Rosicrucian Writings Online | ||
The THOUGHT OF THE MONTH THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST By THE IMPERATOR [H. Spencer Lewis] [From The Rosicrucian Digest December 1931] WE are approaching the holiday season and the special day set aside for the celebration of the anniversary of the birth of Jesus, the Christ. It is intended to be a day of rejoicing, of happiness, and of the free sharing of our bounties and blessings. In truth, the holiday should be a period for the celebration of the spirit of Christ and the realization of the Christ consciousness in each one of us. It is really immaterial whether the day selected is the true birthday of Jesus the man, for, after all, we may arbitrarily set any period of the year or any hour of the day for the proper realization of the Christ consciousness within us and to demonstrate some of the principles of the spirit of Christ. Undoubtedly, the great outstanding message of Jesus was that of universal love. Critics point out to us that nearly all of His doctrines were based upon religious principles known in other religions and perhaps viewed only in a more modern form, but there was this one principle of universal love that was quite unique and which Jesus brought to the world at a time when it was needed most and it is doubtful whether the need has ever been quite met, even after all these years of Christian preaching. Jesus said that man should strive to love his neighbor as himself. That is a big order, a big proposition. If applied universally as it was meant, it would mean universal love, universal peace, universal harmony. After all, it is not purely a religious doctrine but a Cosmic doctrine. If man would love men in a universal sense, in a Cosmic sense, it would bring an end to all war, all strife, all disagreement, and all contentions. It would encourage us to do the right thing at the right time and to be our brother's keeper and to see things and understand things from the Cosmic point of view. Perhaps there is no greater need in the world today than the need for the Cosmic point of view. We, as Rosicrucians, talk about broadening our vision and extending our consciousness out of the narrow limitations of self and self's environment. But how far do we really practice this principle, as well as talk about it? How far away from ourselves do we really get in each twenty-four hours of the day? It is true that the studies of Rosicrucianism do tend to broaden our vision, broaden our view-point, broaden our contact with humanity but even though that broadening may extend our consciousness from the narrow limitations of our physical immediacy it is doubtful whether we extend it at all in a universal sense. To love our neighbors as ourselves and thereby sympathetically understand their problems, their trials and tribulations, we should be able not only to extend our consciousness and understanding a part of the way but all of the way. We should do more than merely broaden our horizon and push that horizon from our own city, our own state, or our own country to another distant land, but to all distant lands. We should be able to sense the crying needs, the heart throbs, the tears, the heartaches, the trials and tribulations of each tribe and each being in the uttermost parts of the world. We should be able to realize what it is that the oppressed in various parts of India and Africa are asking and praying for. We should be able to understand what it is that the Russians are seeking to accomplish, what the Germans hope to prevent, what the Italians desire to accomplish, what the French seek to bring about, what the Britains hold as their ideal, what the Japanese and Chinese believe is their serious problem, what the people of many smaller lands consider the outstanding obstacles to their progress in life. To do this we would have to lay aside all bias, all prejudice, all self-interest, and all intolerance. From the Cosmic point of view all races of men, all beings, all creatures created by God are equal in the right to work out their own evolution and attain the inevitable goal of their present existence. All trials and tribulations are but stepping stones to these human beings and what we might consider an obstacle or a trial or tribulation may be, after all, a common-place incident in life to some others. That which we would condemn as being crude or cruel, unnecessary or unimportant, fictitious or unreal, immoral or unmoral, may be classified quite differently by the Cosmic consciousness. Christ, as a saviour, came to save mankind. His message was for all beings and the Light that He shed among men was a Light for the darkest part of every country and of every race. His life and His teachings were Cosmic symbols for all beings to interpret. Our interpretation as Christians may be greatly different from that of the Mohammedans or the Buddhists, or the Jews, or many other sects and cults, but however they interpret the symbol, there is back of it the Cosmic law of equal application and universal good. So I plead with my Brothers and Sisters at this period of the year when much of the world is thinking of the Christ and the coming of the Holy Child with all of the accompanying symbolism and prophecy, to think of Christmas season and the birth of the universality of the Christ consciousness and to remember that whatever was real, and whatever was great, was Divine and whatever was of Cosmic ordinance in the consciousness of the man, Jesus, is equally existent in the consciousness of every human being in the world today. It is not necessary for the tribesman, the atheist, the heathen to know of Jesus and His work, or to have discovered the message of Jesus and to have been saved through the grace of His teachings, to have a realization that there is a Christ consciousness within him. God and the Cosmic laws and principles did not limit the Christ consciousness in any being to only those who could outwardly and objectively recognize in the man Jesus, the symbol of that consciousness. As we develop the Christ consciousness within us through our realization of it the man Jesus becomes to us our Saviour in a Cosmic sense and not in a sectarian sense. But first must come the realization of the Christ spirit universally diffused throughout the Divine consciousness of all beings. Let us, therefore, be at one with this Christ consciousness at this period of the year, if not at all times. Let us indulge in the Holy Communion of Cosmic baptism and be bathed not in the water of material symbolism but in the Divine waters that flow in the Cosmic sense through all of our being, through all of earth's beings. In this way we will attune ourselves with the highest consciousness of the Cosmic and be at one with God and with each other. In this sense we will understand what is meant by the message of Jesus regarding universal love. To understand our neighbors sympathetically is to love them and to harmonize with them and this can come about so easily through attunement with Cosmic consciousness. Rejoice, therefore, this season and let it be the beginning of a period of realization for each month, or each week, or each day of your lives. Let each hour or at least each sunrise of a new day be the birth of a Christ day for you. Let the Christ spirit be born in you each morning and find you a babe in the manger of humbleness and innocence and thereby establish for yourself in your own lives a Christ birthday that you may celebrate every day of your lives as the Holy Day for you. | ||
| Section Index | Home Page | |
| Copyright © 2007 Aswins Rabaq. All Rights Reserved. | ||