Given in The Temple by, Eleanor L. Shumway, July 13, 2014
On November 15,1998, a century after the Temple was founded, Master Hilarion gave us precious words of love and a sacred charge to continue the Temple work by becoming better fitted for it within ourselves.
The Master begins his message with these words: “My Dear Children: For one hundred years I have been beside you as you labored to bring into manifestation a new step in the work of the Great White Lodge. Through this Lodge Center I have poured forth the message of the coming of a Great Spiritual Light to help all of humanity raise itself out of the darkness of the material self. As you look over the past years, you can see this Light impressing itself more and more upon every plane of being. Dark corners everywhere are being cleansed and the refuse of centuries is being brought into brightness. Now more than ever, everyone is being asked to help transmute this darkness of ignorance and despair into the realms of greater light, intelligence, power, and wisdom. My children, you are asked to hold firmly to your faith in our message of the Light of Truth even when you cannot see the myriad ways in which your faith furthers our work.”
How can we do this? The paradox is that we cannot hold firmly to our faith in the Master’s work unless that faith is challenged, tested and reapplied. We often ask, as we read the papers, see the nightly news on TV, or listen to the radio, “How can I help, there is so much that is bad, I cannot do anything. I may as well give up, enjoy life now because it will all destroy itself soon.” Those dark corners are indeed being cleansed as the Light penetrates deeper and deeper. We are learning more than we ever thought we wanted to know about those dark corners. This period of the seeming overload of electronic communication, has a bright side as well as it carries the light of public scrutiny into the dark corners. Just think of the coverage of social sites such Facebook and Twitter to name only two, together with a camera in nearly every cell phone.
And yet our sole responsibility is to stay centered within ourselves, to remain as serene as possible in the Light, rather than being consumed by the darkness. Our inner task is to embrace the darkness, accepting that this too is a part of the human condition. In that embrace we can bathe the particular aspect of darkness in which we are working with the Light of the Universal Consciousness, and see wholeness where now there are only dark corners. It is through our increasing focus and understanding that we are becoming instruments of transmutation.
When we are in a position on the physical plane to take an active part in working for such transmutation, there are organizations and groups across the socio/political spectrum that welcome dedicated, committed workers for change. Any small effort helps in this transmutation process of turning the darkness of ignorance and despair into realms of greater light, intelligence, power, and wisdom. Whether we work on inner planes, outer planes, or on both, the bottom line of our work is to maintain our faith that anything and everything we do helps someone somewhere, somehow. The old saying, “It is always darkest before the dawn,” takes on a new meaning in this context.
In his message the Master urges us to hold tightly to the Lodge and to one another. He continues:
“At this important time I bid you hold strong in allegiance, faith and trust to the Lodge and to each other. I ask you to reaffirm both your pledges, and your recognition and acceptance of the Lodge, myself, and our agent. With conscious self endeavor you must focus your mind, your body, your soul on the Temple work imbuing every aspect with mutual understanding, voluntary yielding, and helpful interchange with each other on all planes of being. This will bring you truer adjustment, greater activities, purer transmission of finer forces, and with wider and broader dissemination of spiritual powers. Individually and as a group you have constantly sent us your appeals, efforts, ambitions and aspirations for closer, more intense relationship to the Lodge. Be still and listen in the Silence and you will know beyond all shadow of doubt what you must do.”
Master Hilarion tells us specifically what to do when he emphasizes the need to focus our minds, our bodies, and our souls on our Temple work, and yet, he trusts us to work out the details for ourselves. It might appear to us that it would be much easier if he could get even more specific in the details, a check list as it were, then we could get right to the problem and not waste any energy in trial and error. However, we are being trusted to do the focusing of our lives, to do the learning that comes in trying, failing, and trying again. It is the process of growing up, becoming an adult. It is this process that builds our strength, tries our character, challenges our courage, and moves us forward.
The specific assignment of imbuing every aspect of our lives with mutual understanding, voluntary yielding, and helpful interchange with each other on all planes of being is the very heart and soul of our Temple work. Remember, when He speaks of “The Temple,” He not only refers to the Temple of the People, but also the Temple of Humanity as well as the Temple of the Universe. This Temple work therefore is the work of all humanity; which is the evolution of human consciousness. It is not “them” vs “us” but rather all of us together, every man, woman and child on the planet, along with every single aspect of the planet itself. Here in the Temple of the People we are privileged to have a special kind of Light or tools given us to use in the understanding and implementing of this work. Our inescapable responsibility is to use that Light, and to use it with increasing power and insight.
We will not gain any insight into this work with the brain-mind alone. We must use the heart and intuition in partnership with the brain-mind; understanding that as all three parts of ourselves come into balance, we begin to know our True Selves. Through the discipline of study, illuminated with the light of the heart and intuition comes the perception of righteous course. One of my favorite quotations is, “Knowledge put through the crucible of experience becomes wisdom.” Sometimes our hardest task is to remember the desirability of wisdom when we are in the “hot seat” of the crucible.
In his message, the Master reminds us that the survival of the entire human race is at stake in the following passage:
“Again and yet again I have given you the answers you crave. If I were to remain silent, irresponsive, closed, and deaf to your demands and prayers, you would consider me a faithless guide, servant, and father. Shall I expect less of you by asking for anything short of your full faith and following? This will tax your powers of flexibility, obedience, and balanced unity, but it lies within your own hands, hearts, and souls entirely. The evolution of the entire human race lies in the balance. It is your responsibility to act, and some small act of yours may very well prove to be the critical one for all humanity. This may seem to be a heavy task, but you are fitted for it.”
