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Our Philosophy
Our relationship with the Bible
In The Independent Church of Australia, the Bible is not an authority on which we lean or which we use to defend our beliefs and practices, for words are always limited and can never fully express truth. We do not use the scriptures blindly or unquestioningly.
At the same time, we recognise that the Bible is a record of how others before us have found the fullness of God in their personal experience. It tells of the preparation through the ages for the coming of Christ, of his life, death and resurrection, and of the experience of those in whom his spirit lived. The scriptures are a treasury of spiritual knowledge and insight which can provide light for our path.
When reading any passage of scripture, we recognise that the text is not only speaking about the past, but is speaking also about us and our experience now. It is a mirror in which we can learn to see ourselves clearly.
We interpret scripture on any one or more of four levels - the literal level, the metaphysical level, the esoteric level and the mystical level. The ancient rabbis likened these four levels to the four parts of a nut:
The literal level, the level of history and theology, is like the hard shell of a nut, which must be penetrated if we are to get to the kernel, the inner meaning. So for example, in the story of the journey of the Hebrews from Egypt to the land of Palestine, we find information about the history of the Jews, about the events and beliefs that have shaped their character as a nation, and we can attempt to place the story in the context of recorded history. This is the "shell" of the story. To find its true meaning we must look further.
The metaphysical or allegorical level is the pith of the nut. On this level, everything within the Bible - people, places, events - has a symbolic interpretation which relates to us. On this level, the journey of the Hebrews becomes the story of our own journey to freedom, and their experiences the reflection of ours. Egypt, for example, represents the bondage of our souls, and the pillar of cloud that went before the people by day is a symbol of the inner voice that guides us onward to liberty of spirit.
The esoteric level is the flesh of the nut, which provides spiritual nourishment. When we interpret the Bible from an esoteric point of view, it becomes a means to understanding the spiritual worlds and their influence upon our development. For example, occultly the exodus is the story of the creation of a race of people through whom, eventually, the Christ could incarnate.
The mystical level is the seed of the nut, and is the culmination of all the other levels. Mysticism is seeing the vision of the Christ and becoming one with him. The consciousness of the mystic is therefore in the spiritual worlds. The person who reads the Bible from the mystical point of view will find the Beloved in its pages. So, for example, the Christ is clearly to be seen in the events and experiences of the Hebrews as they journeyed. The water provided to satisfy their thirst and the bread, or manna, which they gathered daily speak of Christ who is the bread of life and the water of life.
For The Independent Church of Australia the Bible contains spiritual truth which can be revealed to us if we take the time to study it and to enter into the various levels of meaning.
The Prologue of St John
The Gospel of St John, the great mystical gospel, has a special place in The Centre. The prologue, chapter 1, verses 1-14, is read at each Cosmic Mass, and members are encouraged to read from this gospel daily.
In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God,
and the word was God,
He was in the beginning with God;
all things were made through him,
and without him
was not anything made that was made.
In him was life,
and the life was was the life of every human being.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light that enlightens everyone
was coming into the world.
He was in the world,
and the world was made through him,
yet the world knew him not.
He came to his own home,
and his own people received him not.
But to all who received him,
who believed in his name,
he gave power to become children of God,
who were born, not of blood
nor of the will of flesh
nor of the human will,
but of God.
And the word became flesh
and dwelt amongst us, full of grace and truth;
we have beheld his glory,
glory as of the only son from the Father.
The teachings of The Centre can never be treated simply as intellectual exercises. While it is our responsibility to develop our thinking powers as fully as we can, we must also understand that truth is known through spiritual discernment. In approaching Centre teachings you are asked to be willing to be open to new thoughts and perceptions, to listen to the teachings, to think about them and above all to practise them. Only in this way will you come to recognise within self what is true.
Books by Rev Mario Schoenmaker
A deeper understanding of The Centre's use of the Bible can be gained from the following books by Rev Mario Schoenmaker, available from our online bookstore, Centre Books:
Or home learning courses from The Institute of Metaphysics:
- The Metaphysical Bible (MS4)
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Choosing Transformation
Reflections on the Christmas Story by Rev Mario Schoenmaker - an excerpt
What Does Christmas Mean to You?
