IN THIS Department will be included teachings and truths for more advanced students, especially for those who have received the monthly lessons in the sixty-five issued Papers.

Some of our readers perhaps may not be able to grasp these truths, but we urge if so that they reserve them for future study and consideration, as they will contain matter of vital moment to the soul, when it is grown ready to receive and use it as intended.

IN LAST month’s article in this Department, we endeavored to show how many are still confused over the distinction between the soul and the Higher or Christ Self. We showed how some have been taught to believe there is only the outer self and the Father within whom they look upon as God; they cannot yet realize that their soul, the real self of them, is not God, or even Christ, yet is their inner self; and that their inner self or soul cannot know God or Christ until it has been “born again”—that is, “born of water and of spirit,” or baptized of the Spirit. This, though we have explained it herein many times.

Some find it Oh so hard to let go of former beliefs gained from some outer authority. Parrot-like they quote that authority, feeling they have spoken powerfully and truly, but without knowing the truth for themselves—it not yet having been discovered within their own consciousness out of patient, soul-searching struggle.

Because this is so with many, we will quote herein from the letter received in reply to ours printed in this Department last month, and our reply thereto, as they help to bring out clearly points that will assist readers still confused to get established in the understanding or just what is the soul or inner self.

THE SUN Center:

Received your most sincere letter, and I thank you for so kindly going into detail on my behalf.

It would seem that I did not make myself clear on the subject of “making one’s mind and its forces be still.” The important thing is to respond to the Father within, and the way to respond is in Love for the Father within, your Real Self. When we realize, as I do, that we live, move and have our being in our Father within, then we respond to Him in love as a child would do, and there is not the slightest question of “making ourselves do so. It is true that we do not respond in all things instantly to the Father within, but as we begin to do His Will in little things, being constantly aware of His Presence, gradually our life is centered in Him; this being automatically taken care of when we are negative to Him. And when we are constantly praising Him and giving thanks unto Him, and serving whom we can in love, then we don’t have to spend time making ourselves do anything.

Our mind is a part of our outer body, and should be negative to the Father within. Its purpose in life is to be the contact point between the outer body and the Father within. In other words, it is through the mind that the Father works. You say, “are you here to do nothing and that the Lord does all?” We are indeed here for a very wonderful purpose, that is, to let the Lord do all through the medium of our minds and bodies. When we sincerely let go and are negative to the Father within, He does the work through us, and by letting His Will be done in us, we cannot help but grow in strength and understanding until, when we are perfectly attuned to the One within, we become One with Him in Eternity.

Does that sound like “drifting along on the currents of life and letting winds and waves blow you where they will?” Indeed not, when we love the Lord, our Father within, and are eager to do His Will because we love Him, then our whole life becomes one of joy and happiness and Service. I wander not in the wilderness of teachings and authorities, for my Teacher is my own Father within, and through Him do I know the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings whom the world called Jesus.

We do receive all direction and inspiration from the Father within, but—we misuse everything He gives us unless we are attuned to Him in Love.

Abiding in the truth that the only way to the Christ within is in LOVE, I greet your fellow workers there, and with you I sing praises unto the day that we all cease saying one to another, “Know God,” for ALL shall know God of themselves.

OUR reply:

Your letter received, and because we feel you are sincere in believing all that you write is true, in so far as you understand your use of the words, we will reply and this time take up your different statements and try to show you why in your present understanding you cannot do and do not do the very things you state you do and that we and others should do.

First, we will say that with practically all that you write—with the exceptions hereinafter mentioned—we fully agree, and that we have stated the same things in about the same words many times in THE INNER LIFE Magazine. We wonder if you have read them in the Impersonal Work Department, in the “Jesus Christ” message, and particularly in “The Way to the Kingdom,” on the back cover page of the Magazine? What do you suppose we mean in the latter? Do you agree with what it says? If so, why do you repeat all the things you do in your two letters, when they say the same thing only in a little different words. This being so, then it would seem that the only issue or difference between us is in your understanding of our meaning about “making one’s mind and its forces be still.”

