DO YOU realize that you, the Real You, never sleeps? We have been accustomed from childhood to say, “I have been asleep,” or “I am going to sleep.” This assertion, however, is not accurate, for that which sleeps is not the “I”, or the “I Am,” but merely the physical body which sense-dominated man has outmanifested by his imperfect material, thinking and believing.

Certainly the I am inhabits and uses this body for contact with the physical world. It was built as a useful vehicle through which necessary development and experience might be gained by the soul. But in the process of time man succumbed to the thrill of sense experience and indulging in it, gradually accepted as predominant the belief that he lived only in his outer body. But such is not man’s real body, for it is only a materialized thought-form, unstable, weak, and as impermanent as the vacillating thought which made it: a form subject to sickness and decay, and altogether inferior to the glorious, eternal, spiritual body which God gave to His Son. This true body is made of Divine Spiritual Sub- stance, and cannot express discord or death, being eternal and perfect as Spirit.

In the preservation and renewal of the physical body, sleep plays an important part. The physiological reason for sleep, lies in the fact that the body becomes for a time quiescent, ceasing its sense-conscious thinking and negative activity, and is submissive to the renewing work of Spirit which can then proceed unhampered by the erroneous thought of the materially minded man.

When the body sleeps, consciousness is withdrawn, and the soul of man functions joyously in its native element unobstructed by the action of sense-consciousness. The body and its condition, even pain, is forgotten, and when it awakens, it is refreshed and rehabilitated by reason of the temporary release from material consciousness and discord, which discord only exists through man’s belief in its reality.

But there is a better way, and that consists in learning to still the outer consciousness in what we call our waking life. If we learn to do this at will, we shall achieve the realization of ourselves, as the Image and Likeness of God, and we shall express and manifest complete well-being even in our visible bodies, automatically sustaining their perfection and life by continuous conscious contact with our Divine Source.

This can be done by us all, and it has already been done by those exalted ones who now seek to lead the race back to its original condition of being fully efficient channels for the expression and activity of our Father God. It is not beyond your power or mine to accomplish. We need but realize Truth and thereby know ourselves for what we really are, viz. spiritual beings. If we will go to the trouble of achieving this understanding, we shall yearn to “return to our Father’s home” which is the Kingdom of Heaven within every man. Like the Prodigal Son, we shall say, “I will arise and go to my Father.” For who would be content to remain in bondage and “eat the husks that the swine did eat,” once he knew it to be in his power to abide consciously in the heavenly Father’s love, care, and home!

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? . . . The temple of God is holy, and such are ye.”

Our bodies, then, are holy, and house Almighty God. But do we always remember to treat them with the profound reverence that we should offer to that which is holy? Do we nourish and renew them with clean and natural food and drink, keep them spotlessly pure, give them the rest they require at their present stage, and try to build into them a living spiritual consciousness? For every part of the body has a consciousness of its own, every cell composing it, having its own brain. If we do not do this, we are guilty of desecrating God’s temple, guilty of irreverence to the Most High, and the result is that we render ourselves unable to receive the constant influx of the renewing life of Spirit, thus starving the body of divine replenishment and lowering it into a weak and inefficient instrument that has lost contact with its life-giving Source.

But let us learn to still these senses. Let us conquer material thinking, speaking, and body building, so that the Life and Light of God may permeate our entire being and we shall then, through gradually, build and enjoy a glorious spiritual body wherein the supernal power, perfection, intelligence, and life of the I AM may function freely and vitally. Then shall the body become an ideal vehicle for the spirit of the awakened man, the Christ who sleeps not nor needs to sleep. It shall become vibrant, harmonious, and beautiful, a fit channel for the expression and activity of God in the external world.

As we have said, this achievement will be a gradual process requiring the application of the spiritualized will, set steadfastly to encompass its purpose, requiring in him who undertakes such purpose, an understanding of Truth and a turning away from the outer and illusory world of things in order that the mind may be freely focused upon the Kingdom of Heaven within. It involves the achievement of nonreaction to all that is not of God, and the elimination of personality, so that true individuality—God in us—may reign. And it means a steady refusal to be entangled with negativity and friction, and the ability truthfully to declare when these are brought to our notice: “None of these things move me.”

Does all this seem beyond your power to accomplish? It is not! Certainly, he who is immersed in the life of the senses, he who refuses to follow the Light of Truth when it shines before him can not achieve it, but if you, having seen the Light, sincerely essay to walk by it you will soon recognize, acknowledge, and use the divine power of your Real Self which will guide you to victory.