Christmas night in ancient times, before the world even thought of Christmas, was a night sacred to the initiates, to those who knew the secrets of the universe. It was a night in which they would come together in silence, and in the darkness of their caves meet with one another. In silence they would sit and wait for the music of the spheres, wait until they could hear the music that came from heaven which only the trained ear could hear.
And when in the darkness they perceived that melody, then they knew that again for this year an avatar was born, a divine soul conceived into a human body, a saviour had arisen, as we have seen down the ages in Buddha, Krishna and other godly people. That night when all over the world the sages came together in the darkness of their caves and suddenly found the light shining - yet with no light appearing at all - their hearts lifted in utter wonder and they knew that finally the promise was fulfilled.
The darkness of this earth had now disappeared. The light shone.
Two thousand years have passed and the mystics no longer meet together at twelve o'clock midnight in silence. Now we meet with bombs, threats and bloodshed, with Santa Claus and 'jingle Bells'. We are so busy doing good and speaking about the poor that we have no time for the mystics.
A Night of Knowing
But Christmas night, brothers and sisters, is the night of the mystic. It is a night of stillness, of quiet contemplation and waiting. Every Christmas night, all over the world, it is the same. It cannot be a night for drinking and drugs and festivities. It is a night which belongs to those who know how to raise themselves into contemplation whereby they can again perceive that light. It's a night in which you must forget that you have children. It's a night in which you must forget that you have a husband or wife - or no-one. It's a night in which you are alone. And in that night, as you quietly wait, the light will shine again.
Christmas is a feast when the angels appear again to man. The glory of the heavens is opened just for a moment to the eyes of us mortals, saying, 'This is your home' It's a night in which the whole world for a moment becomes dim and the inner eye focuses upon that which belongs to us by nature, the world of spirit. There is an old carol we used to sing:
Yet with the woes of sin and strife The world has suffered long; Beneath the angel-strain have rolled Two thousand years of wrong; And man at war with man hears not The love-song which they bring. O hush the noise, you men of strife, And hear ... and hear ... the angels sing.
Christmas is a night of seeing. The shepherds in the field perceived the angels and went with haste to look at the babe. They knew; and knowing, brothers and sisters, is beyond believing. That which you see you no longer believe. Belief is a sign of confusion. The humble shepherds, and the wise and intellectual men came to the crib, and they knew. And knowing, 'I have seen the angels; I have seen the Christ; I have seen the light; I have heard the song' makes you a transformed being. Christmas is a night of knowing.
A Night of Freedom
Christmas night is the fulfillment of a promise. The heavens open and pour out their gift, yet it takes a great man and a great woman to dare to say 'Yes' to that gift.
For thirty years I have been telling people, 'You can be free. You don't have to sit in your little cocoon, following your own desires and subject to the emotions round about you and within you' Few listened. The rest did not hear. So they're subject to their children who tear them apart. They're subject to their wives who swallow them. They're subject to their husbands who violate them. They're subject to their grandparents who try to form them in their own image. They're subject to the family rules. Subject! Subject! Subject!
Christianity, as the churches have preached it for two thousand years, tells you to love - but within these bonds. Consequently we have created within the world a Frankenstein monster, so that we now hate the very ones whom we are supposed to love. W cannot love the Christ, we cannot be spontaneous any more, and we cannot laugh and be joyful. But most of all, brothers and sisters, we cannot hear! We cannot hear the angels' song.
Christmas night is the night in which a God stood up and said, 'I no longer want to be a God. I'm going to live somewhere else in a world far removed from here' He dared to be free from his own Gods, this little Christ. He said goodbye to his daddy, whom we call God the Father, and he said to the Holly Spirit, 'I'd like to do my own thing, if you don't mind' So he came to a world that was antagonistic to him, that crucified him and killed him, but he did it!
No, brothers and sisters, you do not understand the Christ. I doubt whether you have any conception of the freedom that he offers. He would like to pick you up and say, 'Come on, brother. Come on, sister. Walk with me the road that Christmas opens for you, but you must walk it alone.
A Night of Choice
Did you look at television today? A young men held up a microphone to an old woman and asked, 'How do you feel on Christmas night' The lady said, 'I feel lonely' What a gift! What a wonderful gift! For you have to be alone if you want to know something about the Christ. I'm not saying you should tell everyone around you, 'Get out' I'm saying don't depend on them. Don't let them create your life. You create it, for Christ works in you to perform his miracle. That is Christmas.
