THE WAY TO THE KINGDOM. Joseph Benner
power is accomplishing all, is actually God and cannot be you or anyone else. Try to perceive the great truth of this by imagining how it must be.
To do this you must lift your mind away from this page and meditate upon what has been stated, and if you are greatly interested, you will find your attention fixed upon this life within you, imagining it as God living in your body, a very wise and loving Consciousness filling and possessing it, moving it and causing it to do what He wants it to do. And it will gradually dawn upon you that the part of you that is considering all this is only your mind, and then in a wondrously illuminating way it may flash into your consciousness that therefore you are not at all what you before thought was the you living in your body, but that it is a much bigger and more wonderful you—that it is God! that God is the Real You!! and that the other you is but a part of His Mind—a center of His Consciousness that before had thought itself separate from Him.
If you have truly followed this and actually caused your mind to consider and do everything suggested, some illumination must have resulted, for the God of you would surely respond to a heart earnestly desiring to know Him.
The above would be real meditation, and real inner work, as you will by this time have realized.
All meditation is nothing more nor less than a pondering over or reflecting upon any subject to which you direct your mind’s attention. The reason we urge the use of meditation is two-fold: that you can cultivate the power and ability to require your mind to consider thoroughly any subject you wish it to understand fully, realizing that as you hold the subject firmly before your mind’s eye, light will pour in, enabling you to see it from many angles. Also that your mind may gradually learn who you are—learn of your inner self—and that it, the mind, is your child, your instrument that you are teaching, training and disciplining so that it will serve you selflessly and efficiently.
Until you have disciplined your mind, you cannot control your thoughts, and as by being able to control your thoughts you can control your emotions, you can then bring your body into harmony; for its health is largely controlled by the emotions or feelings harbored in the heart.
When you become more or less master of your mind and dedicate it to the service of the Christ—your God-Self, your real work begins; for all such earnest ones are accepted and put to that work for they have been fitted and prepared.
But not until the mind is thoroughly under control can real work be given. Real work awaits, but it will be mental work—in the Silence and at night, when the brain minds of those who seek and need help are still, so their souls can hear and accept. Such Real Work will be given when you are ready.
GROUPS
Wherever it is possible we urge that groups be formed for study and service, for our Master has promised “Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Aspirants who put service first, and in whom the personality has been submerged, always accomplish more and unfold more rapidly while working and studying in a group, for there they quickly become aware of the one Power and Presence and individually feel the results in their daily meditation and work.
It is suggested that all who feel so led watch for others of their acquaintance who they think may be ready for these teachings—those who are not seeking for self, but who are longing to serve the Master within in some definite way. The first lesson, “Seek Ye First the Kingdom,” will be sent to any of such, if their names are forwarded to the publisher.
In groups real ways of service will open up to all in due season—when the unfoldment awaiting is able to manifest. This does not imply that only in groups can one unfold in consciousness so that the Master can accomplish His Will through you, but only that in them He can make known His Presence more easily as He indicates above.
Many are so situated that meeting with others regularly is difficult and often impossible. Such will be shown that their present opportunity for service is in the very condition where they are now placed, but all such should be just that much more faithful in their regular communion with Him through meditation.
CHAPTER 3
“I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE”
WE HAVE arrived at that place, in our pointing out what is to be met by a traveler on the path to the Kingdom, where the Voice of Love has become the recognized and accepted Guide.
If you will remember, the traveler has become a Disciple on Probation—the Prodigal is now on his way back to his Father’s house. After a long period of trials and testing, he has proved that nothing can entice or stop him from his determination to reach the goal. Finally, there comes the supreme test—for this period; in some deep soul experience he is required to make a heart-rending choice, between a long cherished ideal and a plain duty, perhaps. And if duty wins, and it will win—if he turns in prayer for help to this sure Guide within—his Christ-Self, then he enters a new and brighter stage of the journey. For his dedication has proven to be a soul consecration—not merely one of the mind and the heart, and he is now accepted as and has become a real Disciple.
From this on he grows more and more conscious of definite guidance from within; the Voice speaks more clearly and insistently; the love in his heart becomes more pronounced and will not be denied. Gradually he learns, by centering his attention deep within, that there a wonderfully wise and loving Self exists, one that is ever ready to teach, help and strengthen, when asked; and the Voice there, which says with unmistakable authority—“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me” is the Voice of his Christ-Self, ever speaking from out the heart—when the mind is stilled so that it can be heard.
Then it is that the Disciple begins definitely to realize that he is not his human mind with its concerns that has to be stilled and be made to listen, but that in some mystical yet natural way he is a part of and can actually enter into the consciousness of that Christ-Self within, and can at will command the mind to be still and can compel it to obey.
And it dawns upon him that while in this consciousness He is the Master, but when without in the brain consciousness he is only the Disciple. And then he realizes that by opening his heart and letting Love pour out he can at will enter into and be that Love, and that in that Love consciousness He and Christ are One; that he is conscious, even as Christ Jesus was conscious, that He is the Way— the only Way, the only Truth and the only Life; that the brain mind is but the self consciousness which He is teaching, training and disciplining to be His perfect instrument of expression.
And the Disciple learns, as the brain mind lets go, stands aside and watches what happens, that all that is ever necessary, when the Disciple is called upon to teach or help anyone, is to open the mouth and begin to speak and the words are given him to say; or to start to do anything—no matter what—and a wise and loving power puts forth from within and enables him to do it. Likewise if he wishes to know anything, he needs only to ask and then to get quiet and absorb the wisdom that pours in and floods his consciousness.
Thus the brain mind slowly and surely is taught its part and place, which is to look up to, wait upon and serve You, abiding now in the consciousness of your Christ-Self. When in that consciousness, verily You are the Master, and the brain mind—that which is now reading these words and trying to understand them—has become the humble and loving Disciple, or hopes—longs to be such.
If you can conceive of what all this means, you can understand that gradually, as the Disciple—the human mind—more and more lets the Master work through him, the Master’s Consciousness truly becomes his consciousness, so that the Master is actually living His life in him, doing His will in him, and being His Self in him. As a result of this the human mind as the Disciple is now in a position