The Impersonal Life
Soul to Soul and Spirit to Spirit. Blessings and good morning.
I thought you might like to know that on the average, every Sunday, between Sunday and Monday, these talks are downloaded around the world, approximately 61-65 times, so that is the size of our group, about 65 people. Of course that does not take into account those in the invisible realm that are also listening but we have a pretty nice group and everyone in it is elevated in consciousness, that is they are finding the path home.
Years ago I had a little book, a little black book called “The Impersonal Life” and I really enjoyed that book. I probably read that book for the first time when I was 15 years old, so that would be about 38 years ago. That is how long I have been seeking within and of course all those early books led me eventually on to where I discovered ‘The Art of Meditation,’ and learned how to go within for myself. Then of course, being young, I still wanted to experience the world and so I did—both the good and the bad—this world has so much of each to offer.
Eventually I returned to the spiritual path in earnest and learned how to go within and receive not only a feeling of the Presence, not only being able to behold healings, but also being able to receive, what I call impartations from within, from the center of my being, or if you prefer from Christ or the Father within.
This week that little book, the title of that little book, ‘The Impersonal Life,’ has returned within my consciousness and I have been mulling it over and contemplating it and certain things have been revealed to me. Now of course, everybody won’t find this useful but this is what was revealed to me and if you find it helpful, then blessings to you, too.
In looking at the Impersonal Life, I started to see that, what does that mean, the Impersonal Life? What did Paul mean, ‘I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me?’ What does that mean to die daily? And I started looking at an Impersonal Life and a personal life. I remembered something, just 2 or 3 lines from the ‘Realization of Oneness,’ which really sums it up quite nicely because it says, under ‘Lifting Up the I’:
As we dwell in the awareness of our divine Consciousness, the “natural man” of us is “dying.” Why is it “dying”? It is fed by our thoughts, and when our human life, our carnal selfhood, is not in our thoughts, it is “dying.” The more we live in the conscious awareness of God as constituting our being, the more the “natural man” is being lessened, until finally it fades away entirely.
And so I started looking at that…Impersonal Life. What is this Impersonal Life? How does it live right here. And the key, of course was, which I realized before finding confirmation in the book, if I have my human life or my personal sense of self or anyone’s personal sense of self in my thoughts, in my mind, then I am living a personal sense of life.
Most of you know that my dad, here on planet earth, has given his consent to make the transition or pass away—die we call it and it seems no one can talk him out of it. So I have also been looking at, “What is it that really dies? In fact, what is it that is really born?” How many places do we read, you were never born, you can never die. And we think, “Oh isn’t that beautiful?” But if we enter into those statements—that is what I call meditating—entering into the statement, it must make you ponder, “What exactly was born and what exactly can die?”
We are told that we are to “cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostril.” That is a hidden statement because it does not say how. Once we realize that we’re living a personal sense of self or a personal sense of life, how do we come out from that? Because I guarantee you if you’re living in a personal sense of life, that life will come to an end and you’ll experience the fear and the sadness and everything else that goes along with that sense of existence.
The personal sense of life will come to an end. Have you ever wandered what would happen if you stepped out of a personal sense of life before the so-called end? What then would become of death?
Let us suppose you’re living in an Impersonal Life, what then of you could die? Well, even logically and intellectually, you have to agree—nothing. A personal sense could come to an end but if you were not living in it, could you come to an end? Is this not what is meant by knowing God arightly and discovering your own eternal life? Knowing God arightly must have something to do with this Impersonal sense of life.
You see all of these musings and ponderings this week have been leading up to the realization that we must find a way to step out of a personal sense of life and dwell consciously in an Impersonal Life.
I know we come to a message such as mysticism or metaphysics and we get excited when the principles begin to work. When our income is doubled, it is considered a pretty nice demonstration that God is my supply. When we realize that God is all companionship and then a companion shows up, how wonderful it is and trust me, I am a part of this, I’ve had the same experience—how wonderful it is to realize God is my companion and God is my supply. If we have a physical problem and we realize God is the substance of my form and then suddenly the physical problem is dissolved or in some way met, there is no more pain, no more evidence of a problem, not even a smell of smoke, it’s fabulous. Wow! This thing works and we are excited about it and that is exactly as it should be in the early days.