If your realise the wonder of his image within you freeing you and making you capable of loving in an unutterably pure and simple way, then you know something about spirituality. Then you will forget all about the nonsense that goes on in the name of spirituality and you will transcend it in love. And in that love you will stand strong and magnificent and free.
Christmas night, the night of all nights, tells me that you and I, those who can hear - and there are plenty of deaf people around - can become Gods.
But you have to let the miracle happen in you. You have to let it happen. Spirituality doesn't come about simply by waiting. Transformation, the change from mere weak humanity into Gods, happens by choice - a deliberate determinative choice that says, 'Yes, I will' Christmas night asks you to make that choice to become a God, to become a light, as Christ was the light. Then the vision of the initiates thousands of years ago in their caves will become literally true and the world will shine with souls who are alight with love, with freedom, with strength and with grace.
I wish you at transforming Christmas in which not one of you remains untouched - not by me, but by the Christ, by the power and emanation of the angels. I wish you a wondrous Christmas, a Christmas of silence and quietness, a Christmas that will wash away your bitterness and disappointments. a Christmas that will open your heart like a flower and enable you to love. That Christmas I wish you, and nothing else.
See our online bookstore, Centre Books for cost and availability.
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The Ultimate Vision
by Rev Mario Schoenmaker - an excerpt
Introduction to the Book of Revelation
There are many ways in which you can look at the book of Revelation, and each one may be valid. One of the reasons I find the book of Revelation so fascinating is that within it lies the technique by which one can become united within oneself and become the full expression of the son of God. It is not a book that deals with history per se. Essentially the book of Revelation is an esoteric book, an occult book, a cosmic book. It deals with the ingredients of the human being and the universe; what the human being is made of and what we can eventually become.
The Transforming Power of Revelation
You can never know the book of Revelation, even if you make it a lifetime study as I have. Each time I open it, there is something new which has previously escaped my notice. If you have never read it then start tonight. Read it aloud to yourself, for there is an uncanny power in that book. As you hear the words, they enter into your ears and somehow the contents will then enter into your consciousness in a deeper and more powerful way than reading it silently. You must apply its principles to self, if not you may find it will turn against you. There is a magic in the book, but the magic is towards you not to others.
I must warn you that once you start studying the book of Revelation you must not stop. If you stop then it will be to your detriment. If you regard it purely theoretically without applying that theory then its power will work against you.
Scholar's Views on the Book of Revelation
There are many interpretations of the book of Revelation. The scholars have four, so they are quite divided among themselves.
- Some scholars believe that the prophecies in this book have to do with John's days and the Roman Empire and have nothing whatsoever to do with the future. The Catholic church tends towards this particular interpretation.
- The historical interpretation tends to make the book of Revelation a sort of cosmic review of history from the time it was written to the end of this world; many Protestants hold to that view.
- The third interpretation is futuristic and is held by many evangelicals, such as Baptists and Pentecostalists. They place the whole book at the end of the world when Jesus shall come again.
- The fourth point of view is the poetical interpretation. If I had to choose an interpretation from the scholarly point of view, this would be it. Not that I fully agree with it, but at least I can associate myself with the feeling. Here is an artist, a visionary, at work. Here are the visions written down with great accuracy. The poetic interpretation says that all hard and fast interpretations are illegitimate; the book of Revelation is not a dogmatic book. John writes of his visions with artistry, like painting pictures in the mind. He writes about the sure triumph of God in the universe.
- I have a fifth interpretation. It is okay for the scholars to say all that, but it is not okay for the man or woman who wants to participate in the future and the triumphs of God. We want to feel that we are gods in the making and therefore want to be part of that triumph and through it become the full sons of God. So in our interpretation the book of Revelation is a manual for spiritual development.
Realise that this book veils something very vital. It is written with an imagery, in a visionary way, that the ordinary western person does not understand. It would be very dangerous for you and I to understand it totally. For instance, as you do not let your little child poke its finger in a power point, so God doesn't allow you to poke your finger into cosmic power points. He wants you to grow into maturity first, to know.
