Fears

Down the ages man has attempted through the discipline of monastic orders, hermitage and certain severe retirements from the world, to hold his half-awakened consciousness to the nearness of the presence of that which beats his heart and gives him life, gives him Life. Naked you are born, naked you die; it is seldom realized that naked and defenceless you live. Your defenselessness, humanly speaking, is exposed nakedly to a thousand dangers seen and unseen. A draught of air can dissolve you into eternity; and hatred, hidden and lodged deep within, can fester and destroy you.

All these you can multiply for yourself. As a human you have no grip on life, however strong, healthy and outwardly protected you may be. Your only safety, fortress and eternal protection is your realization of the nearness of the presence of the Spirit; then you are clothed in the Spirit and are not naked. And by abiding in the Spirit, old ignorances are brought to the surface and released and you are made aware of those seeds of destruction within.

These are your delayers and why it has taken you so long. If you had retired into monastic life and given over your vigilance to others to keep for you in an ordered existence, regimented so that your emotional nature would be lilied by routine, you would have attained a peace of a secondary plane; these planes have their purpose, but you, who have chosen the difficult task, are healthier because you have asked for the realization of the nearness and the actuality of the Spirit within, in a worldly, distracting, confusing life of alarms, of shocks, changes, stupidities and challenging despairs. You know that you are naked and defenceless. You stand alone with your desire to be atoned with, to be aware of, to be in the Presence, while at the same time you must deal with the interruptions and delays, the temptations and appetites which, indulged in, act like sleeping draughts.

I tell you that the Spirit can overcome the sword and pain and sorrow; the Spirit completely realized will guide and protect you and lead you through all dangers; it will give you strength, power and inward peace. This is the reward of eternal vigilance, of the realization of him as your companion.

Be sanctified, be unbound, be free, be purified and aware of the Spirit, of love and joy, power and protection. Do not be the foolish ones who, in the bright sunlight, walketh and standeth in the dark tunnel and forget the light, and cannot picture it. Arise and come forth out of your restricted human life, here and now, and when you are by yourselves say these words:

“I open the doors of my heart wide knowing that the everlasting fountain of Thy light will pour forth and fill my life. I will be vigilant in guarding these doors that they shall not close of themselves because of my forgetfulness. I rest here with my heart open to receive, knowing that I am in the centre of all things. I rest in gratitude and thanksgiving that the Spirit has filed this heart like a spring to break open and pour forth into my world. I will not let my heart be gripped by alarms and fears; it shall not be shut by violence nor any untoward event. My sole intent is to keep these doors open for my very life’s sake for I believe that out of the issues of my heart I shall be guided upon my journey and I shall be given strength.”