was simply a teacher, with but a dim perception of His real mission.
But gradually He began to experience periods of Illumination in which
He recognized His real nature and the difference between Himself and
other men. Then came to Him the conviction of the mighty work that lay
before Him in the redemption of the race, and He began to see the
necessity of entering into the Karmic circle of the race in order to
carry out the plan. This came gradually, by slow degrees, and the
final sacrifice was made only in the Wilderness after His Baptism by
John.
In the Wilderness, after His long fast and His days of meditation, the
way opened up for Him to take upon Himself the burden of the Karma of
the earth people. In that scene of the most tremendous spiritual
struggle that the earth has ever witnessed, Jesus deliberately bent
His shoulders that the weight be placed upon His back. From that
moment the earth-souls received a blessing far beyond the
comprehension of the mind of the ordinary man. Into the Karma-bound
circle came this mighty soul, animated by Pure Spirit, for the purpose
of lifting a great portion of the burden, and of joining in the work
of the actual unfoldment and redemption of the race.
For be it remembered that, being a free soul animated by Pure Spirit,
Jesus was A GOD--not a man, although inhabiting the fleshly garments
of humanity. His power was superior to that of many of the high
intelligences scattered throughout the universe, and playing important
parts in the cosmic processes. Jesus was Pure Spirit incarnate in
human form, with all the powers of a God. Although of course
_subordinate in expression_ to the Absolute--the Great Spirit of
Spirit--He was in His essential nature the same in substance. Verily,
as He Himself said, "I and the Father are One."
His youthful mind was not able to grasp the truth of His real nature,
but as that human instrument became perfected by age and training, He
realized the Truth and perceived His own Divinity.
But even a God, such as he, could not raise up the world from its
burden of Karma, by acting _from the outside_. Under the Cosmic Laws,
established by the Absolute, such work could be performed only _from
within_ the circle of earth-life. And so Jesus saw that to raise up
Man, He must become a Man. That is, to help lift the earth's Karma, He
must enter into it, and place Himself within its Circle of Influence.
_And this He did_.
We wonder if our readers can realize, even faintly, just what this
sacrifice meant? Think of a Pure Spirit--a Free Soul--so filled with
the love for the race of men as to renounce deliberately, for aeons of
time, total immunity from all mortal existence, and willingly to place
itself under the burden of pain, woe, misery and sin which formed the
earth-people's Karma. It was a thousand-fold greater sacrifice than
would be that of a Man of the Highest spiritual and mental
development--an Emerson, for example--who, in order to raise up the
race of earth-worms, would deliberately place himself within the being
and nature of the Group-Soul animating the race of earthworms, and
then stay within its influence, striving ever upward and onward until
finally, after aeons and aeons of time, he was able to bring up the
earthworm Group Soul to the level of Man. Think of this, and then
realize what a sacrifice Jesus made of Himself.
In the Wilderness, when Jesus took the final steps of renunciation and
sacrifice, He at once passed within the circle of the Race Karma and
laid Himself open to all the pain, misery, temptations and limitations
of a Man. His power, of course, remained with Him, but He was no
longer a God outside of the world-life, but an imprisoned God working
from within the race, using His mighty power, but bound by the Karmic
Law. He became open to influences from which previously He had been
immune. For instance when He was "tempted" by the Devil of Personal
Attainment, and urged to seek worldly glory and renown, He was tempted
only because He had taken on the world's Karma and was subject to its
laws. As a God, He would not have felt the temptation any more than a
man would feel the temptation of the earthworm. But as a man He was
subject to the desires and ambitions that perplex and "devil" the
race. And according to the rule that the greater the mental
development the greater the power of such temptation toward
self-aggrandizement (because of the mind being able to see more
clearly the opportunities), Jesus was subjected to a test that would
have been impossible to an ordinary man.
Jesus, knowing full well that He had in His possession the power to
manifest the things with which He was tempted, was compelled to fight
off the temptation to place Himself at the head of the race as its
ruler--as the King of the World. He was shown this picture to compare
with the other whose last scene was Calvary--and He was called upon to
feel the desire of the race for such things, even unto its highest
degree. Imagine the desire for personal aggrandizement of all the
world thought beating upon His mind demanding the expression which
could be had through Him alone. And then imagine the struggle
required to defeat this opposing power. Think of what the ordinary
man has to meet and overcome to conquer the desire for Personal
Aggrandizement--and then think of what the Master had to fight, with
the focussed desire of the entire Race-Thought striving to express
itself through Him! Truly the Sins of the World bore down upon Him
with their mighty weight. And yet He knew that He had taken upon
Himself this affliction by entering upon the Life of Man. And He met
it like a Man of Men.