We have been told countless times that we must be careful what we ask for as we will surely get it. It rarely occurs to us that the response to our demands seldom comes in the terms we expect, or in the words that are pleasing to our ear. In this message we being reminded that we have a part to play in the evolutionary process that is ours alone, not our neighbor’s, not our mate’s, not our child’s, only our own. It is not a part we can choose to pick up for awhile, not a part from which we can sort out only the pleasant bits and leave the rest. It is wholly ours. We have been brought to this place, at this time, and in these circumstances, to do something no one else can do. William Quan Judge tells us it is in the trials of everyday life that our true metal is tested, not by great and wonderful events, not by forewarned temptations, nor by flash of light or approach of demons. We cannot escape by inaction, and by some small act of ours we could very well change the course of human consciousness. This is an awesome responsibility.
Over the years I have found comfort in the words, “This may seem to be a heavy task, but you are fitted for it.” The total plan is not ours to know. But we are given to see as much of it as we can possibly understand. After all, the Master sees much further than we can at this time in our unfoldment. We might do well to take his word for it; in other words, have faith in spite of all, and work on developing a growing awareness of the Divinity within.
The Master, continually reminding us of our responsibility to our innermost self, tells us the following:
“As you leave this Temple today, I ask you to enter The Temple of your own Inner Being. In this place of Light and Silence will come the realization that each of you is charged to truly see the Spirit of God within yourself, your friend, neighbor, stranger, and family, as well as every other part of the manifested universe, and your response to every atom must be from Spirit to Spirit. Become a conscious example of the priceless gems of Truth and Wisdom, of Opportunity and Power held inviolate in your innermost selves.”
Many of us run most of the time on automatic pilot, taking our bodies, as well as our Inner Being, for granted until something forces our attention to come back to those inner and outer bodies. We are reminded that the physical body is sacred; it is symbolic of the sacred inner Temple of our beings. For better or worse, it is both our house and our home. There is the poignant story about a little girl who tells her teacher how her family, which consisted of her, her three small brothers, and her mommy and daddy, were living in a two-room motel suite. “My goodness,” her teacher protested. “You do need a home!” “Oh, no!” replied the little girl, “we have a home; we just need a house to put it in!”
Considering our physical body as sacred implies a host of positive responses in terms of giving it loving care such as proper food, rest, exercise, cleanliness, breathing, respect, and protection. By extension, all these aspects of care apply to the inner bodies as well and involve such things as proper thoughts, prayer, meditation, and honoring the Spirit that moves within us. This Spirit is really who we are. We are working to blend the brain-mind, the personality and Spirit together to make a conscious whole. We sometimes forget this takes lifetime upon lifetime of committed work.
The Master asks us to take a more active role in this blending process–this evolution of consciousness–which takes place with or without our cooperation. If we begin to cooperate by identifying the parts of our true self, and seeing the Spirit of God within everything, then and only then, can we begin to manifest the priceless gems of Truth and Wisdom, of Opportunity and Power contained within our being. We must do this, not just once, but every minute of every day. In the words of the Mountain Top message entitled Ask Each Day we hear this point emphasized: “Thinkest thou the cyclic law, immutable, will be repealed for thee, in that each day will bring thee nourishment for soul, unasked for and unsought by thee, or asked amiss?
“Ah, No! A full supply of Christly bread awaits thine asking, but thou must ask each day, and ask in faith, or suffer in thy Soul as now thy body suffers from the lack of food when thou dost not provide.”
Does this mean a formal time each day to take out our list and present it to All That Is? No, it is a conscious blending of our force with that All, sort of an ongoing dialogue about the inner exchange that should be going on at all times. We are asking FOR help; and at the same time asking TO help. This process is imbedded in the conclusion of The Master’s message in these words: “I want you all to realize the importance of the present; never mind the past, or the future, they will be cared for. It is now that is of greatest importance, every day, and yet, one moment at a time. Dig deep and lay the foundations well, lest any shaking of the upper beams loosen the underlying stones of the outer Temple. Do not allow yourself, or others if you can help it, to miss the sweet humble blossoms lying close by your side in reaching out for the larger, less fragrant blooms in the distance, and listenwhen I speak. Sink your very souls in the great Father-Mother heart, the beats of which vibrate through your own with every pulse of the same. Remember that I am one with you, not outside of you. It is my privilege to be your guide; it is your privilege to be an integral part of the Great Plan to build into The Temple a greater measure of joyful endurance, holding power, peace, and awareness of My Love for you.”
Do you ever find yourself not paying strict attention to what is going on in your life at any given moment? Do you find yourself planning the next hour, the next meal, the next telephone call, the next. . . . . and the next . . . . .and the next until your whole being is projected into the near or far future? Or perhaps you yearn for times gone by, simpler times, golden-hued times, happier times, past times. Up to a point, both past and future projections and yearnings do have their place in our consciousness as we strive for balance. The past contains lessons of importance, or plans for the future that helped to give shape to the direction of our lives. But, as the Master reminds us, the real arena for our lives is in the NOW. We probably operate on one or two levels at any given time, when there are seven times seven such layers available to us. As we dig deeply through these layers in each moment, we can indeed better build the foundations of our inner and outer Temple. Everything we need lies close at hand, if we chose to listen, to see, to feel, and to allow our soul to synthesize it all.
In our pursuit of the goals at hand, we often lose sight of the fact that we are constantly bathed in the Master’s Love, Wisdom, and Guidance. He reminds us, “Remember that I am one with you, not outside of you. It is my privilege to be your guide; it is your privilege to be an integral part of the Great Plan to build into The Temple a greater measure of joyful endurance, holding power, peace, and awareness of My Love for you.”
How can we ask for anything more?
Eleanor L. Shumway