You say truly, “The important thing is to respond to the Father within, and the way to respond is in Love for the Father within, your Real Self.” Of course this is so. It is our definite teaching. Likewise it is true that “When we realize that we live, move and have our being in our Father within, then we respond to Him in love as a child would do.”

But what of those who do not yet realize this? How are they to gain such realization? How are they going to learn how to respond to Him in love as a child would do—when they have not yet learned how to love, and do not even know what is love? Have you thought of that?

Also, if it is true that “we do not respond in all things instantly to the Father within, but as we begin to do His Will in little things, being constantly aware of His Presence, gradually our whole life is centered in Him; this being automatically taken care of while we are negative to Him. (It would be well at this point for you to read the paragraph in italics on the back cover page of the Magazine), how do we “begin to do His Will” without making ourselves do it; and how can we be “constantly aware of His Presence,” without centering our mind’s whole interest and attention upon Him?

If we do not do this—do not make ourselves do it, then how are we to gain the blessing of “our whole life being centered in Him?” Is God going to do all this for us, and we do nothing whatever, as you seem to think, although you say we must respond to Him, must “do His Will,” must be constantly aware of His Presence, must constantly praise and give thanks unto Him? Does that not flatly contradict your concluding statement in this paragraph—“then we don’t have to spend time making ourselves do anything.”

Yes, we know, dear friend, what you are trying to tell us; but as we have shown, we know all this already and are teaching it—but we also explain just how to do it, instead of using so many “musts,” and leaving hearers to flounder along without assistance in their desire and efforts to do what you say.

Before proceeding further, we ask you to read carefully our whole article in the Impersonal Work Department of the February Magazine, containing your letter and our reply; also the article, “How to Believe,” pages 657-8; and then the “Jesus Christ” Message in the March issue. If you will do this without prejudice and with open mind, it will help you to understand what follows.

In your next paragraph you say, “Our mind is a part of our outer body, and should be negative to the Father within. Its purpose in life is to be the contact point between the outer body and the Father within. In other words, it is through the mind that the Father works.”

In your use of the words outer body, mind and the Father within, we would like to know where you come in; which is you—the body, the mind, or the Father within?

You say, in answer to our question, “Are you here to do nothing and that the Lord does all?”—“We are indeed here for a very wonderful purpose, that is, to let the Lord do all through the medium of our minds and bodies.” But where are we, while the Lord is doing all this? Who and what is this “we” who are to “let go” and be “negative to the Father within?”

Dear friend, when you can intelligently answer these questions, and not until then, are you equipped to tell others what they must or must not do; for any person who thinks for himself would ask these questions, and unless you could answer them to his satisfaction, you would either leave him greatly confused, or he would think you were using words that you yourself did not understand, no matter how much you believed you knew what you were talking about.

Now we wish to point out some more very plain facts, using your own statements to do so. It is true that our brain mind is a part of our outer body, and should be negative to the Father within; also that the mind’s purpose in life is to be the medium through which the Father works. You, however, do not bring you or us into this scheme of things, but we propose to do so.

First we will say, we are not our bodies, and neither can we be our minds. Where are we then, if these are our bodies and our minds? We would say that we are the intelligence or the soul living in the body using the mind to direct the body. But you do not say that, for you say that it is only the Father within that works through the mind on the body.

Yet you say, “When we love the Lord, the Father within, and are eager to do His Will, because we love Him, then our whole life becomes one of joy and happiness and service.” But who is this “we” who is to love the Lord and to do His Will? Do you mean your mind or your body, or both? And what “you” is it that your Father within is teaching, and what “you” knows the Lord of Lords whom the world call Jesus?

In other words, you are leaving out of consideration the soul or intelligence of man, and would have mind and body connect up directly with the Lord or Father within—when we know that is possible only with the very few whose intelligence and souls have developed and whose understanding has grown to where their minds will listen to the voice of the Lord within, and then only, when the will-power has been acquired to “make themselves do” what he tells them to do.

