“And Rabbi Barachia said, Your words are seasoned with the salt of wisdom that is from above. Who is the teacher who has opened up this truth to you?
“And Jesus said, I do not know that any teacher opened up this truth for me. It seems to me that truth was never shut; that it was always opened up, for truth is one and it is everywhere. And if we open up the windows of our minds the truth will enter in and make herself at home; for truth can find her way through any crevice, any window, any open door.
“The rabbi said, What hand is strong enough to open up the windows and the doors of mind so truth can enter in?
“And Jesus said, It seems to me that love, the golden cord that binds the Ten Commands in one, is strong enough to open any human door so that the truth can enter in and cause the heart to understand” (Aquarian Gospel 17:8-12).
In the essay The True Teacher we looked at what a true spiritual teacher is, and, consequently, is not. Now Jesus is telling us what even a true spiritual teacher does not–and can not–do: open up the truth for another. This is because truth–reality–is within, whereas illusion is without. Opening to truth, then, is an interior matter, something that cannot be accomplished by an exterior agent, however mighty or holy.
If God were not the inmost core of our being, even He could not open our consciousness to the Truth that is His nature. For although Rabbi Barachia is thinking that truth is doctrinal, Jesus knows that Truth is God. That is why He tells the Rabbi: “It seems to me that truth was never shut; that it was always opened up, for truth is one and it is everywhere.” This establishes that God alone is Truth, for only God is One and Everywhere. The mind can learn theology or philosophy, but only the spirit can know God through its innate oneness with God.
This is true, but why, then, do not human beings perceive and dwell in the Truth? Because they do not do the needful. For “ if we open up the windows of our minds the truth will enter in and make herself at home,” for our hearts are the natural abode of Truth, of God.
So Jesus tells us that it is not Truth that needs to be opened, but the windows–the perceptions–of our minds. Our inner eyes and ears need to be opened. This is possible only when through meditation we turn our consciousness inward to its source and there discover the Spirit in which our spirit eternally dwells. “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped” (Isaiah 35:5).
Will this be hard to do? No, for God, the Truth is everywhere, and that illumining aspect of Truth we call the Holy Spirit (the Holy Breath) “can find Her way through any crevice, any window, any open door.” Any opening, however small, can be the entryway for the Truth. So we should work diligently at opening ourselves, for the Lord ever seeks a way to enter. This is why He is symbolized as a thief. “Behold, I come as a thief” (Revelation 16:15). In Hinduism God is sometimes called “Hari” which means “thief” in the sense that He steals the hearts of His devotees, that He steal in unawares and takes them captive to His love. This is why both Saint Paul and Saint Peter say that “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (I Thessalonians 5:2; II Peter 3:10).
Yet, blindness and ignorance have prevailed in us through countless incarnations. No wonder, then, that “the rabbi said, What hand is strong enough to open up the windows and the doors of mind so truth can enter in?” When viewed with outer eyes the situation seems without hope. But “Jesus said, It seems to me that love, the golden cord that binds the Ten Commands in one, is strong enough to open any human door so that the truth can enter in and cause the heart to understand.” Truth reveals itself.
Love of God is the key that opens the long-closed doors and windows of the spirit. Those who strive to love God shall surely find Him; for the striving is itself the sign that “the Day of the Lord” draws near.
The walls that blind
Evolution equals expansion. Human beings have their subconscious deeply rooted in their experience in animal form, and one of the common traits of most animal forms is life in a herd. Even insects often live in groups. The “us and them” mentality is extraordinarily hard to break out of. Those of sophisticated philosophy even manifest it in their genteel contempt for those who hold “ignorant” or “backward” philosophies. When they did not believe in reincarnation, for example, they considered those who did believe in reincarnation as “nuts.” After coming to believe in reincarnation, they now consider the “only one life” people as ignorant and imperceptive–certainly not up to their own level. Meditators think non-meditators are obtuse. We busy ourselves drawing and redrawing lines around us and building and shifting walls to make us the “in” people and others the “out” people. Jesus spoke of this to His mother regarding Rabbi Barachia, one of His teachers.
“Now, in the evening Jesus and his mother sat alone, and Jesus said, The rabbi seems to think that God is partial in his treatment of the sons of men; that Jews are favored and are blest above all other men. I do not see how God can have his favorites and be just. Are not Samaritans and Greeks and Romans just as much the children of the Holy One as are the Jews?
“I think the Jews have built a wall about themselves, and they see nothing on the other side of it. They do not know that flowers are blooming over there; that sowing times and reaping times belong to anybody but the Jews. It surely would be well if we could break down these barriers down so that the Jews might see that God has other children that are just as greatly blest.
“I want to go from Jewry land and meet my kin in other countries of my Fatherland” (Aquarian Gospel 17:13-20).
Jesus rightly points out that those who build walls around themselves then become blind to what is on the other side; and so their lives are hemmed in and made small along with their minds. We must assiduously avoid this, including the attitude: “I am more understanding, more accepting, and more broad-minded than you!” If we would grow in spirit we must “see that God has other children that are just as greatly blest” as are we. And like Jesus we should delight in meeting them.
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: In the Temple at the Age of Ten