfoldment is their responsibility. It is the exercise of their free will. You decide whether you shall be good or evil, selfish or unselfish, merciful or cruel. Do not forget that your union with the divine is indissoluble. It provides you with a means of indrawing strength and power and helpfulness, but you must learn to retire into the quietness of your own soul so as to obtain the closest possible attunement.

　We are all bound by ties of mutual helpfulness and service, contributing something important to one another's natures. Let us rejoice in what has been revealed to us. Let us use it as a foundation on which to build our confidence in the power that gave us birth and that continues to nurture us. Let us strive always to be its instruments, through whom this power can flow to help others less fortunate. And let us at all times remember that we are in the presence of the Great Spirit, that the plenitude of that power is available to us if we but reach out to assimilate all that we are capable of absorbing. It is an infinite power that belongs to an infinite spirit with infinite potentialities.

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