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What Is Man?

Hoffman's portrait of ChristPart 27 of the Aquarian Gospel for Awakening

“Lamaas said, You answer well; now, what is man? And Jesus said, Man is the truth and falsehood strangely mixed. Man is the Breath made flesh; so truth and falsehood are conjoined in him; and they strive, and naught goes down and man as truth abides” (Aquarian Gospel 22:11-13).

Before Lamaas asked the question, Jesus Himself in His incarnation as David asked “What is man?” in two of the Psalms (Psalms 8:4; 144:3). The full answer would fill many pages, but Jesus states the facts most relevant to those seeking Christhood.

Man is the truth and falsehood strangely mixed

A human being is an immortal, unconditioned spirit encased in bodies formed of conditioned–and conditioning–matter. In the earlier part of Lamaas’ questioning of Jesus regarding the nature of Truth (Aquarian Gospel 22:2-10) he learned that truth and falsehood are found together in this world. Yet not only the world: each of us is also a mixture of truth and falsehood, of spirit and matter. And it certainly is strange.

When we realize that we are a combination of truth and untruth (relatively speaking), we can be vigilant and discriminate between the times we are manifesting the truth or the untruth of ourselves and foster or censor our thoughts, words, and deeds accordingly. If we pursue this diligently, then in time the “death” of falsehood shall be “swallowed up in” the “victory” of truth. (“When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory” (I Corinthians 15:54). Until then, knowing about this mixture will help us to understand and deal with ourselves and with others–as well as the world itself. For one thing, we should expect that contradiction and inconsistency will arise in ourselves, in others, and in the world. Our reaction should be one of attempting correction, not passively accepting or bemoaning. We are not slaves; we are masters-in-training, and this mixture is meant for our eventual betterment.

Man is the Breath made flesh

We are the outbreathed breaths of God, united to body-vehicles through which we are to accomplish our evolution to Christ Consciousness. In Lamaas’ prior questioning Jesus explained that what begins must end. Since our embodiment has begun it will end; but our nature as rays of God will not. So we need to do two things: recognize that our eternity is the real aspect of us, and work to eliminate the consciousness of the false so the real shall be revealed in us.

There is more to this. Jesus did not come to earth to convince us that we are miserable sinners who deserve everlasting damnation. Just the opposite: He came to prove that we are manifestations of divinity who have lost our way. But when we turn back into the right way through heeding His teaching we can move on toward the manifestation of our innate Christhood. The unworthy teachers of Judaism at that time hated this truth as much as the Churchians of today. And so the following occurred:

Jesus said: “I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?” (John 10:30-36).

This is the teaching of Jesus. We are gods, sons of God, and intended to demonstrate that just as did Jesus. Yes, in a sense we are all incarnations of God, and should live accordingly. That is why sin is so outrageous–it is not our nature. If we were sinners by nature then what else could we do but sin? What complaint would God have? How could He expect anything else from us? The Abusive Cosmic Father that Churchianity presents to us says that we are “but dust” and utterly corrupt and sinful from before our birth, and then proceeds to fume and rave at us, deprecating and condemning us to everlasting hell if we do not turn away from what it is our nature to do–a nature he created. He tells us that we are “offensive” to him, a “stench” in his nostrils, and we had better straighten up or else. But crookedness, he, insists, is our nature. Could we do otherwise than be crooked? I knew an abusive father that used to tell his children he was going to beat them until they wet their pants and then beat them for that. This is the God Churchians would have us believe in, and the hideous image they want us to have of ourselves. But Jesus taught otherwise.

So truth and falsehood are conjoined in him

We are a combination of truth and falsehood because the Holy Breath, who gives us “birth” into this world, Herself manifests in this mixed manner. But She does so for a purpose, which is that:

They strive, and naught goes down and man as truth abides

Perhaps the most perfect exposition of the nature and destiny of humanity is the Bhagavad Gita, the most influential scripture of India. The Gita is a conversation that takes place on a battlefield in northern India just before the Great Indian (Mahabharata) War takes place. The first chapter is a description of the forces drawn up for battle, and is intended as a symbolic picture of what goes on within the person who has evolved enough consciousness to be galled at the contradictions of positive and negative within himself, and who has developed enough will to intervene and begin working for the defeat of the negative and the ascendancy of the good. We all have to do it. That is why Jesus said He came to bring a sword–not a sword of earthly battle, but the sword of illumination that would cut away the bonds of ignorance and set us free in the liberation of Spirit.