The Gifts of God
The gifts of God are for everyone, but not everyone wants the gifts of God. To have the gifts of God you have to have God as well. Many people do not want to exert the effort required for their own growth, their own self development; they don't want to understand, they just don't want to know. If perchance you poke your finger into a cosmic power point without having any knowledge you may set a fire ablaze within yourself which may destroy you and sometimes your environment as well.
I have dealt with people who have interfered with the normal processes and the result has been irreparable physical and mental damage. Let this be a warning to those who think they can do it by themselves rather than listening to teachers. So understand, my dear friends, that the book of Revelation is written in a language that only an initiate can understand, and even they can have problems. In opening it up to you as much as I am able to, you will then become part of the initiates.
The book of Revelation contains the key of gnosis. Gnosis means to have knowledge. It is amazing how few people want real knowledge. In the book of Revelation, we find an expression, a shadow, and at times a repetition of the writings of Plato, Buddha and the Upanishads. The book of Revelation deals with the spiritual and psychic forces of man. It is virtually the only book in the whole Bible that contains within itself all the esoteric knowledge that the world has ever had. It is written in order to preserve that knowledge and that knowledge will be given to man when the seals are eventually broken.
During World War II the Dutch hid Jews in their houses. If the Gestapo seemed to realise their presence, coded messages were sent through the underground. The letter may have said, "Mary, the two birds I caught yesterday will hopefully arrive and you can have a wonderful meal." The Gestapo would think this was a family letter. Revelation was also written during a time of persecution so John could not openly write about the knowledge he had without disastrous consequences. Today this knowledge is no longer the secret it was 2,000 years ago. When Christ came to his world all the secrets could be revealed. This is why Jesus said to Pilate, 'I have said nothing secretly' (John 18.20). This is why I don't believe in secret lodges; knowledge is now open to anyone who wants it. As there are only very few who want it, there is no need to worry anyway. Another reason this book is written this way is to confuse the mind.
The occultist must eventually work beyond his mind. As long as the mind cannot contain or fathom the pictures then our imagination has to grasp these pictures and draw its own conclusions. This book is written in an eternal language in order to preserve the knowledge. In Revelation we find that St John is a witness to the esoteric doctrines and knowledge that underlie all religions, ancient or modern. You and I can look past the paraphernalia of religion, we can look past the semantics and traditions we have and use, and discover that underneath all religions there exists a deep esoteric knowledge.
Transcripts of fifty one lectures, presented in a loose-leaf binder.
See our online bookstore, Centre Books for cost and availability.
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Deliberations on the Gospel of St Mark
by Rev Mario Schoenmaker - an excerpt
From Lecture 1 on Mark 1:40-45
And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, 'If you will, you can make me clean' Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I will; be clean' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once, and said to him, 'See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people' But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
The first thing we have to deal with is a leper. The leper is one who lacks the expression of love, one whose natural, playful characteristics have disappeared and who is therefore no longer the same as they once were, and who also no longer has the etheric levels at their disposal. Here this person comes in touch with the Christ, and it is very important to understand this. Let us put ourselves into this picture, for that is how we should read metaphysically. How do we respond to the Christ when Christ comes to us? How can we be healed of our leprosy, our lack of love?
We respond in two ways. Firstly, the leper knelt down. It is very important to notice that, because the Jews were not in the habit of kneeling; to the Jews kneeling was something foreign. Kneeling down indicates the total inability to move, not just an attitude of humility. Kneeling indicates that I no longer have direction, I do not know where to go any more, the Christ is the only one who can direct me. In metaphysics, the feet indicate direction. I had to make this clear this week in one of my counseling sessions. The person had had an aura reading so I looked immediately to see what colour was around the feet, and I said to that particular person, 'You must follow the direction indicated by the colour around your feet, for that will be your future'.
Always take special note of anything that occurs around your feet or your legs. For instance, the footwashing, where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, is a certain pointer towards the future. The feet had to be cleaned and ready to perform the functions that Christ wanted his disciples to fulfil.
So the first thing that we have to do when Christ reveals himself to us and within us is to make ourselves immobile.
