The Mystery of Christmas

Here we are on the verge of the great mystery, the mystery of Christmas. These words are put into his mouth, that is, simply a man just as we are, one in whom the great story unfolded. His words were enigmatic. And the evangelists in writing the gospels kept that great mystery as it was told. So tonight, we will take a few of his words and try to explain them. We go now to the 17th chapter of the Book of John, the 11th and 12th verses. Here is one speaking now and he is communing with himself; and the depth of himself which has been revealed to himself is God the Father. He has discovered the Father…which everyone is destined to discover. He’s addressing the Father and he makes the statement which John records: “And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given to me, that they may be one, even as we are one” .501 ¶1

The only name in the world that can truly bind us together and make us one is Father. When you and I discover that we really are the Father, then we know what this whole great mystery of life really is. Now he goes on and makes this statement, he said, “I have guarded them and none is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled” .501 ¶2

I haven’t read in any book that I have, or in any lecture that I have heard or any discussion with anyone that comes near this great mystery. They see it as secular history and it is not. “None is lost but the son of perdition.” Well, who is he? All the scholars claim it is one called Judas. Hasn’t a thing to do with that. If you want to get close to it, read the 18th Psalm, which is repeated in the 22nd chapter of 2nd Samuel. Read it tonight when you go home. Well, that 22nd chapter of 2nd Samuel is a complete repeat of the 18th Psalm. It’s a hymn in praise of the one who saved him from death and destruction. Perdition simply means “death and destruction.” David sings out the praise to the Lord who saved him from death and destruction. Hasn’t a thing to do with any Judas the son of perdition.501 ¶3

Now, let us take these enigmatic words and show you. A story is told that is the strangest story ever told which is in the gospel. Who then is the son of perdition? The one who hears it and rejects it. Any man who refuses to accept the Christian revelation is the antichrist, the son of perdition. Now, what are we told in the New Testament concerning it? Read it in 2nd Thessalonians, the 2nd chapter: “And the lawless one, the son of perdition, will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth, and he will be destroyed by his appearing and his coming” . So I tell you the story as I personally have experienced it. Some will say no to that, and others will say yes. Those who say no to it are the antichrist, the son of perdition. They will not be destroyed. It’s the state of consciousness in which they dwell that will be destroyed…for it will happen in them. For “None have I lost but the son of perdition.” So no individual will be destroyed. How could he be when he is a Son of God? But he falls into these states. So he falls into the state known as the son of perdition, who completely denies that this incredible story is true. But, when it awakens within him and becomes true, then he has no leg to stand upon but to admit the experience.501 ¶4

So, if I tell you the most incredible story in the world and you say, “Oh, that’s silly, that’s stupid,” it’s alright. I am confident that it’s going to happen and you will have the experience of it. When you experience it, then what does it matter what you’ve said before? What does it matter what others coming after you who experience it have said or will say? When you are confronted with the experience, what does it matter? So everyone in the world will be saved and the only thing that is lost is the son of perdition…that state of consciousness in which the individual lived at that moment when he heard the story and could not accept it. To him it was stupid, it was silly, and he completely rejected it. That is the son of perdition. It hasn’t a thing to do with any Judas.501 ¶5

Judas was the one who betrayed the Lord. Well, no one in the world could ever betray me but myself, for no one knows my secrets but myself, but no one. Judas is Judah. Judah is the one named in the genealogy of Jesus…the lion’s whelp. None of the others were mentioned, just simply, “And Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.” They are not mentioned. It’s simply Judah, the one who knew the secret. He told the secret. So it hasn’t a thing to do with any individual man. No man can be destroyed, because every child born of woman is a son of God, and it takes all the sons of God to make God, as told us in the 32nd chapter of the Book of Deuteronomy, “And he has put bounds to the people according to the number of the sons of God” . So no child in this world could be born who is not an emanation of a son of God, and it takes all the sons to form God. For the word translated God, which is Elohim, is a plural word. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” that’s Elohim. And God, Elohim, said “Let us make man in our image.” And the gods came down and buried themselves in humanity . But not one could be born of woman who is not occupied by a son of God, and not one son of God can be lost. “I have lost no one but the son of perdition” and perdition is only that state of consciousness that rejects and denies this Christian revelation.501 ¶6

