Manifestation

"You are living in two realities now, the reality of manifestation and the reality of the Mystery."

"God is pointing you to the Mystery, not to the manifestation."

Overlapping Realities

"The world is one reality. Your Ancient Home is another reality. You cannot unite them. However, you can bring something into the world from your Ancient Home."

"Whenever you or any of your ancestors ever thought that God was in the world doing something, it was the Unseen Ones] —the angels of God, if you like that idea. But the idea of angels conjures up very quaint images and does not really capture the full meaning and role of the Unseen Ones. They are with you, but like the Wise everywhere, they remain hidden. They do not want to become the light of your life. If this were the case, you would seek no further. They do not want to overshadow you with their Wisdom. If they did, you would not develop your own. They do not want to become the focus of your attention. If they did, you would lose attention on those things where your attention is required. They are God’s emissaries. They translate the Will of the Divine into finite existence. At every level of existence, there are translators."

"The Unseen Ones can function within a transition zone between spiritual reality and physical reality. They can influence the Mental Environment, and they will have an influence on your thinking—a very important influence to help you to strengthen your resolution and to counsel and correct you when you are in error. They will do this without becoming the object of your attention, for they understand that they must remain hidden if you are to find your own way. For if you should recognize them directly, you would simply seek to be with them at all times, as a child would seek to be with their guardian at all times."

"There is a different kind of revelation that occurs as the result of many years of dedicated studenthood in The Way of Knowledge. It is a different kind of revelation. It is not sudden and dramatic. It does not burst in upon your life. It does not intrude itself upon you. It is something you will gradually be able to feel, as the veil between physical life and life beyond the physical becomes thinner and thinner and as you experience more and more communication and are able to receive the translation of insight and information coming into your mind."

Confusion of levels

"Treat the manifestation practically, wisely, using the wisdom and the skills you have developed and be open to developing more skill and wisdom here, for you will greatly need it. But do not confuse the Mystery with the manifestation. The manifestation you must understand and can understand to a very great degree, but the Mystery is the Mystery. It exceeds your capacity. It is bigger than you are. It is bigger than the world."

"Do not confuse Mystery and manifestation. This means that when you are dealing with physical things, deal with them physically. Understand the process of how they work. This becomes very obvious when you think about it, but it is incredible how people do not do this very much and how ineffectual they are as a result. If your car breaks down, do not deal with it spiritually. Do not make it a religious experience! You may have a religious experience that is related to the car breaking down, but it does not fix the car. If you break your arm, do not deal with it as a religious experience. It is a mechanical problem. Perhaps your reasons for breaking your arm go much further, but in terms of repair, do the repair. Do not think of mechanical things as mysterious things. This gives them a value and a meaning that they do not have because the Mystery is much greater and goes beyond the manifestation of things. Do you know what happens when people confuse manifestation with Mystery? They become entranced with marvelous things and they miss the obvious. Their imagination takes over."

"The problem with religions is that they are at war with each other’s manifestations and assumptions. That is not a problem for individuals who are grounded in religious experience. But people who are relating only to the manifestation will compete with one another and threaten one another because at this level of existence there is only identification with ideas. Here they will not want to challenge their own ideas because then the whole foundation of their identity will be threatened. That is a very mindless state and many people live there. If you think of religion only in terms of its manifestations—which are the behaviors exhibited by those who profess to believe in it, its tenets and its impact on people’s lives— then you are only dealing with religion as a political force.

See also

Creation

The Mystery

Create your own reality