Now let us try again to show you who you are, if you are not your mind or your body. As we have said, the real and only you must be that inner self, unseen by mortal eyes, who is living in your body and working through your mind to direct and control the body. In other words, the real you must be the soul or that inner intelligence which has been teaching your mind all it knows and directing it in all—making or causing it to do all—that it does from the beginning. That is you—the only you, and you have to do that to get anywhere or be anything in life.

We say you are the “Father within.” You have always been within, never without. It is your brainmind alone that is without in the body, believing it is you and that it lives in a material world. It has not yet learned that it is but an extension of your consciousness centered in the brain and through which you direct all the activities of the body. The trouble is, the consciousness in the brain, because of wrong teaching and understanding has thought itself separate from you and believes itself to be you, when it is but the instrument you are using to accomplish your will, even as your hand is the instrument your mind uses to accomplish its will.

Yes, you are unquestionably the Father of your mind and body—of this outer consciousness which thinks it is you; and until you teach it that you and you alone are all it is, and require it to wait upon you and do what you want it to do, it will continue to think itself separate and apart from you within, and in this thinking will create for itself all the trouble and inharmony that manifest in the outer life.

The time will come when you will get your mind and its forces to be still and to listen when you speak, and you will say to your mind words like the following:

“My child, think you I do not understand your needs, likewise your desire to serve me and to do the Lord’s Will? Because you do not truly know me—that I Am your real and only self, and have always been within, trying to get your interest and attention; but you preferred to turn to outer teachings and authorities—I have allowed you to go and learn the hard way, the way of experience.

“But if you will now turn within to me and wait upon me every moment of the day, desiring only to please me—your inner self, concerned not at all about results, about outer things and interests or even your spiritual advancement, but keeping mind and heart fixed on me in a simple, childlike, perfect love and trust, believing all that I tell you—I will prove to you that I Am your one and only teacher, and must be our only authority; that I provide all things that you need; give you the power and ability to do anything necessary; supply you with the wisdom and understanding to handle every problem that confronts you, and will eventually bring your consciousness back into my consciousness, so that we will be one consciousness, and you as a mind will no longer be separate from me, but will be my selfless and perfect instrument, as your hand exists but to serve your mind.

“But know that in the meantime it is well if you deem it is the Father within who does all these things, and not I, your own self. But when I bring you back into my and your true consciousness you will understand, and there will no longer be two selves, an outer and an inner—there will be only you and your instrument, the human mind and its forces, that you have brought into complete subservience to you.

“Yes, dear one, it is only when I have taught you what is love and how to love that any of this is possible; and only when you have learned to know me as I Am, as your real self, and turn to me in love in an eager desire to do my will, can you enter my consciousness and receive from me the blessings stated and your life ‘become one of joy, happiness and service.’”

In reading and considering the above quoted part, remember it is addressed by you in your inner and true consciousness to your mind—to that part of you that is so concerned about it all and is striving to become worthy for the Lord’s Service. That part is not you and is only your mind. You are that inner intelligence, a soul, who learned in many former lives all that you have written in your letter; but if we may go so far, you have not yet brought your mind perfectly to interpret your full meaning, nor to understand whence and how this meaning came to it.

We earnestly trust that what we have said in this letter will help make many things clearer.

THE LITTLE poem “You and I,” in the February INNER LIFE, explains in substance what He told me regarding not only individuals but different teachings—to have Tolerance and Love.

I had been questioning a difference of opinion with another student for then, on New Year’s morning, I heard a voice say, “My plan for you is different than the plan of others. Let each follow his own plan.”

Looking up, I beheld a Being of gigantic stature, of great majesty and power, with eyes of liquid fire. To my question, “Who are you?” He answered, “I am the Grand Architect (archtype) of your universe. You have no power, no ability, no life, except that which I give you, that which I express through you. Without Me, you are nothing; your sole reason for being is to manifest My Plan and Purpose on earth even as I am manifesting it in Heaven.”

When He said and emphasized “you,” I saw what seemed to be my mortal self, bowed down in deep humiliation, the top of my head barely reaching this great Being’s instep. Never have I seen so mighty a one.

Today for an instant He gave me more of His Love and Power than before, and my body could scarcely contain it—my teeth actually chattered, so high was the vibration.