So you say, “Can’t be! How can a man be consumed before your eyes, turned into dust, and yet survive?” No, that is simple, may I tell you, that’s easy. It’s not that of which he speaks…for all things are restored to life. Everything is restored to life, even the little flower that I discard cannot really cease to be. All things are restored by the seed of contemplative thought…that’s only restoration. But I’m not speaking of restoration; I’m speaking of resurrection where the Son is resurrected. Not the body that he wears in the world…that’s always restored. But he who occupies it, who goes through the world of death, he is awakened from the great dream of death. And when he is awakened, then come the signs.501 ¶7

Now, Jesus calls himself “The Son of man.” He speaks of himself as a Son of man. He also speaks of himself of that which is to come. When the Son of man comes, will he find faith upon earth? So he speaks of himself in the future: “when he comes.” He’s always coming and awakening in man, for God is awakening in man. So here, this great mystery called Christmas is simply the beginning of the signs: “And now this shall be a sign unto you” . We are told that many will reject it. Read the 2nd chapter of Luke…it’s a sign that many will reject. It is for the fall and the rising of many in Israel. When Simeon took the little child into his arms and then he said, “It’s a sign for the fall and the rising of many in Israel”…that out of many hearts will come these thoughts, some will reject it and some will accept it. So I’ll tell the story and some hearing it will say no to that, and some will say yes to it. But even those who say no, who throw themselves into the state of the son of perdition, will find that Jesus will rise in them as their very being, and rising in them he will slay by the breath of his mouth, breath of what mouth? By the Word of God, for the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. And, the Word cannot return void, it must accomplish itself and fulfill itself in that for which it was sent. So the Word goes out and the whole gospel is the Word of God.501 ¶8

Now, this is the Word of God: God actually became you that you may become God. He sent himself as sons into the world; then he raises his sons as himself the Father. When all return they are not sons, they are God the Father. “When you see me, you have seen the Father,” said he. Don’t look beyond that. When you see me is to know me. You will not see him outside of yourself…not in eternity. If anyone should say, “Come, look, there he is,” or “Here he is,” do not believe it. If anyone ever tells you, “Come, let us go, I know where he is,” go no place. You’ll never find him outside of yourself and he will rise within you.501 ¶9

There’s only one way you’ll ever now him: when God’s Son—which is the sum total of all the experiences of humanity, all of their experiences, fused together into a single being personified before you—stands before you and calls you Father. When he stands before you, you know exactly who he is…he is David. “I have found in David a man after my own heart, who will do all my will” . He is the son of Jesse and Jesse means “I AM.” So man is in search of himself who is God the Father. And there is no other God, no other Father. And the whole comes in this wonderful experience that everyone will have.501 ¶10

So though you have said in the past and maybe tonight you say, “It’s an incredible story and I can’t believe it,” you are in that state of consciousness which is only called the son of perdition. It’s the state that is destroyed by the breath of his mouth by his Word unfolding in you. So when his Word unfolds in you, you have not a leg to stand upon; you cannot deny what has happened. So although you denied it prior to the eruption of the Word in you, after it erupts within you and all that is said of Jesus Christ in scripture you have experienced, and you know you are he, then you can’t deny it. So the son of perdition is the only one that is slain, the only one that is lost. It’s part of the play.501 ¶11

Everyone in the world, call him by any name, is already saved, for the simple reason it has already happened. It has happened. And when it happened once, it would happen for all, for he is one. “That I in them and they in me…Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me” . What is the name?—Father. And I have kept them in the name that thou gavest me. I told them that they are the Father and they’re moving toward the discovery of it. Well, some didn’t believe it. But, “Father, I guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled.” The scripture is thy Word. I told them thy Word as I experienced it. I interpreted to them thy Word. And Father, they heard it, and some rejected it and some believed it.501 ¶12

In spite of those who rejected it, may I say, they cannot themselves die for they are my brothers. We came down together and all of us became fragmented.501 ¶13

In this morning’s L. A. Times…I do not know if you read it, maybe you still have the paper at home…but the Book Review, it was one of the many poems of Robert Graves…and it was the first one. He printed about five or six of them, but this one little verse…and my heart leapt within me. These are the words if I recall it correctly, “ Hold fast with both hands to that royal love which alone, as we know, certainly restores fragmentation into true unity.” What a revelation! The great poets are the ones who see so clearly and those who have the capacity to use words as Robert Graves has to say it so beautifully. “Hold fast with both hands to that royal love which alone, as we know, certainly restores fragmentation into true unity.” Here is the fragmented one. The whole vast world is one fragmented.501 ¶14