It was only by fixing His mind fully and firmly upon what He knew to
be His Real Self--the Spirit Within His soul, and holding His mind
"one-pointed" upon the fact--that He was able to fight the fight and
conquer. Seeing the Truth, He could see the folly and illusion of all
that the world had to offer, and He could put forth His mighty Will
bidding the Tempter retire from the scene and from His mind. It was in
this full knowledge of His Spirit--His Real Self--that He was able to
rebuke the Tempter, saying, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God!"
He held fast to His realization of the God Within--the Spirit that was
within Him and all men--and thus denied out of existence the power of
the earth-things--the illusions of mortality--the _maya_ of the race.
But not alone this and other weaknesses of man's mortal nature were
constantly besieging the mind of the Master after He had taken upon
Himself the Karma of the Earth. He had also taken upon Himself the
mortal life consequent of the human frame which He inhabited. He must
live, suffer and die--even as all men--and according to the law of
mortality. And so He moved forward toward the end, knowing fully what
lay before Him. He, a God, had taken upon Himself all these attributes
of mortality, in order to be able to perform His work as the Redeemer
and Savior of the race.
And so, He lived, and suffered and died--even as you and I. He drank
the cup to the dregs, suffering as only such a finely organized mental
nature could suffer. And, men, poor creatures, speak of His sufferings
as terminating with the last breath upon the cross. Why, they only
_began_ there!
For know ye, that Jesus the Christ is still within the race of men,
suffering their woes, paying with them their penalty, every day, every
hour--yea, and must remain so throughout the ages, until finally the
soul of every man, yea, even that of the last man; the most degraded
man in the world, is fully cleansed of the Karmic taint, and thus
fully "redeemed" and "saved." And within the soul of every man is
found the Christ Principle, striving ever to elevate and lift up the
individual toward that realization of the Real Self--and this is what
"redemption" and "salvation" really means. Not a saving from
hell-fire, but a saving from the fire of carnality, and mortality. Not
a redemption from imaginary sins, but a redemption from the muck and
mire of earth-life. The God within you is like the fabled Hindu god
who descended into the body of a pig and then forgot Himself. It is to
bring you to a realization that you are a god and not a pig, that
Jesus, the Master, is working within your soul as the Christ
Principle. Have you never heard His voice, crying from within your
soul, "Come out--come out of your pig-nature and realize the god that
you verily are!" It is this "recognition, realization and
manifestation of the god within you" that constitutes "salvation" and
"redemption."
The Occult Teachings tell us that Jesus, after His final disappearance
from before the eyes of His apostles, passed on to the higher planes
of the Astral World where He rapidly discarded all of His astral and
mental vehicles which the soul had used in its manifestation. The
Astral Body and its corresponding higher sheaths were cast off and
discarded. That is, all except the very highest of all. Had He
discarded every vestige of individual soul-existence His spirit would
have immediately merged itself with the One Spirit--the Absolute--from
which it had originally proceeded and Jesus, as an entity, would have
disappeared entirely within the Ocean of the One Spirit. _This highest
state of all He had deliberately resigned until the passage of ages,
in order that He might accomplish His work as the World-Savior_.
He retained the highest vehicle--the Spiritual Mind in its highest
shade of expression--in order that as an entity He might labor for the
race. And so, He exists at this time--one in substance with the
Father, but yet maintaining an apparently separate entity-existence.
But this must be remembered, that Jesus, _as Jesus the son of Mary and
Joseph_, no longer exists. When He cast off the lower vehicles of His
personality, His personality disappeared. But His _individuality_
persisted--that is, He is still HE, although His personality has
disappeared, leaving Him--the real Him--existing as the CHRIST
PRINCIPLE.
By the above statement, we mean that when a soul reaches the highest
spiritual stage short of absolute absorption into the One Spirit, _it
is no longer a person_, but exists as _a principle_. But that
principle is not an inanimate mechanical force--it is a living,
knowing, acting principle of life. This occult fact cannot be
explained in the words of men, for no terms have been coined by which
men can speak of it. It is only indirectly that we can hope to have
even the advanced student grasp the fact.
Jesus exists today, as the Christ Principle which _actually lives_ and
acts, but which is not confined in a body of any kind, using the word
"body" in its accustomed sense. As the Christ Principle or "The
Christ" He is mingled with the life of the human race, and may be
found immanent in the mind of every man, woman and child that has ever
existed, does now exist, or will exist _so long as Man is Man_. Not
only is this true of those who have lived since His passage from the
physical body, but it is equally true of those who lived before His
birth. This apparently paradoxical statement may be understood when we
remember that these souls did not "die," but only "passed on" to the
Astral Plane, from whence they re-incarnated in due time. The Christ
(for so we shall speak of the present-state of Jesus) even entered
into, and still abides in, the Astral Plane, as well as upon the
Material Plane, for wherever the souls of men abide--or whatever place
their residence may be--there is found The Christ, ever working for
the salvation and redemption of the race.
