darkness. Therefore, be masters and directors of your desires. LUC:13:27 Great are the powers of the senses and the worldly desires to which they pander, to bind and blind. But the resources of the soulspirit are infinitely greater, if you will only call them forth. So stretch out and grasp the sword beyond the limits of mortality, and slay the enemies of the soulspirit. Even though you lack the resolution to fight for any cause, however great, fight for yourself, for your own preservation into eternity. LUC:13:28 Those who lack faith in the existence of Truth, who cannot summon the strength to struggle, who have not the fortitude to stand the long weary years of preparation, will never penetrate the veil to see the wonder
and glory beyond. There is a glorious, eternal beauty shining over the universal vastness, and in rare moments of illumination, man may glimpse the everlasting in things which pass away. This is the message handed down through the ages; this is the message of all true spiritual teachers. All poets, musicians and artists, all who beautify and glorify life, convey only the same message in infinite variety of expression.
Chapter Fourteen - The Last Forest Teachings
LUC:14:1 My friends, the purpose and meaning of life are no longer hidden from you, and you know why men should follow the way of good
rather than the way of evil. Every restraint and restriction, every responsibility, every duty and obligation, however obscure the purpose, are imposed with only one end in view, your own ultimate benefit and good.
Everything unnecessary or purposeless has been winnowed away and only the sustaining grains remain, nothing not worthwhile has been kept.
LUC:14:2 Yet there is another reason for following this path, for, by refining and strengthening the soulspirit and awakening all its latent powers, each man is potentially a Mangod. He is no longer restricted to this sphere and can even contact Greater Beings beyond the mountain, and from them
learn the truth.
LUC:14:3 Life itself is real, but as expressed in the Sphere of Matter and Mortality, it is little more than an illusion. The true being lives elsewhere, and where it lives man awakes to eternity, the illusion vanishes and he is confronted with the real. In this sphere man dwells in bondage to a belief in the reality of the illusion, he is attached to passing shadows, he seeks to grasp
something of substance in a place where nothing is true, substantial and unchanging. Grind a stone to powder, and the powder to a powder of powder, and in the end, you will have something tangible. Such is the basis of this
unsubstantial place.
LUC:14:4 My friends, you know too well how few soulspirits are awakened from their slumber on the soft couches of agnosia. Of those who do wake to consciousness are some who did so quickly and lovingly embrace the Great Light. They seek diligently and carefully for the tree of love and
eagerly eat its nourishing fruit; those are the noble soulspirits, the truly illuminated among men. A ray of light from the Sphere of The Holy Spirit pours the vigour of renewed spiritual life into them, and they become more
than men.
LUC:14:5 You wonder why there are so few awakened, but is it not man himself, by his own folly and blindness, his own spiritual apathy, who has slammed shut the gate leading to the road of enlightenment? Perhaps the truth is that man declines the necessary spiritual effort. It is your task to sound the awakening call, to rouse man from his spiritual drowsiness and stir him into
action.
LUC: 14:6 Do not concern yourselves overmuch regarding the nature of The Supreme Spirit. He is a Being incomprehensible to those with only the limited faculties of the Lower Spheres. He exists within a divine principle, upon which speculation is impossible, since it lies beyond the limits of mortal conception. Only the truly Illuminated Ones, the noble soulspirits, can approach the border of understanding, for they can see from afar. The treasures of His sanctuary are the ultimates of Love, Beauty, Perfection,
Truth. Justice, Compassion and Goodness. LUC: 14:7 I am asked how this Far Away Formless One, awesome in changelessness, whose Spirit fills the whole universe, can be worshipped. My
friends, how can He be influenced from the lower depths of His creation? Can rain wet the sky or rivers fill the ocean? Concerning the form of worship which is praise and prayer. Do you think that doleful chants, mournful music and mumbled prayer add to His glory or fill His heart with joy? These are gifts gathered from the woodland. Far more acceptable would be a freely
dedicated heart purged of evil, the offering of a body wherein lust and unhealthy desires have been uprooted, the display of a mouth untainted by lewdness and falsehood, and the showing of integrity, honesty and purity.
LUC:14:8 True worship is the purification and elevation of the soulspirit, no more, all that purifies and elevates is worship. The purpose of worship is to arouse the soulspirit to wakefulness, it is the companionable unity of those serving a common cause. It is an act of mutual experience. It is not the servile humiliation of a slave before his master, but the linking of spirit with spirit.
LUC: 14:9 These are the only sacrifices to bring: Bodily lusts and passions, evil thoughts, lies, deceit, slander and all forms of wickedness. To offer the blood of harmless creatures is easy and cowardly, and an insult to He who created them. These are the offerings to dedicate to His service: Diligent study of the Good Books, wisdom, courage, moral purity and steadfastness, together with all things serving the purpose of good. The only vestment needed for worship is a loyal, kind and pure heart.
LUC:14:10 To act as men do when worshipping is to belittle The Supreme Spirit. How can One so great be worshipped and served by fires and candles, by mumbled words falling thoughtlessly on unhearing ears, by sacrificial blood and by ornaments and incense? These things may serve a purpose in aiding man's awakening, but it is hypocritical to say they are necessary to The Supreme Spirit, and blasphemy to say He requires them from man. The Supreme Spirit rises above the thinking of men and says, "If such things please man, then let the offerer become the recipient." LUC:14:11 The truly enlightened worship by a compliment, in trying to match their purity and goodness with the reflection of these qualities coming
down from on high. The ennobling of the lesser self, goodness in thought, word and deed, the subjection of material urges, a constant disciplining of the body, an unwavering devotion to the cause of mankind, which is the cause of The Supreme Spirit, this is true worship, providing they are not clouded with hypocrisy.
LUC: 14:12 Worship serves the soulspirit and therefore is beneficial, if sincere. Many have felt its first restless stirring in worship. My friends, how sad that the greatest treasure there is, the jewel beyond price, the soulspirit, still remains so often buried out of sight, unheeded, unsought, unwanted!
LUC:14:13 Nothing is more impressionable than the soulspirit, and every act forms a guide to its future appearance. Thus it is that every experience tends towards a repetition; and so a habit, good or bad, once formed is hard to break. It is like water which cuts a channel all other water follows. LUC: 14:14 Man has a material sounding board called the brain, which means a drumskin, and this is very apt. However, if it is battered with impure desires or taken over by worldliness it thickens and becomes a barrier against the spiritual forces. The brain, made dense with insensitivity and calloused by wickedness, forms a door which closes out all things of the spirit and becomes the servant of the senses. It no longer admits the light, and what light does penetrate becomes disguised and distorted into gloom. The door to the soulspirit becomes overgrown with weeds and brambles, the material and spiritual are separated by an immovable barrier and the soulspirit slumbers
while the body decays.
LUC:14:15 Lacking the light, ensnared in sorrow and smothered in agnosia, degraded and sunk in the depths of matter, the soulspirit languishes and pines. Mercifully unconscious, it is pounded, twisted and torn, uncared for and unheeded, its infant cries falling upon deaf and deadened ears. Slowly it is smothered under the great overburden of wickedness and worldliness. Little need you wonder why the Dark Spirits are so often called 'abortions!'