Teaching openly
“In Sychar Jesus taught the people in the market place” (Aquarian Gospel 83:1).
Egotists, especially sociopathic egotists, yearn to be possessors of secret knowledge which they can dispense to those whom they wish to control by promising them further, advanced knowledge and practices or by threatening to cut them off and bar them from further knowledge. These are the kind of teachers that offer “teacher training” to all and sundry with no background whatsoever being required. This attracts those like them who plan to get to the top without taking a step so they can begin to control others as well.
At the close of his life Buddha insisted on two important things: 1) he had no secret teachings; and 2) he never spoke in symbols, but in words that could be taken literally and at face value.
Jesus lived in the major Buddhist center of Kapilavastu and also in various Buddhist monasteries, including the Hemis monastery in the Ley district of Ladakh. (See The Christ of India, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, and The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ.) So it is not surprising that we find him sitting in the market place to teach, not in some secret place with only a chosen handful. At his trial, he said to the high priest of the Jerusalem temple: “I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing” (John 18:20). It is true that he told his disciples earlier: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). He taught them for forty days after his resurrections, and had previously told them: “What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops” (Matthew 10:27). And so they did.
Possession
“A man obsessed was brought to him. The wicked spirit that possessed the man was full of violence and lust, and often threw his victim to the ground” (Aquarian Gospel 83:2).
There is no need to argue with those who think that those Jesus exorcised were just mentally ill. The Gospels make a clear distinction between those that were insane and those that were possessed by spirits. “They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick [insane], and those that had the palsy; and he healed them” (Matthew 4:24).
Although Dowling uses the words “obsessed” and “possessed” synonymously, the are really quite different. There are three forms of victimization by spirits. The most common is obsession: mental and behavioral influence by degraded earthbound spirits that either cannot or will not pass on to the astral regions after the death of their body (which they often deny, insisting that they are alive and normal). This is a terrible oppression, but much worse is possession: when a spirit enters and completely takes over a person’s body, either ejecting them from the body or pushing them down into utter helplessness as the spirit lives through the body as though it were its own. On occasion the spirit snaps all connection with the body’s rightful owner, actually killing him. This is very rare, but does happen. I have spoken with quite a few people who had performed exorcisms and have seen some cases of both obsession and possession myself. I know the Gospels are true because of experience, not mere belief.
Obsession is very common and is increasing constantly. A friend of mine visited a yogi in Kashmir who has great power over evil spirits, so much so that evil occultists are continually trying to destroy him. So intense is the psychic bombardment of the yogi’s ashram, he will not allow any visitor to stay there at night. He told my friend: “Please do not think I am speaking against your country [the United States], but most of the people there are obsessed to some degree.” One of the reasons is the widespread use of drugs, including marijuana, for they weaken the user’s aura and attune them to negative psychic influences. Many other negative factors of modern society constantly erode the spiritual and psychic immune systems of the people. What he said no doubt applies to the whole earth, actually. He did not say that the United States was oppressed more than any other county.
There are many reasons that spirits obsess or possess people. Mostly it is an attempt to regain a physical body to keep on fulfilling their desires. Sometimes it is a deliberate attempt to spiritually and morally subvert their victims and others they can influence through embodiment. The spirit spoken of here in the Aquarian Gospel was a violent and lustful personality. Not being fully integrated with the brain and central nervous system of its victim, its attempts at control resulted in seizures during which he fell to the ground.
Depart!
“And Jesus spoke aloud and said, Base spirit, loose your hold upon the vitals of this man, and go back to your own. And then the spirit begged that he might go into the body of a dog that stood near by” (Aquarian Gospel 83:3, 4).
The spirit belongs in an astral world that reflects its nature and karma. Since such a psychically criminal being would most likely pass into an astral hell, it naturally does not want to go to its “own” place. So it tries to evade that by asking to possess an animal. Such a request is in complete keeping with the spirit’s selfish, greedy and egocentric nature. The world is filled with people who have utter disregard for the lives and hearts of others. They know only one law: Look Out For Number One, and often boast of it. If they compound this from life to life they may eventually come to also be an obsessing or possessing spirit.
Mercy and respect
Jesus told those around him: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). He wishes to save both the possessed man and the possessing spirit, for they are part of the cosmic Life, images of God that have become covered over with the mire of ignorance and evil. But their essential nature as spirit has not been changed, only hidden and hindered. As a first step in saving it, Jesus explains the truth of things to the spirit.
“But Jesus said, Why harm the helpless dog? Its life is just as dear to it as mine to me” (Aquarian Gospel 83:5).
The first lesson is for the spirit to take its mind off itself and think of the dog. No life form can be despised or disregarded, because its life is a fragment of the One Life: God. When Jesus said: “Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40), he was speaking from a heart that was one with all sentient beings. If we would be his disciples, we must realize that what we do to any of his “brethren” we are ultimately doing to him since he is one with God Who is all things.
Reponsibility
“It is not yours to throw the burden of your sin on any living thing. By your own deeds and evil thoughts you have brought all these perils on yourself. You have hard problems to be solved; but you must solve them for yourself.” (Aquarian Gospel 83:6, 7).
The first step in viable spiritual life is to recognize that we, and we alone, are responsible for our life. We can blame no other person. I think we all know people that try to make others miserable when they are disgruntled. This is a sure path to making more misery for themselves. Those they do make miserable are simply reaping what they sowed in the past when they did the same to others. Nothing that happens to us is really done to us by anyone but ourselves. Those involved in the karmic reaction are merely instruments of our own past deeds returning to us. Until we realize that we are in the swamp because we jumped in on our own, there is no hope of our getting out. We may indeed have hard problems to be solved, but they are to be solved, not evaded or pushed off onto someone else. The consequences of our actions are inescapable and we must face them squarely. Those who do so will find that the divine assistance will come to their aid and they will overcome all obstacles, finding it much easier than they thought it would be. The whole purpose of life is the learning of wisdom, and coping with troubles is part of the learning process.
