Wisdom from the Aquarian Gospel
“And Jesus said, There is a Silence where the soul may meet its God, and there the fount of wisdom is, and all who enter are immersed in light, and filled with wisdom, love and power” (Aquarian Gospel 40:3).
The Silence
There is a Silence. Everything is consciousness: when consciousness moves we call it energy and matter, but when it is still we call it spirit. Only in the Silence will Spirit be perceived–everything else is noise and ultimately unreal.
There are three references in the Bible to mystical experience involving the Silence Jesus speaks about:
“The Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him” (Habakkuk 2:20). “The earth” is all material consciousness and the instruments of its perception and function. Only “heaven” should open in our consciousness and be entered, for Heaven and Silence/Spirit are the same thing in the highest level of mystical thought.
“Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord: for he is raised up out of his holy habitation” (Zechariah 2:13). “The flesh” is material consciousness which is silenced when Spirit is exalted within us–for we are temples of God (I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19).
“When he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven” (Revelation 8:1). When the consciousness ascends to the seventh level of consciousness–which in the human complex is located in the Thousand-petalled Lotus or Sahasrara Chakra, corresponding to the brain–the divine Silence prevails.
Where the soul may meet its God. There alone God is “met” for God is the Silence into which the yogi enters.
There the fount of wisdom is. Only in Silence is the Word of Eternal Wisdom known from which flows all knowing.
All who enter are immersed in light. For “God is light” (I John 1:5), “the light of the living” (Psalms 56:13), and “the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light” (Isaiah 60:19), “for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6), who has taught us about that Light, being himself the living embodiment of that Light.
And filled with wisdom, love and power–all of which are manifestations of the Divine Presence in us, that Presence, the Silence, and the Light being the One: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
A wise query
“The magus said, Tell me about this Silence and this light, that I may go and there abide” (Aquarian Gospel 40:4).
The magian is not without good spiritual sense. Unlike so many “seekers” who simply want to get a little buzz to brag about later, or to loot God and come away to their own and others’ admiration, he understands what divine experience is intended to produce. He wisely seeks to abide in God permanently. For him the quest of God is not a trip to the beach for a little bit of paddling in the water only to go back to the dry land mistakenly called “home.” He wants to merge in the ocean and remain in its depths forever. Because of this, Jesus freely speaks to him of spiritual realities.
Everywhere
“And Jesus said, The Silence is not circumscribed; is not a place closed in with wall, or rocky steeps, nor guarded by the sword of man. Men carry with them all the time the secret place where they might meet their God. It matters not where men abide, on mountain top, in deepest vale, in marts of trade, or in the quiet home; they may at once, at any time, fling wide the door, and find the Silence, find the house of God; it is within the soul” (Aquarian Gospel 40:5-7).
We need not go to some place, thinking that only there we will find perfect conditions for interior life and meditation. Rather, we carry right within us the ideal place for spiritual opening: our own spirit, our true Self. “For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).
In the Gospel of Matthew (6:6) Jesus speaks of our inner consciousness as a “closet.” “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret.” The Greek word tameion means an inner room of a house where valuables were kept and people went to be totally alone. He tells us to shut the “door” of the mind and the senses and be “alone” with God, perceiving Him alone in the depths of meditation. Later in the Aquarian Gospel we will find these words: “But when you pray, go to the closet of your soul; close all the doors, and in the holy silence, pray.” (Aquarian Gospel 94:5)
Yet…solitude
“One may not be so much disturbed by noise of business, and the words and thoughts of men if he goes all alone into the valley or the mountain pass. And when life’s heavy load is pressing hard, it is far better to go out and seek a quiet place to pray and meditate” (Aquarian Gospel 40:8, 9).
Even though “the secret place” is always with(in) us, yet it helps to have a good environment. A special meditation room or place is extremely helpful. But it is also good to occasionally go to a place that is outwardly solitary, as well. Here is what Sri Ramakrishna had to say about it:
“The mind does not turn to God if one is immersed day and night in the world and practical affairs. It is very necessary now and then to retire into solitude and think of him. In the beginning it is very difficult to keep the mind on God without retiring into solitude.
“When a plant is young it is necessary to put a fence round it. Without a fence it is eaten up by goats and cows. To meditate you should withdraw yourself within or retire to a secluded spot or into the forest and always discriminate between the real and the unreal. God alone is truth; namely, the reality, and all the rest is unreal and transitory. Discriminating in this manner renounce the transient things from the mind.
“…to acquire the love of God it is necessary to retire into solitude. To churn butter milk has to be set in a quiet place to curdle. Milk won’t turn into curd if it is shaken off and on. Next, sitting in a quiet place and leaving aside all work the curd has to be churned. Then alone you get butter.
“And notice also that this very mind acquires knowledge, dispassion and devotion by dwelling on God in solitude.…
“The world is water and the mind is like milk. If you pour milk into water they get mixed and you cannot find pure milk anymore. If you churn butter after turning milk into curd and put it in water it will float. So first churn the butter of knowledge and devotion by following spiritual practices in solitude. That butter will never mix. Even if you put it in the water of the world it will float.”
Mahendranath Gupta (“M”), the recorder of these words, followed this counsel all his life. He had several rented rooms around Calcutta where he would withdraw frequently and practice meditation in solitude. Think of that–right in crowded and noisy Calcutta! But each must do as he can, and his circumstances did not allow him to go far away for his solitude. To see the results he gained from following Sri Ramakrishna’s advice, read the ninth chapter of Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi: “The Blissful Devotee and His Cosmic Romance.”
Throughout the Gospels we find that Jesus regularly would go into solitude–just as did Buddha.
Read Jesus Speaks of Meditation, Part 2
Further Reading:
The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, the text
The Aquarian Gospel for Awakening, a Commentary on the Aquarian Gospel
Learn more about meditation: Om Yoga at a Glance