If you read this scripture very carefully you will find that the word 'will' is used quite often. The kneeling man said to Jesus, 'If you will'. In other words, it is no longer if I will, it is if you will, so the will is associated with the feet here. It is rather interesting that as long as you are able to walk, as long as you are independent, which is what the feet also indicate, you tend to have quite a strong self-will. You say, 'I can go there, I can do this and I can do that' but it is quite different if you no longer have your legs. Then other people have to pick you up and carry you. Suddenly you realise that you are dependent on the goodness of others, and that no longer can you do it yourself. So the first attitude should be, 'I have no will of my own; now I am totally at the mercy of the will of the Christ' 'If you will, you can make me clean'. The word 'will' in the Greek is the word thelo which means, 'It shall happen; there is no doubt.'
The next thing that happens is that Jesus was moved with pity. The word pity is such a nasty word, for when we have pity for people it connotes a self-righteous attitude. No one wants pity. So the word 'pity' is not quite the right word. In the Greek it more or less says, 'He was filled with tenderness' which is a much better expression. He was filled with an overpowering sense of tenderness towards that particular person. I have always maintained that healing, real healing, can only be done if there is rapport between you and the other person, a tenderness that comes from being on a feeling level with the other person.
But let us not think here of other people; let us think of ourselves first and foremost. If we recognise that we are lepers, that is, that there are certain parts of us that have fallen away because of the lifestyle that we have lived, then the first thing that must come about before our healing is possible is the recognition of our leprosy. Let us recognise that we have it, that we are not the full person that we can be and ought to be.
You must forgive me, but I tend to be a very observant person and I observe wherever I am, and I realise how full of leprosy we really are. The mind tends to create the picture within ourselves that we are the only ones who are right and the other ones are always wrong. The mind always does this to us, so that we tend to look at others, either with eyes of pity or with the eyes of judgment, and both of these attitudes indicate how full of leprosy we are. If you observe people's behaviour and if you compare this honestly with your own, then you will suddenly realise that you have to say to yourself (that is, if you want to progress spiritually), 'Yes, I have leprosy. I am not functioning fully. I am not the person I was when I was sixteen. I am not doing the things I dreamt of when I was twelve' and all that type of thing. One of these days we are going to make a law banning all mirrors from our bedrooms and our bathrooms. You spend too much time looking in the mirror, and when you look in the mirror you feel nostalgic and you say, 'Do I really look like that? I used to look like...' Then when you look at photo albums and see photos of yourself when you were sixteen or seventeen, people say, 'Did you really look like that? My goodness, you were a charming person' But it is always in the past tense.
Why did we change? What happened to our youthfulness? The Bible has a lot to say about youthfulness, and how important it is to retain that youthfulness. Lazarus, for instance, in the gospel of St John, symbolises youthfulness and the resurrection of Lazarus is the resurrection of youthfulness. Christ calls youthfulness back into you again.
So the first thing you have to do is to really honestly acknowledge to yourself that you are a leper. Then the second thing is to become immobile, that is, stand still for a moment. Don't use your will and ask 'if you will' of the Christ. Then you must not be self-righteously or self-indulgently in love with yourself, but be rightly in love with yourself. That is, be tender with yourself; don't judge yourself too harshly. We tend to do this. We go overboard; we say, 'Yes, we are lepers' and then we judge ourselves so much that we can't be healed. So you have to maintain the balance. You have to feel tender towards yourself, give yourself a bit of love.
Lots of people want to pour love out onto others. That is lovely, but do it first with self. Do you know how I notice if other people love themselves a little bit? By the way they dress, for instance, by the way they look after themselves, by the way they look after their environment. The little things indicate whether you have some sort of love or tenderness towards yourself. You have a right to this, for that is Christ within you. Wherever there is love there is God. So whenever you feel love towards yourself, you can say, 'Yes, that is Christ within me that makes me love myself.'
Transcripts of seventy four lectures presented in a loose leaf binder.
See our online bookstore, Centre Books for cost and availability.
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The Book of Hebrews
by Rev Mario Schoenmaker - an excerpt
Christ and Melchizedek
Abraham's mission was to guide the Aryan people, in the early Post-Atlantean times, during their formative years. He was instructed into the mysteries pertaining to the work of Melchizedek. Let me for a moment make a division, placing Melchizedek on one side and Christ on the other. We find Melchizedek blessing Abraham and Christ blessing the apostles saying, 'Go forth into the world', as Abraham had to. Abraham received the deepest level of teaching that can ever be had: the touch of Melchizedek, the touch of the master. The twelve received the deepest teaching in the upper room where they were spiritually exalted in the elements of bread and wine. This, of course, took place in the city of Salem, for Jeru-salem means city of Salem.