On the Astral Plane He is working in the minds of the souls abiding
there, urging them to cast off the dross of earth-desires and to fix
the aim upon higher things, to the end that their re-incarnations may
be under improved conditions. On the Physical Plane He is working in
the hearts and minds of the earth-people, striving ever to uplift to
higher things. His aim is ever toward the liberation of the Spirit
from its material bonds--the Realization of the Real Self. And so, in
the hearts of all men, Christ is living, suffering, and being
crucified every day, and this must continue until Man is redeemed and
saved, even the last man.
This wonderful sacrifice of Christ far surpasses the physical
sacrifice of Jesus, the man. Try to imagine, if you can, even the
faintest pangs of a being so exalted compelled to dwell in the world
of the hearts and minds of a humanity so steeped in materiality as our
race, knowing always the possibilities of the souls if they would but
reach upward to higher things, and yet constantly suffering the
knowledge of the base, carnal, material thoughts and acts flowing from
these souls. Is not this the extreme refinement of torture? Does not
the agony of the cross sink into insignificance beside such spiritual
agony? You rail at the cruelty of the Jews who crucified their Savior,
and yet you crucify _your_ Savior, with a thousandfold degree of
torture, every day of your life, by your persistence in the
carnalities and foolishness of mortal thought and action.
The mighty uplift of the world since the death of Jesus, of which the
present is but a faint prophecy of the future, has been due largely to
the energizing influence of The Christ in the hearts and minds of the
race. The sense of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man,
which is now manifesting so powerfully in the world of Men, is but an
instance of the work of the Christ--the Savior and Redeemer. And the
highest dreams of the exalted souls of this generation are but
inadequate visions of what the future will hold for the race. The work
is just beginning to bud--the blossom and the fruit will render this
earth a far more glorious place than even the highest ideals of heaven
entertained by the faithful in the past. But even these things of the
future will be poor things, when compared with the life of the higher
planes which await the race when it has demonstrated its fitness to
pass on and on and on to these greater glories. And ever and ever The
Christ is working, and toiling and striving and suffering, in His
efforts to raise humanity even one petty degree in the spiritual scale
of being.
The Christ is always with us, and if we but recognize His presence we
shall be able to feel that warm, loving response to our soul-hunger
and spiritual thirst which will result in our being given that we are
so longingly craving. Here within us dwells The Christ, ever
responding to the cry of Faith, "Believe in Me and ye shall be saved."
What a promise this is seen to be when properly understood! What a
source of power and comfort is opened up to every human soul when the
Inner Truth underlying the teachings is understood! Mystic
Christianity brings this Message of Truth to each and all of you who
read these lines. Will you accept it?
We would ask our students to pause at this point and contrast the
teachings of Mystic Christianity regarding the doctrine of Christ, the
Savior, with the corresponding teachings of the current Orthodox
Theology.
On the one hand we have Jesus the God-Man deliberately choosing the
work of the World Redemption and Salvation, and descending into the
circle of the World-Karma, relinquishing the privilege of His Godhood
and taking upon Himself the penalties of Manhood; not only undergoing
the sufferings of the physical man, but also binding Himself upon the
Cross of Humanity for ages, that by His spiritual presence in and of
the race He might lift up humanity to godhood.
On the other hand, we have a picture of an angry Deity, manifesting
purely human emotion and temper, bent on revenging himself upon the
race which he had created, and demanding its eternal punishment in
hell-fire; then the same Deity creating a Son whom he sent into the
world, that this Son might be the victim of a blood-atonement and
death upon the cross, that the Deity's wrath might be appeased and the
blood of this Divine Lamb be accepted to wash out the sins of the
world.
Can you not see which is The Truth and which is the perversion? The
one is from the pure fountain of Spiritual knowledge--the other
originated in the minds of ignorant theologians who were unable to
grasp and understand the Mystic teachings, but who built up a system
of theology in accordance with their own undeveloped minds; making a
God who was but a reflection of their own cruel animal natures,
demanding, as did they themselves, blood and pain--physical torture
and death--in order to appease a most un-Divine wrath and vengeance.
Which of the two conceptions seems most in accord with the intuitive
promptings of the Something Within? Which brings the greater approval
from The Christ within your heart?
THE CHRISTIAN CREED.
There are three creeds recognized by the Christian Church--the
Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed. Of these,
the first two are commonly used, the third being not so well known and
being seldom used.
The Apostles' Creed, which is the most commonly used, is believed (in
its present form) to be of later origin than the Nicene Creed, and
many authorities believe it to be a corrupted rendering of the
original declaration of faith of the Early Christians. It is as
follows:
"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and
buried; he descended into hell; the third day he arose again
from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall
come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy
Ghost, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and
the life everlasting."