Regardless of the pigment of the skin, the race, the nation, whatever it is, this is the fragmented rock That I saw in my experience back in 1934 when sitting alone in my little room…for that was the deep of the Depression, 1934, and I was a dancer, and people could not afford to buy anything, far less pay to be entertained by a dancer. So I lived in a basement apartment on 75th Street in New York City. I, too, did not know where the next was coming from. I didn’t despair; I sat in the Silence, not thinking of anything in particular…just simply with my eyes shut as in sleep, but I was certainly not asleep. I was very wide awake, but my eyes were closed. Then these golden lovely clouds—they always come if I close my eyes and for just one little moment meditate; my whole head, all the dark convolutions of the brain grow luminous. And it’s all gold…golden liquid light comes out of the head and surrounds me. Then it just pulses and pulses and goes off. But the whole head is enveloped in golden liquid light. So, as I contemplated this, suddenly before my eyes, my inner eyes, for the eyes were shut, came a quartz. It could have been, what, sixteen, twenty inches in diameter, but just a quartz, this rock. As I looked at it, it fragmented. In some strange way the whole thing broke and fragmented itself into numberless parts. Then the whole thing gathered itself together into a human form, seated in the lotus posture. As I looked at it, I’m looking at myself…but a self that in my wildest dreams I could never believe I could ever attain to that perfection. What majesty of face! What beauty of features! You couldn’t conceive of this face that you now see ever attaining to that beauty. That was perfect. Here it is in deep meditation and I’m looking at myself. As I looked, the whole thing is alive. It wasn’t a piece of clay; it was alive. A living, living statue right before me and it’s myself. As I looked, it began to glow and it increased in luminosity and reached the intensity of the sun. Then it exploded. And then I awoke seated in my chair in my little basement apartment.501 ¶15

Then I turned to scripture: “Of the Rock that begot you, you are unmindful and of the God who gave you birth you are unaware.” Read it in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy . Then we read in the 10th chapter of 1st Corinthians, “And they drank from the Rock that followed them: and the Rock was Christ” . So then you’re told Christ is within you, that Rock that never fails. So the imagery was perfect.501 ¶16

Here, I sat perfectly still not contemplating anything in particular. Because the market broke in 1929 and everything went to pieces, and there were seventeen million of us unemployed. We then only had a population of maybe 130 million. Today we have 204 million…but then we only had 130 million maximum. There were seventeen million by the confession of the government. The chances are there were many more and these were the bread winners. They were completely unemployed. They couldn’t turn any place to find a loaf of bread. Our bins were filled to overflowing. We couldn’t pay the taxes on these bursting bins, but how to give it away, how to distribute it? And so, in 1934 I had already gone through five years of this Depression. So I certainly wasn’t thinking of anything in particular…this almost became a state of mind.501 ¶17

So I sat perfectly still, as I did daily, and simply turned my attention within my brain and contemplated within. And as always happens the clouds begin to appear and all the dark convolutions grow luminous, and the whole thing is moving in [...] golden liquid light. Then comes this rock…the perfect imagery of scripture: “And the Rock was Christ.” He formed himself into me…me as the perfect being. I looked at myself and could hardly believe that I could ever in eternity attain that perfection…and yet I’m looking at myself. So I tell you, everyone is destined to have these experiences. The words are enigmatic. Luckily for us those who wrote the story and told it so beautifully in the gospels kept the mystery in the words and didn’t try to explain it in detail to anyone. Let those who deny it, alright, let them deny it, but even though they deny it they’re not lost. For, not a thing is lost but the son of perdition and the son of perdition is simply the belief in destruction, the belief in death.501 ¶18

As everyone seeing their friends depart this world have to admit to themselves that things do die. We came down into the world and everything dies here…and yet I tell you nothing dies. Everything in the outer world returns by the seed of contemplative thought. But that is not the mystery of Christmas. The mystery of Christmas is that which is housed within us is that which appears to die. And that which is housed within us is God himself, and he’s dreaming this dream of death which we call the dream of life. One day he will awaken; he awakens within us. Then there is a definite series of events that he goes through.501 ¶19

This is the series…we call it beginning with Christmas…but it doesn’t begin with Christmas. It takes place the same night. It begins with the resurrection: he awakens within his own skull, which is the tomb where God is buried. Man awakens within his skull from a long, long dream. No one knows how long. Certain poets like Blake say 6,000 years, but I do not know. I have not had that experience to tell you that I can confirm it as he said 6,000 years. But it was an awful long dream.501 ¶20