Think it out! If you are one of those who have given years of your life to acquiring proficiency in some art, profession, or specific line of work you will remember how patiently you strove, how earnestly you studied each problem that faced you until you understood and conquered it, and you finally became master in your chosen occupation.

Admittedly you studied systematically and under competent instructors. But it was neither the system nor the instructors that eventually rendered you efficient. It was the I AM within you, the ever-active Will of God to express Himself, which inspired you to the devotion, perseverance, and faith wherewith you overcame every obstacle and at last attained proficiency.

And is not the achievement of a purified body worth equal effort? A body harmonious, unlimited in power, able eventually to transport itself, when fully developed, as easily as you think, to wherever your thought be directed, even through solid objects which can offer no obstruction to its tenuity, a temple that is never weak, tired, sick, or subject to death. Surely it is! And even though its complete attainment will take time, the sense of joyous release from carnal limitations that is experienced during the process more than compensates for the effort put forth.

And we should not imagine that in building this perfect body we shall be called upon to separate ourselves from the dear human contacts, or deny ourselves reasonable human amenities. On the contrary, the man endeavoring by the light of Truth to attain a spiritual body becomes more and more aware of his oneness with all, discord cannot disrupt his peace and he fulfils his worldly activities and duties with an ease that would be impossible to the sense-enslaved man functioning in a sense-built body.

Such an achievement involves systematized study and hard work. We must prepare ourselves by training and disciplining the mind, which in turn governs the body and the emotions. With a quickened desire for attainment, the disciplined mind will in the fulness of time, turn to and make contact with the Master Within. It is a law that desire in the heart of man brings its own fulfilment, and he cannot desire anything which he has not the power to attain if he will go about it the right way.

Part of the process—a very important part—lies in giving sufficient time to correct and regular meditation, for in the silence we are enabled to commune with God, and to know ourselves as one with Him, as having for our heritage as His Son, His power and perfection. In such an illumined condition we realize what must be done to achieve our purpose and we cease to regard ourselves as a physical body having a soul, and know ourselves as Spirit using a soul and a body. Then we commence to think and live from the standpoint of Spirit.

This means that our desire to be profoundly and consciously at-one with God, increases until it becomes the dominating factor in our lives. With such a divine ambition we shall cease to regard external happenings seriously. If we are misunderstood, mistreated, frustrated, we shall not allow the condition or any hurt in relation to it into our consciousness. Refusing to react to it we shall not think about it, and hold resentment. For to the one yearning with all his being for union with God, such things are revealed in their true nothingness and, overshadowed by the greater and real issue, they disappear.

Again, much good work toward the attainment of our objective may be accomplished during sleep, if before we lose consciousness, we turn our thought—without tenseness—inward to the divine Source of all life and intelligence and calmly and confidently expect to receive enlightenment, we shall surely be given it. When we first begin to practice this, we may not have a great deal of success in making the desired contact, but “practice makes perfect,” and if we are faithful we shall in due time be rewarded, by awakening with the memory of instructive and inspiring dreams and visions. Sometimes these embody literal and humanly comprehensible information, and sometimes they are of a symbolic nature. We should give much thought to them, and in the latter case we should go into meditation and ask for light. By doing this we shall gradually learn to translate these symbols belonging to the realm of ideas into such terms as are understandable to us at our existing stage of development. Later, when we have attained the unity of the One Consciousness, and are always spiritually conscious; when our constructive thinking, speaking, and living is always of this nature, we shall build for ourselves the perfect spiritual body which does not require sleep, either for the purpose of renewal, or in order to commune with the Divine Mind, and absorb Its wisdom, for we shall then be that wisdom and shall be fully at home in the realm of ideas.

All mankind will eventually attain this One consciousness, and the expression of unlimited divine Life and Intelligence, for that is the destiny God has ordained for His children. Its achievement will take time, but could we use time to a better end? And in the process we shall rejoice in a progress that bestows increasingly greater freedom from bondage and discord of every kind connected with the material world, until at last we stand forth as the expression and manifestation of that Ideal Man which in the beginning our Father God shaped in His holy Substance, and projected into visibility as His own supernal and perfect Image and Likeness, His Son, the Living Word.

“Awake, thou that sleepest . . . and Christ shall give thee Light.”

← previous | The Inner Life 1938 | next →