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The Absolute is not a far-away Being directing our affairs at long
range - not an absentee Deity - but an Immanent Life in and about us
all- manifesting in us and creating us into individual centres of
consciousness, in pursuance with some great law of being.
And, more than this, the Absolute instead of being an indifferent and
unmoved spectator to its own creation, is a thriving, longing, active,
suffering, rejoicing, feeling Spirit, partaking of the feelings of its
manifestations, rather than callously witnessing them. It lives in us -
with us - through us. Back of all the pain in the world may be found a
great feeling and suffering love. The pain of the world is not punishment
or evidence of divine wrath, but the incidents of the working out of
some cosmic plan, in which the Absolute is the Actor, through the forms
of Its manifestations.
The message of the Absolute to some of the Illumined has been, "All is
being done in the best and only possible way - I am doing the best I
can - all is well - and in the end will so appear."
The Absolute is no personal Deity - yet in itself it contains all that
goes to make up all personality and all human relations. Father, Mother,
Child, Friend, Lover - all is in It. All forms of human love and craving
for sympathy, understanding and companionship may find refuge in loving
the Absolute.
The Absolute is constantly in evidence in our lives, and yet we have been
seeking it here and there in the outer world, asking it to show itself
and prove Its existence. Well may it say to us: "Hast thou been so long
time with me, and hast thou not known me?" This is the great tragedy of
Life, that the Spirit comes to us - Its own _ and we know It not. We fail
to hear Its words: "Oh, ye who mourn, I suffer with you and through you.
Yea, it is I who grieve in you. Your pain is mine - to the last pang. I
suffer all pain through you - and yet I rejoice beyond you, for I know
that through you, and with you, I shall conquer."
And this is a faint idea of what we believe the Absolute to be. In the
following lessons we shall see it in operation in all forms of life,
and in ourselves. We shall get close to the working of Its mighty
Will - close to Its Heart of Love.
Carry with you the Central Thought of the Lesson: CENTRAL THOUGHT. There
is but one Life in the Universe. And underlying that One Life - Its Real
Self - Its Essence - Its Spirit - is The Absolute, living, feeling,
suffering, rejoicing, longing, striving, in and through us. The Absolute
is all that really Is, and all the visible Universe and forms of Life is
Its expression, through Its Will. We lack words adequate to describe the
nature of the Absolute, but we will use two words describing its inmost
nature as best we see it. These two words are LIFE and LOVE, the one
describing the outer, the other the inner nature. Let us manifest both
Life and Love as a token of our origin and inner nature.
Peace be with you.
Watch for part two after xmas.