The Nicene Creed was drawn up and adopted by the Council of Nice in
the year A.D. 325. As originally adopted it ended with the words "I
believe in the Holy Ghost," the present concluding clauses being added
by the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381, excepting the words "and
the Son," which were inserted by the Council of Toledo, A.D. 589. It
is as follows:
"I believe in one God, the Father, Almighty, Maker of Heaven
and earth, and all things visible and invisible; and in one
Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of
his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one
substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who
for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and
was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was
made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius
Pilate; he suffered and was buried and the third day he rose
again according to the scriptures and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; and he shall
come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead,
whose kingdom shall have no end. And I believe in the Holy
Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, who proceedeth from the
Father and the Son, who with the Father and Son is
worshipped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets; and I
believe in one catholic and apostolic church; I acknowledge
one baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the
resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come."
Let us now briefly examine the principal statements of these creeds,
which were compiled centuries after Jesus' death, viewing them by the
light of Mystic Christianity.
"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth, and all things visible and invisible."--(_Nicene Creed_.)
The form of the above fundamental principle of Christian belief is
taken from the Nicene Creed, which is somewhat fuller than the similar
declaration in the Apostles' Creed. It requires no comment. It is a
statement of belief in a One Creative Power, from which all things
have proceeded. There is no attempt made to "explain" the nature of
the Absolute, or to endow it with any of the human attributes which
theologians have delighted in bestowing upon the One. It merely
asserts a belief in the existence of One Supreme Being--which is all
that is possible to man--all else is ignorant impertinence.
"And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was conceived by the
Holy Ghost."--(_Apostles' Creed_.)
"And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten
of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God
of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the
Father."--(_Nicene Creed_.)
In this declaration, the belief in the Divinity of Jesus is made. The
Apostles' Creed shows the cruder conception, rather inclining toward
the perverted idea of the conception of the Virgin by the aid of the
Holy Ghost, similar to the origin of the hero-gods of the different
religions in which the father was one of the gods and the mother a
woman. But the Nicene creed gives at least a strong hint of the mystic
teachings. It speaks of Him as "begotten of his Father"--"begotten,
not made." The expressions, "God of God; Light of Light; very God of
very God," show the idea of identical spiritual substance in the
Spirit. And then the remarkable expression, "being of one substance
with the Father," shows a wonderful understanding of the Mystery of
The Christ. For, as the mystic teachings show, Jesus was a pure
Spirit, free from the entangling desires and clogging Karma of the
world. Identical in substance with the Father. "The Father and I are
one," as He said. Is there anything in the Orthodox Theology that
throws such light on this subject as is shed by Mystic Christianity's
teaching regarding the nature of the soul of Jesus?
"Born of the Virgin Mary."--(_Apostles' Creed_.)
"Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was
incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made
man."--(_Nicene Creed_.)
The Nicene Creed here gives a surprisingly clear statement of the
Mystic teachings. "Who for us men and our salvation came down from
heaven" shows the purpose of the incarnation. "Came down from heaven"
shows pre-existence in the bosom of the Absolute. "And was incarnate"
shows the descent of the Spirit into the flesh in the womb of Mary.
"And was made man" shows the taking on of the physical body of the
infant in the womb. Does not the Mystic teaching give a clearer light
on this statement of the Creed?
"Was crucified, dead and buried; he descended into hell; the third
day he rose again from the dead."--(_Apostles' Creed_.)
"He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again
according to the scriptures, and sitteth on the right hand of the
Father."--(_Nicene Creed_.)
The "descent into hell" of the Apostles' Creed of course meant the
passing to the place of disembodied souls--the lower Astral Plane.
Even the orthodox teachers do not now pretend that the term "hell"
meant the place of torture presided over by the Devil, which theology
has invented to frighten people into the churches. "The third day he
arose from the dead" (and the corresponding passage in the Nicene
Creed) refers to the appearance in the Astral Body--the return from
the Astral Plane in which He had sojourned for the three days
following the crucifixion. "And ascended into heaven"--this passage
shows the belief that He returned to the place from which He came, for
the Nicene Creed has stated that he "_came down from heaven_ and was
incarnate ... and was made man."
The passage in both creeds stating that He then took his place "on the
right hand of the Father" is intended to show that He took the place
of the highest honor in the gift of the Father. The mystic teachings
explain this by showing that The Christ is separated from The Father
by but the most ethereal intervening of spiritual substance, and that
He is a Cosmic Principle second in importance only to the Father.
Truly this is the place of honor on "the right hand of the Father."
"He shall come to fudge the quick and the dead."