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). “Earth” is the state of good and evil, truth and false, being inextricably bound up together. Most religion tries to pacify this state and make it acceptable and even desirable to people. But the wise refuse pacification and engage in the inner warfare that alone can bring peace through the elimination of evil and untruth. (The wise do not try to reform others–only themselves.) Illumined consciousness is the sword that vanquishes the enemy and establishes real peace within. In Indian symbolism the Holy Breath is depicted as Durga and Kali, both holding swords that represent prajna–pure consciousness. To make this clear, Kali’s sword always has an eye drawn upon it.

We are all destined to win the battle, so we need not shrink back from the striving in which the “naught” of illusion (and sin and evil are illusions) sinks away from our consciousness, subconscious, and superconscious, and we as embodiments of the Truth, of God, remain. Thus it really has always been, so that state is not attained, just revealed as all that obscure it is dispelled.

This is the glorious message Jesus came to bring us, the revelation of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: What is Power?

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The Aquarian Gospel—Commentary and Text

The Aquarian Gospel for Awakening—A Commentary on the Aquarian Gospel
by Swami Nirmalananda Giri (Abbot George Burke)

  1. The Mother of Jesus
  2. Prophecies of the Births of Saint John the Baptist and Jesus
  3. The Birth of Jesus
  4. Revelations in the Temple
  5. Coming of the Wise Men
  6. Herod’s Reaction
  7. Revelations in Egypt
  8. The Two Selfs
  9. Deliverance From Gods and Demons
  10. About God the Tao
  11. From India to Chaldea
  12. The Wisdom of Buddha
  13. God and Prayer
  14. The Mission of Jesus and John the Baptist
  15. Sin and the Forgiveness of Sin
  16. The Universal Law of Man’s Free Will and the Divine Will For Man
  17. Understanding Death
  18. The True Teacher
  19. The Value of Ritual
  20. The Law Behind All Laws
  21. Opening To The Truth
  22. In the Temple at the Age of Ten
  23. Revelation to the Teachers and People in the Temple
  24. Jerusalem to Nazareth
  25. Nazareth to India
  26. What is Truth?
  27. What Is Man?
  28. What is Power?
  29. Understanding
  30. Wisdom
  31. Faith
  32. Healing and Healers
  33. Conflict Over Caste
  34. The Destiny of All Men
  35. God and Man
  36. The Voice in the Heart
  37. Seeing the Unseeable
  38. To God Through Man
  39. Who Is Jesus?
  40. The Real Versus The Apparent
  41. The Brotherhood of Life
  42. God…and Man
  43. Relating To God
  44. The Worthy Host
  45. Come to the Light
  46. The Kingdom Revealed
  47. The King Revealed
  48. Perspective On Death
  49. Fire and Sword
  50. Evolution: The Path of Glory
  51. The Real Heaven
  52. Getting to the Essence
  53. New Perspective on Religion
  54. In Tibet and Ladakh
  55. Words to the Worthy
  56. The Thirty-Eighth Chapter
  57. The Origin of Evil
  58. The Silence
  59. The Source of Healing
  60. The Fivefold Gospel
  61. Homecoming
  62. In Athens
  63. The Oracle of Delphi
  64. The Real God
  65. Return to Egypt
  66. First Steps to Wisdom
  67. Strong in Will and Intent
  68. Here Comes the Ego
  69. Blessed are the Merciful
  70. Claiming Our Freedom
  71. The Great Test
  72. Comprehending Death
  73. The Christ!
  74. The Asembly of the Masters
  75. The Seven Pillars of the Aquarian Age – I
  76. The Seven Pillars of the Aquarian Age – II
  77. The Declaration of Jesus
  78. John the Baptist – I
  79. John the Baptist – II
  80. John the Baptist – III
  81. Baptism – Jesus and John
  82. Self-Examination and Temptation
  83. The First Disciples Follow Jesus
  84. Jesus’ First Sermon
  85. The King and the Kingdom
  86. Dealing With Challengers
  87. The First Miracle of Jesus
  88. Kings and Kingdoms
  89. The Temple of God
  90. What Is A Messiah?
  91. The Laws of Healing
  92. Nicodemus Finds The Kingdom
  93. The Prince of Peace
  94. Dealing With Spiritual Opposition
  95. The Opened Gate
  96. John the Baptist Speaks of the Christ
  97. John Speaks Further About Jesus
  98. The Woman at the Well
  99. The Disciples and Samaritans at the Well
  100. Jesus in Sychar
  101. More Wisdom In Samaria
  102. The Imprisonment of John the Baptist
  103. In Jerusalem
  104. The Insights of Jesus
  105. Sabbath Wisdom
  106. Prayer and Good Deeds
  107. Divine Laws and Principles for Seekers of the Divine
  108. A New Understanding of the Ten Commandments
  109. Aspects of the Higher Law – 1
  110. Aspects of the Higher Law – 2
  111. Aspects of the Higher Law – 3
  112. Aspects of the Higher Law – 4
  113. Chapter One Hundred One
  114. Chapter One Hundred Two
  115. Chapter One Hundred Three
  116. Chapter One Hundred Four
  117. Chapter One Hundred Five
  118. Chapter One Hundred Six
  119. Chapter One Hundred Seven
  120. Chapter One Hundred Eight
  121. Chapter One Hundred Nine
  122. Chapter One Hundred Ten
  123. Chapter One Hundred Eleven
  124. Chapter One Hundred Twelve
  125. Chapter One Hundred Thirteen
  126. Chapter One Hundred Fourteen
  127. Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
  128. Chapter One Hundred Sixteen
  129. Chapter One Hundred Seventeen
  130. Chapter One Hundred Eighteen
  131. Chapter One Hundred Nineteen
  132. Chapter One Hundred Twenty
  133. Chapter One Hundred Twenty One
  134. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Two
  135. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Three
  136. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Four
  137. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Five
  138. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Six
  139. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Seven
  140. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Eight
  141. Chapter One Hundred Twenty Nine
  142. Chapter One Hundred Thirty
  143. Chapter One Hundred Thirty One
  144. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Two
  145. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Three
  146. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Four
  147. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Five
  148. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Six
  149. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Seven
  150. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Eight
  151. Chapter One Hundred Thirty Nine
  152. Chapter One Hundred Forty
  153. Chapter One Hundred Forty One
  154. Chapter One Hundred Forty Two
  155. Chapter One Hundred Forty Three
  156. Chapter One Hundred Forty Four
  157. Chapter One Hundred Forty Five
  158. Chapter One Hundred Forty Six
  159. Chapter One Hundred Forty Seven
  160. Chapter One Hundred Forty Eight
  161. Chapter One Hundred Forty Nine
  162. Chapter One Hundred Fifty
  163. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-One
  164. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Two
  165. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Three
  166. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Four
  167. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five
  168. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Six
  169. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Seven
  170. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Eight
  171. Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Nine
  172. Chapter One Hundred Sixty
  173. Chapter One Hundred Sixty One
  174. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Two
  175. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Three
  176. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Four
  177. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Five
  178. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Six
  179. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Seven
  180. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Eight
  181. Chapter One Hundred Sixty Nine
  182. Chapter One Hundred Seventy
  183. Chapter One Hundred Seventy One
  184. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Two
  185. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Three
  186. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Four
  187. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Five
  188. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Six
  189. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Seven
  190. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Eight
  191. Chapter One Hundred Seventy Nine
  192. Chapter One Hundred Eighty
  193. Chapter One Hundred Eighty One
  194. Chapter One Hundred Eighty Two

The Text of the Aquarian Gospel—by Levi Dowling

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