The two events, one at the beginning of the Bible and one virtually at the end, are linked together with tremendous spiritual importance. Not only because of the form of the rite itself, but where and how it occurred.
As our sixth epoch is approaching, the present fifth moving slowly towards its close, we will find that an increasing number of souls will enter like the disciples of old into the same mystical upper room in Jerusalem (spiritually speaking). There they will realise within themselves the sublime state of mind necessary, married or bonded to the heart through the power of the spirit within them. It could be stated I suppose that whenever the sun ushers in a new dispensation, the leaders who are on the earth at that particular time somehow make a new covenant with the Gods in the form of bread and wine. According to occult teaching, we say that they partake of the bread of eternal life and drink of the chalice of immortality.
With the beginning of the cycle of Aries or Abraham, this leader of the Aryan race received this sacramental gift from the priest-king Melchizedek. The master introduced the deepest teachings for the cycle of Pisces when celebrating the Last Supper with his disciples. (The cycle of Pisces commenced in the fifteenth century.) So it was inner instruction concerning powers of the spirit that the disciples received when eating the bread and drinking the wine dispensed by the Christ.
In offering up the sacrifice of bread and wine, instead of the slaughtered animals previously offered, the Melchizedek's sacrifice or sacrament differed from that of the old days in that Melchizedek prefigured the sacrifice which Christ was to institute in the new covenant from the same elements. It is therefore with awe and reverence that we, in our organisation, speak of the Priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedek.
If you want to understand Hebrews chapters six and seven, then you need to enter into a higher phase of consciousness, what is called 'Adeptship' in the mystery schools. When chapter 5 of Hebrews refers to the strong meat and not to live by milk alone any more, Paul is speaking about adeptship. Only the adept can take the strong meat. The adept is the priest according to the Order of Melchizedek ...
Characteristics of the Priesthood
The Order of Melchizedek has within itself certain connotations:
- Those belonging to this Order will always manifest themselves with bread and wine. While I was away with Max we had a lovely agape with the Psychodrama group. I have a faint idea that it was the first time that they really did psychodrama when we had bread and wine! Do you know that I did not mention the word 'Christ' once that night as I did that rite? The response was overwhelming. People's souls of necessity, always recognise the power of bread and wine. That is why a Priest of the Order of Melchizedek has never to fear, people will always respond ... either negatively or positively. We were quite fortunate; 99% gave a positive response.
- The priest must be the embodiment of the bread of life. They must issue life from their very being, continuously.
- However, you can never become a priest of the Order of Melchizedek unless your originate from the sun. If you have dwelt on Mercury or Venus then you cannot be a priest according to the Order of Melchizedek. In fact you would not want to be. It is as simple as that. You are still very spiritual; it doesn't mean to say that you are any lower or higher. Understand that I am not saying that. All I am saying is that the Order of Melchizedek can only be fulfilled by sun beings because Christ is a sun being. Christ then becomes the beginning and the end of that person's life. If you look at our cross you see the symbols of the alpha and omega with the lamb in the middle. The lamb is the soul; the alpha and the omega say: From beginning to end, I belong to Christ, I am a sun being.
- Being initiated into the Order of Melchizedek gives a connection with the oldest Sun Initiate of the Atlantean Period which is Melchizedek himself.
- Through this, different gifts will be manifested as they are needed.
As of old the Sun Initiate brought the knowledge of the Christ to the world, so now through us the Christ will be revealed to the minds and the hearts of man, in an intellectual and feeling way.
The Task of the Priesthood
The task of the priesthood is therefore to portray the Christ. So those who are admitted into the Order of Melchizedek of necessity already have a priestly nature because they come from the sun. Their previous incarnations would show that they are priests and have most likely been priests in the past. But in order to be accepted into the priesthood you also have to dare to accept the challenge of this peculiar priesthood: the vow to be a priest forever, not only in this lifetime but until the world ends. Once a priest, always a priest. The Catholics agree with that by saying that it is for eternity not just this lifetime. Sure, when we come back next lifetime we may not have a glorious altar in front of us. We may be hard-headed businesswomen. However we execute that priestly office, Christ will show through us if we are faithful to him. Our lives as priests have to be lives of sacrifice, reconciling people back to God. And at all times our symbols will be bread and wine.