The way to freedom
“By thus obsessing man, you make your own conditions doubly sad. Go back into your own domain; refrain from harming anything, and by and by, you will yourself be free. The wicked spirit left the man and went unto his own. The man looked up in thankfulness and said, Praise God” (Aquarian Gospel 83:8, 9).
Saint Therese of Liseaux said that God’s justice means that He understands. Few Christians ascribe to this principle, but Jesus certainly does, for he does not curse the possessing entity, call him evil, and banish him to outer darkness. Rather, he explains his situation and then counsels him to leave the man he is obsessing without having to be expelled forcefully. This exercise of right action will be the first step in the spirit’s healing. Next, he should pass on into the astral realm where he should have gone at his physical death. Even a hell is not for punishment, but is intended to help the soul reap its karma and learn the way to evolve out of its present condition. And the major part of that will be restraining its impulse to do harm in any form. Holding to this resolve, slowly it will become purified and freed to pass on to higher worlds or return to earth for a positive birth. All is meant to help and heal the suffering, ignorant soul. In a later chapter we will find Jesus telling the disciples: “I come to seek and save the lost” (Aquarian Gospel 131:25), and this is an example of his merciful work in the world, a work that continues even today.
Fortunately for its own welfare, the spirit left the man and passed on from the earth plane. The fact that the possessed man gave thanks to God shows that he had been aware of the possession.
The opened way
“And many of the people brought their sick, and Jesus spoke the Word, and they were healed” (Aquarian Gospel 83:10).
Seeing the example of the possessed man, people began bringing the sick for healing, which Jesus did through the power of the Word.
A summons
“The ruler of the synagogue and all the priests were much disturbed when told that Jesus from Jerusalem was preaching in the town. They thought that he had come to proselyte and stir up strife among Samaritans. And so they sent an officer to bring him to the synagogue that he might give a reason for his presence in the town” (Aquarian Gospel 83:11-13).
Those who turn religion into a business naturally want to protect their interests, cloaking it under the guise of righteousness and preservation of true religion. Feeling that Jesus was competition, the Samaritan religionists were disturbed, not because he was teaching any error, but because they were afraid he was competition and would take the customers from them. In their arrogance they sent an official to command Jesus to appear before them to justify his presence in the town.
This reminds me exactly of a time when I was doing secretarial work for an abbot who showed me a high-handed demand from a bishop that he appear at the headquarters of the local diocese of a church he did not even belong to. “The purpose of this meeting will be revealed to you then,” the letter concluded. When he asked me what he should do, I told him: “First, this letter is nothing more than a ‘Come on out in the alley, I want to show you something.’ Its purpose is to get you to show up at a ‘spiritual court’ which will illegally suspend and and start calling you “the defrocked Abbot N.” “But I have never belonged to their diocese!” he protested. “Exactly. But if you go to their headquarters they will say it is an acknowledgment of their jurisdiction over you.” He was amazed, but ignored the letter and that was that.
Jesus’ intentions
“But Jesus said to him who came, Go back and tell the priests and ruler of the synagogue that I am not engaged in crime. I come to bind up broken hearts, to heal the sick, and cast the evil spirits out of those obsessed. Tell them their prophets spoke of me; that I come to break no law, but to fulfill the highest law.
“The man returned and told the priests and ruler of the synagogue what Jesus said. The ruler was amazed, and with the priests went to the market place where Jesus was” (Aquarian Gospel 83:14-18).
The words of a righteous man usually do confound the unrighteous, as all of America saw when Judge Clarence Thomas told the political thugs of the Senate just why and what they were doing in their defamatory “confirmation” hearing regarding his nomination to the Supreme Court. One righteous man really can “put ten thousand to flight” (Leviticus 26:8; Deuteronomy 32:30) as both sacred and profane history has demonstrated many times.
Message of spiritual unity
“And when he saw them, Jesus said, Behold the honored men of all Samaria! the men ordained to lead the people in the way of right. And I am come to help, and not to hinder in their work” (Aquarian Gospel 83:19, 20). I doubt if the leaders of the Samaritans believed this at first, but Jesus continued.
“There are two classes of the sons of men; they who would build the human race upon the sure foundation stones of justice, truth, equality and right, and they who would destroy the holy temple, where the Spirit dwells, and bring their fellows down to beggary and crime” (Aquarian Gospel 83:21, 22). Observant people could hardly dispute this, especially in the political arena. It is good for us to keep Jesus’ words in mind. Humanity really is divided into the builders and the destroyers on all levels of life. We should always scrutinize and see for ourselves which class those we encounter belong to, both as individuals and as groups.
“The holy brotherhood of right must stand united in the stirring conflicts of the hour. No matter whether they be Jews, Samaritans, Assyrians, or Greeks, they must tramp down beneath their feet all strife, all discord, jealousy and hate, and demonstrate the brotherhood of man. Then to the ruler of the synagogue he spoke: he said, United in the cause of right we stand; divided we will fall.”
“And then he took the ruler by the hand; a love light filled their souls; and all the people were amazed” (Aquarian Gospel 83:23-26).
Many, many years ago a very wise woman quoted these words to me, and I memorized them on the spot:
He drew a circle that shut me out:
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: More Wisdom in Samaria