Then I awoke within my skull. I had no idea that I was asleep within my skull. I always thought I slept on my bed, and that I was fully awake, and I was wearing a body. That night I discovered I had been asleep these unnumbered years in my skull. When I awoke, the skull was completely sealed. Yet I had an innate knowledge what to do and I pushed the base of my skull and something gave…a hole opened. I squeezed myself out. Just as a child comes out of its mother’s womb, I came out of that tomb. The tomb was the womb of God where God himself had entered. I saw no one, there was no companion. I alone came out. Then the imagery of scripture, as told you in the 2nd chapter of the Book of Luke, surrounded me. That is, a little child wrapped in swaddling clothes which is a sign. And I held this little child in my arms and with the most endearing manner I asked him, “How is my sweetheart?” He smiled a heavenly smile, and the scene dissolved. There were three witnesses to the event. For they were told, “Go hurriedly into Bethlehem and you will find a sign, which is a sign that a savior was born on this day” .501 ¶21

For God is the savior of the world and there is no other savior. As told us in the 43rd and 45th chapters of Isaiah: “I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your savior; and beside me there is no savior” . And that savior, his name is I AM. So when I awoke, if anyone had asked me anything I would have said, “Well, I am the one who just awoke.” That is the only being who just awoke. It is God. As told us in the psalms, “Rouse thyself! Why sleepest thou, O Lord?” . It is God who sleeps and dreams the dream of life in the world of death, who animates the whole thing, until one day he awakes within the tomb where he first entered; and that tomb is the skull of man. So that is called the birth, which we now celebrate on the 25th day of this month.501 ¶22

Then comes that great revelation where God knows who he is. He has no way of ever knowing who he is unless his Son stands before him and calls him “Father.” The Son is David; and David is the sum total of all the generations of men and all of their experiences fused into a single being and personified before the one he’s about to reveal as God the Father. So I am the father of David and you are the father of David. If you have not yet encountered him, may I tell you, you will. Then you will know what Graves said today in his poem which I quoted. Because, only in this dream manner will you know true unity. For if I am the father of your son, and if one you know other than the speaker is the father of our son, are we not one father? So in the end, are we not told there’s “only one body, one Lord, one Spirit, one God and Father of all” . So all are coming towards the one body that fell and was fragmented, and the fragmentation is humanity. So all these are the sons of God all being collected and brought back into that unity, that true unity that is God the Father. So you are God the Father. And having played all the parts—the good, the bad and the indifferent—then you are gathered together. And that moment in time when you confront him, these are the signs of the end; for Christianity is based upon the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of his sons. He brought all the sons back, and in the bringing them back he gave all the sons himself. In the end there is only God the Father. It takes all the sons to form God the Father.501 ¶23

So, all these things when you read them it takes one who has experienced it to explain the Old Testament. Who on earth would ever have believed that when we are told in the 3rd chapter of John—for he calls himself the Son of man: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up” . He likens himself to a serpent, and who would have thought for one moment that the Son of man is just like that fiery serpent? And that you go up, just as he described it, in spiral form right into heaven, where heaven is within you as you’re told in the Book of Luke, “The kingdom of heaven is within you” . So you go up into yourself, having split the entire body from top to bottom. “For the curtain of the temple”—and “We are the temple of the living God”—“was split from top to bottom” . Then the Son of man, like a serpent, rose into that heavenly state, and when he rose into it, it reverberated like thunder. Exactly that…the imagery is perfect!501 ¶24

Who would have thought for one moment that when the Holy Spirit descends, it descends always in bodily form as a dove? It does…right upon you. It so loves you, the Holy Spirit, because you have finished the work that you yourself planned to do. For you and I agreed to dream in concert before we descended and became fragmented. We were a unity, a brotherhood of one; and then came that fragmentation in this world, and each became a seeming separate being at war with one another…and there is no other. Because eventually he is God the Father and his son is your son…so, really, he cannot be another. So, “Hold fast with both hands to that royal love which alone, as we know, certainly restores fragmentation into true unity.”501 ¶25

Well, I can’t tell you how my heart jumped this morning when I read it. If you haven’t discarded your paper, you’ll find it in the Book Review in today’s L. A. Times. They are all lovely…there are about five or six that he quoted…but this one…and Graves has been such a difficult poet to read because his words, too, are enigmatic, no question about it. Well, this seemed so clearly stated for those who have had the experience. Maybe others will pass it off and think, “Oh, what stupid things to have said.” So beautifully said, but oh so deeply said.501 ¶26

So, one stands before you and he speaks of being here and he tells you he is to come. He is the Son of man; then he tells you the Son of man will come. “And when the Son of man comes, will he find faith upon the earth?” . So he’s always coming. And one in whom he comes, when he awakens, he turns to his immediate circle and he wonders if anyone will trust him, anyone will have faith in him.501 ¶27