But those of us that have been on this path for some time, we reach a place where we may apply the same principles that we learned and yet now the problem is not met. Or we may have this empty feeling inside; “Okay, I have the companion, my soul mate. I have an adequate amount of supply, enough to share some. I have a pretty good state of health, just little problems now and then but for the most part, a pretty good state of health. But there is something missing. Something’s missing—I can’t put my finger on it. I know I haven’t arrived. So we return to the books and if we search diligently, if we really look, if there is a burning desire inside to find what it is we have missed, we begin to contemplate at depth—really, long hours into the night sometimes; “What is this personal life that must die and how does it die? What is this immortality I must put on and how do I put it on?”
Yes, we are ready to enter what has been called the third degree or the mysticism, the mystical part of Christ’s teaching. Now we are ready to honestly search ourselves and find out if we are dying daily or just sort of playing around the edges. When we look at this deeply as I have been doing for at least a couple of years now or more, several things begin to bring themselves to our attention.
In our meditations, principles and truths are imparted to our conscious awareness. They come from within, from the Christ which wants to live our lives. That is when we begin to suspect things.
Did you know that there is no such thing as your supply? Really, there is no such thing as your supply, as my supply. In the past we thought it was okay to pray for an increase in our supply or to practice the principles in order to multiply our supply. But we are beginning to see, I am beginning to see and I am sure you are beginning to see, we cannot pull God into our humanhood.
Something else that occurred to me this week: “God is too pure to behold iniquity”, means God is too pure to behold your human identity. Which is kind of interesting when you think about it because here we have been, some of us, beating ourselves up for past mistakes of omission or commission and God is too pure to behold any of it?
This whole notion of needing to be forgiven is some sort of religious nonsense really. No, in the conscious awareness of the Impersonal Life, you discover there is no one to be forgiven because when the I is lifted up within you, you too, are too pure to behold humanhood. Think about that: When the I is lifted up within you, you are too pure to behold your humanhood or any humanhood.
So what then must we do to die to a personal sense of life and come into the conscious awareness, the feel of an Impersonal Life living Itself? Well, we were given the clue when we were told that as long as there is a personal sense of life in our thoughts, we are feeding it, we are not dying and that is why when we think of our supply as our supply, as my supply, we are trying to pull God into a personal sense of life and it won’t work.
We must look at this as an Impersonal Life, an impersonal supply and I can tell you—for me, how that was revealed.
By now we should know that supply is nothing you can see, hear, taste, touch or smell. All supply is invisible and so this out here that you thought was your supply is not. Ladies and gentlemen, there is no personal supply. All supply is invisible. All supply is invisible spiritual substance and it is eternal, never ending. But it is invisible and incorporeal. Supply is invisible spiritual substance and it is impersonal. It is not attached nor does it belong to any person. All supply belongs to the Impersonal Christ, the Son of God, the individualization of God. God Itself individualized as invisible infinite spiritual substance which forms Itself for Christ, for Christ to use.
What about companions? We look at our companion if we are married or we have a spouse or a partner; we look at our companion as my companion. There is no such companion. This is a personal sense of life and a personal sense of companion. I tell you truly, God has never given a companion to a person so if you are thinking in terms of my wife, my husband, my partner, my friend or even my enemy, you are living a personal sense of life and it is being fed by your thoughts.
In meditation it has been revealed to me that God’s Omnipresence is the only companionship. God Itself, Omnipresence Itself is my only companion, is the only companion and so if I have a personal companion, I am living in a dream.
You see what we are doing? I know you must. We are walking around entertaining in our minds the second chapter of Genesis. We are walking in a world that is made up of thoughts. It is not an external world, it is not a real world; it is a false creation. So we are entertaining a false sense of supply, we are entertaining a false sense of companionship and we are entertaining a false sense of life. We are praying to God, trying to add God to our humanhood; we are trying to pull God into the second chapter of Genesis which God is too pure to behold.
So every prayer uttered to God to pull God into the second chapter of Genesis, into this world created by thoughts; every prayer uttered to God misses the mark. It really is a sin isn’t it? It’s missing the mark. Think about that, really. It’s quite interesting. All of those prayers uttered and there are millions and billions and trillions, are sins. They are missing the mark. And we think that our much praying makes us holy. It’s just amazingto me how the human mind can twist and turn things and believe that it is somehow becoming spiritual.
So getting back to the point, in our meditation we ask, “What is life?” I asked one time and I can only reveal to you what has been revealed to me. I asked one time, “Well, what is this body when not seen through a glass darkly?” And I heard as plain as if someone was talking to me, the Voice said, “I am.” Wow, I was just speechless.
