The news soon spread that Jesus and the twelve were come, and many people came to see. And Jesus said, Behold, you come to see, but that means naught. If you would have the benedictions of the Christ, take up your cross and follow me. If you would give your life for selfish self, then you will lose your life. If you will give your life in service of your fellow men, then you will save your life. This life is but a span, a bauble of today. There is a life that passes not. Where is your profit if you gain the world and lose your soul? What would you take in payment for your soul? If you would find the spirit life, the life of man in God, then you must walk a narrow way and enter through a narrow gate. The way is Christ, the gate is Christ, and you must come up by the way of Christ. No man comes unto God but by the Christ. The kingdom of the Christ will come; yea, some of you who hear me now will not pass through the gates of death until you see the kingdom come in power. (Aquarian Gospel 129:1-9)
Behold, you come to see, but that means naught. If you would have the benedictions of the Christ, take up your cross and follow me. We are not just always with God, we are always one with him. Yet that has no meaning if our life is not ordered in such a way that we can ascend in consciousness within him.
All the food in the world is worthless if we cannot access and eat it. So God’s omnipresence means little to those whose life is shut away from God’s action in the heart. It is not enough to just be: we must do as well. “If you would have the benedictions of the Christ, take up your cross and follow me.” Nothing less will do.
Christians love the cross because it is not just a sign of life, it is a means for life to come to us, especially when we make that holy sign and invoke the fullness of Godhead, the Holy Trinity. It is not a mere symbol, it is as real as taking a breath in order to live. Where the cross is, there is Christ. This is why negative people do not like the cross. Even as a child I knew how to find a Catholic church in any town: just look for the cross. Protestant churches with steeples had weathervanes (what a perfect symbol of spiritual instability) or balls that represented the world, the focus of their materialistic religion. You could never find a cross in a home unless the owners were either Catholic or Orthodox.
When I was eight or nine I went into a used furniture store. The elderly man who ran it had just bought an antique sewing machine. He was going through the drawers and clearing them out. In one drawer he found a crucifix about four inches long. Immediately he handed it to me, and I kept it as a treasure. But then the people I lived with learned that I was keeping it beneath my pillow and holding it at night. So they took it away from me. No Catholic idolatry in their home!
There are many ways to confess Christ, and the cross is prime. Of course merely having a cross and even wearing one means little if the Christ life is not being pursued. Our personal life is the cross we must take up and follow in the way of Christ. Then we will be blessed and changed. Sacred imagery is a major factor in conscious spiritual life. The good thief said to Jesus: “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). And Jesus says to us: “Remember me if you wish to come into my kingdom.” Holy objects are of great value in keeping our minds on God.
If you would give your life for selfish self, then you will lose your life. If you will give your life in service of your fellow men, then you will save your life. Here we find the bodhisattva ideal which Jesus certainly learned in India through his Buddhist contacts.
This life is but a span, a bauble of today. There is a life that passes not. Where is your profit if you gain the world and lose your soul? What would you take in payment for your soul? People take just about anything in exchange for their soul. They have no idea of the “life that passes not” away. So constant rebirth in ignorance is their age-long fate.
If you would find the spirit life, the life of man in God, then you must walk a narrow way and enter through a narrow gate. The only true spiritual life is one lived in God. But to do so requires intense focus which the world will look upon as being narrow. But it is necessary just to enter the gate to eternal life. Then the work really begins and certainly requires total dedication and constant attention. It is a small price to pay for Eternity.
The way is Christ, the gate is Christ, and you must come up by the way of Christ. No man comes unto God but by the Christ. Certainly the way of Christ involves material disciplines and action, but we have not really begun until we are awakening in Christ and experience higher consciousness. No church or teaching is the way, nor is any practice unless it opens us directly to the Light of Christ. It is the result that counts, not devotion or emotional dedication. First we come to the light of the Only-Begotten of the Father, the Christ, the Son of God; then we can begin ascending to the Father.
The kingdom of the Christ will come; yea, some of you who hear me now will not pass through the gates of death until you see the kingdom come in power. This was especially fulfilled on Pentecost and in the empowered Christian community in Jerusalem. “By the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits: and they were healed every one” (Acts 5: 12-16).
For seven days the master and the twelve remained in Caesarea-Philippi. Then Jesus, taking Peter, James and John, went forth unto a mountain top to pray. And as he prayed a brilliant light appeared; his form became as radiant as a precious stone; his face shone like the sun; his garments seemed as white as snow; the son of man became the son of God. He was transfigured that the men of earth might see the possibilities of man.
When first the glory came the three disciples were asleep; a master touched their eyes and said, Awake and see the glory of the Lord. And they awoke, and saw the glory of the Lord; and more, they saw the glory of the heavenly world, for they beheld two men from thence stand forth beside the Lord. And Peter asked the master who awakened them, Who are these men who stand beside the Lord? The master said, These men are Moses and Elijah, who are come that you may know that heaven and earth are one; that masters there and masters here are one. The veil that separates the worlds is but an ether veil. For those who purify their hearts by faith the veil is rolled aside, and they can see and know that death is an illusive thing. And Peter said, Praise God! And then he called to Jesus and he said, My master and my Lord, this is the gate of heaven, and it is well that we remain. May we go down and bring three tents; a tent for you, a tent for Moses, and for Elijah one? But Jesus answered not.
And Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus on the mount. They talked about the coming trial of the Lord; about his death, his rest within the tomb; about the wonders of the resurrection morn; the transmutation of his flesh, and his ascension on the clouds of light; and all symbolic of the path that every man must tread; symbolic of the way the sons of men become the sons of God.
The three disciples were amazed, and suddenly the ethers were surcharged with song, and forms as light as air moved all about the mountain top. And then from out the glory of the upper world they heard a voice that said, This is the son of man, my chosen one to manifest the Christ to men. Let all the earth hear him. When the disciples heard the voice they were afraid; they fell upon the ground and prayed. And Jesus came; he touched them and he said, Arise, fear not; lo, I am here. Then they arose, and as they looked about they saw no one; the men had gone. The master only stood with them. (Aquarian Gospel 129:10-30)
And as he prayed a brilliant light appeared; his form became as radiant as a precious stone; his face shone like the sun; his garments seemed as white as snow; the son of man became the son of God. He was transfigured that the men of earth might see the possibilities of man. Jesus did not become the son of God at this moment; rather, he had appeared as a son of man and then revealed himself as a son of God, which he had been before taking that incarnation. His purpose was to show his disciples what every human being is destined to be. Over and over again Jesus insists that he is not unique, is not a “one and only,” but is exactly what we are potentially and shall become eventually.
The master said, These men are Moses and Elijah, who are come that you may know that heaven and earth are one; that masters there and masters here are one. In my early yoga days I was occasionally pestered by members of a very narrow sect from India who thought their guru was the only true guru on earth. They kept canting on and on about the need for “a living master.” Finally one day I asked him: “Is there a dead master?” That stymied him because even he realized that a master was immortal, beyond the reach of death. A master is one by reason of his state of consciousness; being in or out of a physical body is irrelevant. Here the idea is taken further: A master is everywhere in all worlds at all times. Heaven and earth are not two different places, distant from one another. They are one; and their perception is a matter of the degree of evolution each one of us possesses. All the masters that have ever lived are in all the worlds simultaneously. We can approach them and even become their disciples.
The veil that separates the worlds is but an ether veil. For those who purify their hearts by faith the veil is rolled aside, and they can see and know that death is an illusive thing. Here and now we can walk in the limitless heavens. It is all according to our state of conscious development. As Emily Dickinson put it: “Instead of getting to Heaven, at last–I’m going, all along.”
And Moses and Elijah talked with Jesus on the mount. They talked about the coming trial of the Lord; about his death, his rest within the tomb; about the wonders of the resurrection morn; the transmutation of his flesh, and his ascension on the clouds of light; and all symbolic of the path that every man must tread; symbolic of the way the sons of men become the sons of God. Masters do not come to earth alone. They are assisted by other masters as well as by saints and angels. Throughout their time here on earth they are in communion with the godlike just as much as they are in communion with God. This is also true of the saints to a great extent. I have been with holy people in both East and West who obviously were not alone. I met one saint in a Carmelite convent. Before she opened the curtain behind the grille, I could feel the presence of many sacred beings surrounding her.
Peter, James and John heard the conversation of Jesus with Moses and Elijah. From this they learned all that was planned in the salvific life-drama of Jesus. So to them, nothing that took place later was surprising. They understood that it had to be, despite the fact that Peter tried to prevent those events when they happened.
All the things they spoke about literally took place, yet at the same time they were profound symbols revealed in the mystery-drama that was the life of Jesus. Whatever happened to Jesus must take place in the life of every single human being. Jesus came to reveal the path of spiritual transmutation which each one of us must tread. Just as Jesus knew all that would await him in his earthly career, so can we by studying his life. The externals of some of the incidents may be different according to our purpose and karma, but their essence will be the same as those of Jesus. So there need be no surprises for us, either.
As Jesus and the three came from the mountain top they talked about the meaning of the scene, and Jesus told them all; and then he said, Till I have risen from the dead tell not to any one what you have seen. But the disciples could not comprehend the meaning of the words, Till I have risen from the dead. And Jesus told them once again about his death, and rising from the grave; about the kingdom of the soul that was to come in glory and in power. But Peter said, The scribes have taught that e’er the king shall come Elijah must appear. And Jesus said, Elijah has already come; but scribes and Pharisees received him not; and men reviled him, bound him, cast him in a prison cell, and shouted with a fiend’s delight to see him die. What men have done to him, that they will do to me. Then the disciples understood that Jesus spoke of John whom Herod slew. (Aquarian Gospel 129:31-39)
It is interesting that although the three disciples had heard the conversation of Jesus with Moses and Elijah, they somehow did not get the idea. Jesus had to explain it all over to him. This often happens when we encounter ideas that possess a vibration higher than that of our present mental energies. We either have no idea what has been said or it slips away from our mind and we forget it or only retain a partial memory. That is why Jesus told his disciples: “The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26).
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis