“Again Lamaas asked, Of wisdom what have you to say? And Jesus said, It is the consciousness that man is aught; that God and man are one; that naught is naught; that power is but illusion; that heaven and earth and hell are not above, around, below, but in; which in the light of aught becomes the naught, and God is all” (Aquarian Gospel 22:22-24).
Wisdom in the Bible
In the Greek texts of the Old Testament “apocrypha” many of the books are called “wisdom books” dealing with Wisdom as a divine power, if not actually Divine Being. In early Christianity the Christ is often equated with Wisdom.
The Greeks texts of the Old and New Testaments use the word sophia for wisdom. It does mean wisdom, but comes from the root word sophos, which literally means clear in the sense of unobstructed transparency. From clarity of inner sight comes wisdom. Again we find ourselves in the practical realm of meditation. As with Understanding, Wisdom is not abstract but eminently practical, for sophia also is derived from phronimos, which means practical skill or acumen. Most interesting is another root of sophia: phren, which means to master or discipline, implying that only the disciplined and self-controlled can attain wisdom. And it particularly means control of the emotions and senses. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:8).
It is the consciousness that man is aught
Note, Jesus is not speaking of belief or acceptance of an external authority regarding the nature of man, but “the consciousness that man is aught.” This is real wisdom for it is experience of things as they are. Without the cultivation of consciousness through meditation, how could this arise? It cannot.
Again, “aught” means both one and substantial–actually existing. It may seem hard to think that anyone could not believe in their own reality, but it we look around us we will see that most people utterly ignore the truth of their being and live as though they were not what they actually are. Instead they live as “nothings” in the pursuit of nothing. Also, “aught” means that we are unities, not dualities as we presently think and live. Now Jesus tells us of a further unity.
[It is the consciousness] that God and man are one
“I and my Father are one” (John 10:30). This is the consciousness of Christhood, of the state that is Christhood. In Spirit there is absolute unity. God and man are one in the Oneness that is God. Now, there is a difference between being one with God and identical with God. The wave is one with the ocean, but it is not identical with–the same as–the ocean. The ocean is the wave, but the wave is not the ocean. There is perfect unity, but there is a distinction between God and man. It is crucial for us to realize this, otherwise we fall into the sophistry of “I am God.” Certainly God can say of Himself: “I am God; and beside Me there is no other.” But man cannot. They are undeniably one, but the oneness comes from God’s Being.
[It is the consciousness] that naught is naught
“It is a wise child that knows its own father,” and it is a wise child that knows who is not his father–including himself. To see Nothing for what it is–nothing–is no small accomplishment. This, too, is not intellectual only, but a matter of interior consciousness. It is foolish to tell people to stop running after illusions when illusion is all they now. True spiritual teaching imparts the way for people to know for themselves the actuality of things, to truly see what is real and what is unreal. And we need not define it for them; they will see for themselves: everything but God is naught.
[It is the consciousness] that power is but illusion
The Divine Energy, the Holy Breath, the Holy Spirit, is real, but She manifests as illusion (power). At first the illusion bewilders us, but in time it becomes our instructor leading us to wisdom and thus beyond itself to the Son and thence to the Father. Again, through meditation we experience the Real. Then, outside of meditation when we experience the unreal we shall know it for what it is and no longer be confused by it, but rather uplifted by the very thing that once cast us down. When we understand the illusory nature of phenomena we do not reject or turn from it, but learn from it, for that is its purpose. Yet this insight will deliver us from great anxiety and fear. No matter how unpleasant a dream may be, when we know it is a dream we are not distressed by it. We may even laugh at it. And even better, we may decide to awaken from it. But first we must understand that it is only a dream. Our dreams are not real, but we are. The cosmic dream is not real, but the Cosmic Dreamer is. We and God are dreaming, but God knows it and we usually do not. But when the divine image matures in us, then we, too, shall know the dream for what it is, and the Great Dreamer and ourselves–the little dreamers–for what we are. As Tennyson wrote:
Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower–but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
What God and man IS.
[It is the consciousness] that heaven and earth and hell are not above, around, below, but in [us]
This is a remarkable truth. We sit in the motion picture theater and seem to be on the ocean, on top of mountains, or speeding over the plains–in the vast outdoors–and yet we are tucked away inside in our theater seats. In the same way all experience occurs within, even though the experienced may be outside us. Yet, since space is part of the great illusion, it is correct to say that everything is inside us, in the part of us that transcends “in” and “out.” There is a further meaning to this. Heaven, earth, and hell are essentially states of consciousness that are symbolized by the external forms the Holy Breath projects onto the screen of our awareness. We choose whether we live in heaven, earth, or hell by the attunement of our consciousness. It is all up to us. “Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things” (II Timothy 2:7).
Read the next section in the Aquarian Gospel for Yogis: Faith