I can’t pull God into this mental creation and say fix this body. God is too pure to behold a personal body. So we turn within in meditation and say “What is life?” and we hear, “I am the life.” And we hear, “There is one spiritual body of Christ.” And it leaves us with no thoughts, which is a very good thing because when a personal sense of life is not in our thoughts, it is dying; it is fading.
So there is no personal supply. God has not given any one person supply. Invisible spiritual substance is all supply and it belongs to Christ; the spiritual individualization of God. All companionship is the One infinite Omnipresence and it is the invisible infinite individualization of God Itself. And all Life is, yes you guessed it, the infinite individualization of God Itself.
So there is no personal life, there never was. And what you have to ask yourself is how often am I entertaining a personal sense of life because that personal sense of life also known as the natural man cannot receive the things of God? That personal sense of life cannot receive anything of God—let’s just say it plainly. Striving, seeking, praying; it cannot receive anything of God. You cannot be in a personal sense of life and receive the things of God. And so if you are seeking spiritual truth you better get out of a personal sense of life if you want to receive it. This is done by lifting up the I.
It begins with paying attention, being consciously aware, what is on your mind throughout the day, throughout the night. Is it a personal sense of life, something about your life or a personal sense of life you are looking at such as your children’s or your neighbors or your friends or your enemies? Is it a personal sense of life, a personal sense of body you are entertaining? What about your companionship? Are you entertaining a personal sense of companionship? My wife, my mother, my father,my friend, my enemy, my brother, my sister,my boss, my neighbors. There is no such companionship or companion. No such entity was ever made anywhere, by God. That is why it cannot receive the things of God. God never made it. God is not aware of it. It is only you that are aware of this personal sense of life.
When we are told we must forsake mother and father and brother and sister for Christ, it is not talking about running off somewhere and living by the seaside and leaving all your responsibilities behind. We know now, each scripture is talking about an internal experience and this one is talking about forsaking all for Christ, forsaking all personal sense of self anywhere for Christ; forsaking all personal sense of supply for Christ or God if you prefer, or the Presence. I don’t care what term you use. Forsaking all for the sake of the Tao. Forsaking all for the sake of the Is.
Let us step out of a personal sense of self. Now when you find in your mind, that your mind is entertaining a personal sense of life—my body, his body, her body—that is the time to stop, just stop. Remind yourself, “Oh, oh. This is the second chapter of Genesis, this is the mental creation, this is hypnotism.” That is a word I have been working with this week. I see it going on in my own mind and I say, “hypnotism” and I drop it and I remind myself, “God is the only life. God was never born; never dying; infinite, eternal, immortal. God is the only life.” And I rest. A few minutes later or a few hours later or a day later and I am thinking about in the mind, “Well, let’s see. By the 15th, if I don’t have another $150, I’m going to probablyneed to juggle this, and move that—and I stop. Hold on a minute—hypnotism. The mind is entertaining a personal sense of supply and I drop it. Christ is here. Christ is living Itself as Itself, everywhere and the earth is Christ’s and the fullness thereof. Christ is living Itself as infinite supply appearing as and when however It needs it. I saw the story of the loaves and the fishes. That wasn’t given to a human being. It was Christ that had unlimited supply. So let me be still, Christ Itself living right here, is infinite supply.
And a day or two later and I look at perhaps someone close in my family who has decided that they are dying and for a moment I think about the person, this, that and we did this and went there. Wait a minute—hypnotism again! Here is a personal sense of self which God never made being entertained in the mind. No such self exists. God is the only companion, the only companionship. God is Omnipresence. There will never be a place or a time where Omnipresence doesn’t exist, any place where I may find myself, any time, any planet, any dimension, Omnipresence is with me for Omnipresence is me. I am my own companionship. And I rest, I rest.
In this way we are putting off mortality and putting on the Impersonal Life. In the beginning God. God plus nothing leaves God. God is living Its Impersonal Life everywhere. God’s Impersonal Life is Omnipresence Itself. God’s Impersonal Life is infinite supply appearing always in perfect order, exactly as it should. God is the only Life, Omnipresence. And here I was thinking in terms of a personal self, personal supply, personal health, personal companion, personal this, that and the other.
As long as there is no personal sense of life or companionship or supply or health or wisdom or knowledge, entertained in the mind, then that false sense of self is dying. As long as I remain consciously aware of an impersonal sense of supply, an impersonal companionship, an impersonal sense of wisdom, an impersonal sense of being; then the conscious awareness of it is rubbing out the parenthesis. The more I stay in the conscious awareness of the Impersonal I, living Itself as Itself, everywhere; the closer I get to the day when this personal sense of self has been completely rubbed out or has completely faded away.