Because the story of Christ is that he is a wine bibber and a glutton, a man of the world who loves harlots and tax collectors, and all the sinners of the world. He’s a friend of sinners. So someone meets you and they know that you, too, like a good dinner, and you do like a good bottle of wine and you do like a few good Martinis. Well, that is not in their popular concept of what Jesus ought to be, what the Son of God is, so right away you’re scratched out. You’re no earthly good and you’re an imposter.501 ¶28

So he tells them exactly not to go any other place than where they are. Don’t go here, don’t go there. If anyone tell you, “Come, I have found him,” go no place, because he can’t come from any place but within you, because he is buried within you. Every year you find these coming out, the false prophets claiming that they are it…and let us go and see him. When you see him he is just like you. “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him” . Why? We shall see him just as he is, and we shall be like him. So, have you seen his face? If it’s not just like you, raised to the nth degree of perfection, you haven’t seen him.501 ¶29

“He is the Rock…and the Rock was Christ. We have forgotten the Rock that begot us and we are unmindful of the God that gave us birth” . That Rock was fragmented and all the world round about you is yourself pushed out. You fought against the shadows believing it came from a seeming other and there is no other. It’s only yourself; there is no other in the world. Housed within the seeming other which is yourself pushed out and you being the only God, housed in that is the only God. In that will awake all that awoke within you.501 ¶30

In the end, we all will know each other…no loss of identity. Even though I am God the Father and I tell you you are God the Father, there is no loss of identity. For all the identity of persons—and certainly not in eternity will you be other than the individualized being that you are—there is this strange, peculiar discontinuity of earthly form. You do not wear the earthly form, but you wear the earthly face raised to the degree of perfection…but not the earthly form. So let no one try to describe to you what that heavenly form is like. Face yes. Human voice yes. Human hands yes. But do not go beyond that, because they cannot describe it. It is power, it is wisdom, but above all things it is love. You can’t describe the human form divine which is love. It is all love…the whole thing is love.501 ¶31

So everyone in the universe will arrive at the mystery that we are now about to celebrate called Christmas. You will see that it is not some little day that took place once and for all 2,000 years ago; it is always taking place. For, this is simply the coming of God, awakening within man, for he is in man. Were he not now in man, man could not dream. So he actually slays the son of perdition by the breath of his mouth and destroys him by his appearing and his coming.501 ¶32

What could anyone tonight who stood before me—take the arch atheist of the world, by whatever name he calls himself—and I tell him the story that I’ve told you, and he thinks I should be put away, that I am insane. But I know that love conquers all; and the day will come that every word that I have said to you tonight is true, and therefore because it is true he will experience it. There will be no crowing. No, no crowing “I told you so” but a welcome that my lost brother has returned. No crowing whatsoever that he who today will say, “You’re stupid, you should be put away, you’re insane, and therefore some menace to society”…let him go on.501 ¶33

Love…that royal love as spoken by Robert Graves, “Hold fast to that royal love which alone…” there is no other. So, he within you has emanated the garment that you’re wearing. He has emanated it and he cleaves to it. You in turn cleave to him. And you will one day begin to love only one being. And this is one being, but he’s pushed out in every being. You’ll see him reflected in all beings. So hold to him!501 ¶34

What’s his name? I AM. But some other name? Yes, he is the Father. But before they know him as Father, tell them his name: his name is I AM. One day they will love him, why? Because “He first loved them” . He loved his emanation and he will cleave to the emanation, and they will become one. When they become actually one, he awakes, wearing that individualized face that is perfect.501 ¶35

And so I tell you I know it! I will meet you in eternity and I will know you. But for all the identity of persons, there will be a discontinuity of form, a form that is glorious beyond the wildest dream of man. The form is all power, it’s all wisdom, but above all things, it is all love. We purposely descended into this world to accomplish this end.501 ¶36

Now I hope that when you get together on Christmas Day to celebrate the day with your family, which we will, that you will remember what it really means. Everyone present, though they laugh at the idea, nevertheless, know that everyone present and the whole vast world will one day have this experience, and they will awaken to being God the Father. Know that everyone will awaken, and because there’s only one Father, he is one with the whole vast world.501 ¶37

And the brothers will return and the brothers in returning will be God the Father. For it was the one being’s pleasure and will be to give all his sons himself. So when all return, they are God himself.501 ¶38

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *501 ¶39

Are there any questions, please? Well, if there aren’t any questions, may this great event take place in you before we meet again. Good night.501 ¶40