Your Faith Is Your Fortune
| Chapter 26 |
GETHSEMANE
Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. – Matt. 26:36
A most wonderful mystical romance is told in the story of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but man has failed to see the light of its symbology and has mistakenly interpreted this mystical union as an agonizing experience in which Jesus pleaded in vain with His Father to change His destiny.
Gethsemane is, to the mystic, the Garden of Creation – the place in consciousness where man goes to realize his defined objectives. Gethsemane is a compound word meaning to press out an oily substance: Geth, to press out, and Shemen, an oily substance.
The story of Gethsemane reveals to the mystic, in dramatic symbology, the act of creation.
Just as man contains within himself an oily substance which, in the act of creation, is pressed out into a likeness of himself, so he has within himself a divine principle (his consciousness) which conditions itself as a state of consciousness and without assistance presses out or objectifies itself.
A garden is a cultivated piece of ground, a specially prepared field, where seeds of the gardener’s own choice are planted and cultivated.
Gethsemane is such a garden, the place in consciousness where the mystic goes with his properly defined objectives. This garden is entered when man takes his attention from the world round about him and places it on his objectives.
Man’s clarified desires are seeds containing the power and plans of self-expression and, like the seeds within man, these, too, are buried within an oily substance (a joyful, thankful attitude of mind).
As man contemplates being and possessing that which he desires to be and to possess, he has begun the process of pressing out or the spiritual act of creation.
These seeds are pressed out and planted when man loses himself in a wild, mad state of joy, consciously feeling and claiming himself to be that which he formerly desired to be.
Desires expressed, or pressed out, result in the passing of that particular desire.
Man cannot possess a thing and still desire to possess it at one and the same time. So, as one consciously appropriates the feeling of being the thing desired, this desire to be the thing passes – is realized.
The receptive attitude of mind, feeling and receiving the impression of being the thing desired, is the fertile ground or womb which receives the seed (defined objective).
The seed which is pressed out of a man grows into the likeness of the man from whom it was pressed.
Likewise, the mystical seed, your conscious claim that you are that which you heretofore desired to be, will grow into the likeness of you from whom and into whom it is pressed.
Yes, Gethsemane is the cultivated garden of romance where the disciplined man goes to press seeds of joy (defined desires) out of himself into his receptive attitude of mind, there to care for and nurture them by consciously walking in the joy of being all that formerly he desired to be.
Feel with the Great Gardener the secret thrill of knowing that things and qualities not now seen will be seen as soon as these conscious impressions grow and ripen to maturity.
Your consciousness is Lord and Husband [Isaiah 54:5]; the conscious state in which you dwell is wife or beloved. This state made visible is your son bearing witness of you, his father and mother, for your visible world is made in the image and likeness [Genesis 2:26] of the state of consciousness in which you live; your world and the fullness thereof are nothing more or less than your defined consciousness objectified.
Knowing this to be true, see to it that you choose well the mother of your children – that conscious state in which you live, your conception of yourself.
The wise man chooses his wife with great discretion. He realizes that his children must inherit the qualities of their parents and so he devotes much time and care to the selection of their mother. The mystic knows that the conscious state in which he lives is the choice that he has made of a wife, the mother of his children, that this state must in time embody itself within his world; so he is ever select in his choice and always claims himself to be his highest ideal.
He consciously defines himself as that which he desires to be.
When man realizes that the conscious state in which he lives is the choice that he has made of a mate, he will be more careful of his moods and feelings. He will not permit himself to react to suggestions of fear, lack or any undesirable impression. Such suggestions of lack could never pass the watch of the disciplined mind of the mystic, for he knows that every conscious claim must in time be expressed as a condition of his world – of his environment.
So, he remains faithful to his beloved, his defined objective, by defining and claiming and feeling himself to be that which he desires to express. Let a man ask himself if his defined objective would be a thing of joy and beauty if it were realized.
If his answer is in the affirmative, then he may know that his choice of a bride is a princess of Israel, a daughter of Judah, for every defined objective which expresses joy when realized is a daughter of Judah, the king of praise.
Jesus took with Him into His hour of prayer His disciples, or disciplined attributes of mind, and commanded them to watch while He prayed, so that no thought or belief that would deny the realization of His desire might enter His consciousness.
Follow the example of Jesus, who, with His desires clearly defined, entered the Garden of Gethsemane (the state of joy) accompanied by His disciples (His disciplined mind) to lose Himself in a wild joy of realization.
The fixing of His attention on His objective was His command to His disciplined mind to watch and remain faithful to that fixation. Contemplating the joy that would be His on realizing His desire, He began the spiritual act of generation, the act of pressing out the mystical seed – His defined desire. In this fixation He remained, claiming and feeling Himself to be that which He (before He entered
Gethsemane) desired to be, until His whole being (consciousness) was bathed in an oily sweat (joy) resembling blood (life), in short, until His whole consciousness was permeated with the living, sustained joy of being His defined objective.
As this fixation is accomplished so that the mystic knows by his feeling of joy that he has passed from his former conscious state into his present consciousness, the Passover or Crucifixion is attained.
This crucifixion or fixation of the new conscious claim is followed by the Sabbath, a time of rest. There is always an interval of time between the impression and its expression, between the conscious claim and its embodiment. This interval is called the Sabbath, the period of rest or non-effort (the day of entombment).
To walk unmoved in the consciousness of being or possessing a certain state is to keep the Sabbath.
The story of the crucifixion beautifully expresses this mystical stillness or rest. We are told that after Jesus cried out, “It is finished!” [John 19:30], He was placed in a tomb. There He remained for the entire Sabbath.
When the new state or consciousness is appropriated so you feel, by this appropriation, fixed and secure in the knowledge that it is finished, then you, too, will cry out, “It is finished!” and will enter the tomb or Sabbath, an interval of time in which you will walk unmoved in the conviction that your new consciousness must be resurrected (made visible).
Easter, the day of resurrection, falls on the first Sunday after the full moon in Aries. The mystical reason for this is simple. A defined area will not precipitate itself in the form of rain until this area reaches the point of saturation; just so the state in which you dwell will not express itself until the whole is permeated with the consciousness that it is so – it is finished.
Your defined objective is the imaginary state, just as the equator is the imaginary line across which the sun must pass to mark the beginning of spring. This state, like the moon, has no light or life of itself; but will reflect the light of consciousness or sun – “I am the light of the world” [Matthew 5:14; John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:46] – “I am the resurrection and the life” [John 11:25].
As Easter is determined by the full moon in Aries, so, too, is the resurrection of your conscious claim determined by the full consciousness of your claim, by actually living as this new conception.
Most men fail to resurrect their objectives because they fail to remain faithful to their newly defined state until this fullness is attained.
If man would bear in mind the fact that there can be no Easter or day of resurrection until after the full moon, he would realize that the state into which he has consciously passed will be expressed or resurrected only after he has remained within the state of being his defined objective.
Until his whole self thrills with the feeling of actually being his conscious claim, in consciously living in this state of being it, and only in this way, will man ever resurrect or realize his desire.
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