Transcripts of fifty one lectures presented in a loose-leaf binder.
See our online bookstore, Centre Books for cost and availability.
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The Johannine Gospel
Its relevancy to the past and future - by Rev Mario Schoenmaker - an excerpt
Recognising a Light Being
If someone has light, how do you recognise that person? How do you know that that person is a light being? You cannot recognise it with your senses. That person, to all intents and purposes, looks precisely the same as the next person. They don't act silly. They are definitely not artists (artists always think that they are near to Jesus Christ), they are not mathematicians (they think they have all the answers), and definitely not musicians! That person just looks normal. In fact you may find them in the kitchen doing the washing up. How do you know that that person is a light being?
In ancient writings, I think the Bhagavad Gita, it says, 'Light calls unto light, and understands the perfume thereof'. That makes no sense to us at all, as most ancient writings make no sense to us today because we are in the darkness. We work with a consciousness that deals with material things and material things only. For us to deal with things of the light, for us to understand or perceive the light, means that we must have the light ourselves. As long as you do not have the light, you cannot recognise a being who is light. A being who is light is a being who may have progressed a bit more than us, who may have achieved, in terms of its own incarnation, a bit more than others.
The Gospel of St John sets forth one great principle: the principle of the spiritual I AMness that has to be born out of the physical I AMness. That is the principle. Now, what makes one a physical individual and what makes one a spiritual individual? The mark of a spiritual individual, as I have said before, is the very fact that they dwell in the light. Being in the light means freedom - not being hampered by a physical environment. So what would be the mark of a person who is spiritually enlightened, or who has a bit more light than us ordinary folk? I would say freedom. Wouldn't you agree?
The real purpose of your incarnation doesn't come about till 28 to 35 years of age. That is when the real thing starts for you. Beforehand, up until 28 and beyond that, is a replay of previous incarnations, of what you have learned. So anyone who comes to me at 20 years of age and says they are working out their karma makes me laugh. All they are doing is replaying, relearning what they have learnt in past lives. This time it is sped up!
For instance, a high spiritual individual is born into an ordinary family. What would be the first thing that would happen to that individual in that family situation? All you have to do to reach a conclusion is to read the gospels, or the life of Buddha or Krishna, or the life stories of high individuals and see what they have in common. Buddha, for instance, was born prematurely. Medical scientists says that a baby must be fully grown. If it is not, they will do everything in their power to make it fully developed outside mother's womb. But a baby born before it is fully grown is less associated with the world than a baby who is fully grown. So you could say that a baby prematurely born can have (I am not saying that it always does) a high soul enter its body.
The second distinguishing mark of a person with more light than we have is that it generally loses one or both parents in its teenage years. The reason is simple. If a child is born into an ordinary family home, brought up by mum and dad until they are old and grey and decrepit, then the child automatically, of necessity, takes on all the characteristics of mum and dad. In other words, there is no individuality, no individual freedom in that particular child. ...
If a family is shattered, no matter what the pain, it may indicate that the children from such a background have light in them. They may just be the very ones; mum and dad then become quite irrelevant. The children relive their incarnations in quick fashion, through their parents, so that by the time they reach 28 they have developed this tremendous individuality.
Now you understand why, in this latter part of the twentieth century, so many souls will come into the world, or already are in the world, that need parents whom they can discard as soon as possible. It sounds funny but that is how it is. By the time we come to the end of this century we will have men and women with light. Oh, they may not necessarily be religious. They may not want the church, The Centre, or anything of that kind; that is beside the point. The point is that they have light.
These are but a few of the characteristics that will distinguish a person with light. The most obvious one is that they are recognised by other beings of light. In other words, light calleth unto light. So a person who has the light in them perceives in the other being, normal and ordinary though they may be, the light.
It is interesting that a teacher can never teach unless the light of that teacher is just a tiny bit brighter. Otherwise teaching becomes irrelevant. And the teacher can only attract those beings who have light within themselves to recognise what is happening.
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