Rock Water Wine

Last Tuesday, we spoke of the three levels of the Bible, the rock, the water and the wine. So much is said in the Bible about the rock. We’re told, “Of the Rock that begot you you are unmindful, and you have forgotten the God who gave you birth” . So we find the Rock equated with God. Then we are told, “They drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ” . We are told that the people rejected this Rock and yet it eventually became the chief corner stone. And throughout scripture so much is said about the Rock. From experience I tell you that truth is literal…although the words used may be figurative. When you experience scripture you will see, though before experience they were to you just metaphor and, well, figurative, when you experience scripture you will see how literally true these words are. How could God be a rock? How could Christ be the Rock from which man not only drank but the Rock that gave him birth? How can it be?821 ¶1

Well, here is an experience that I will share with you. It was in the thirties. I meditate daily, no special hour, not always to bring about changes, just because I like it. So while sitting in the Silence with my attention turned inward and contemplating nothing in particular, just the brain as it were, and usually after about a minute or so, sometimes it’s a matter of seconds, all the dark convolutions of the brain break and they burst into light, golden liquid light that simply pulses and goes all around one’s head. Well, honestly, I was thinking of nothing in particular, but suddenly before me came a quartz…I would say about that big. As I looked at it, it broke, became fragmented into numberless pieces; and then quickly it was assembled into a human form and seated in the lotus posture. As I contemplated it I noticed I am looking at myself. Here is the very being that is contemplating and the being contemplated, and they are one. We had only a moment before a rock, and the rock fragmented. The rock was gathered into human form, and a living, breathing being not made of rock. Here it is now living, it’s breathing, it’s flesh, it’s alive. Then as I became interested, it began to glow. It began to glow and increase in intensity, and when what seemed like the apex or limit of such intensity, the whole thing exploded. And here I am, still seated, pondering over this strange, peculiar vision.821 ¶2

I say, God actually achieves his limitless purpose by self-limitation. The word rock is defined as “to compress, to confine, to restrict; to take on the limit of contraction, the very limit of opacity.” So we’re told in the Book of Philippians, “And being in the form of God, he emptied himself and took upon himself the form of a slave and was born in the likeness of man; and being formed in the image of man, became obedient unto death, even death on the cross” . Now, the cross, I know from experience, is not outside on a tree or wood, but man himself is the cross, the man himself is the tree of life; that here on this cross God is crucified. That I know from experience. I’m not theorizing, I’m not speculating, I know this experience to be fact.821 ¶3

This is the limit of contraction that God assumes. As the poet Blake said, “God himself enters death’s door and lays down in the grave with those who enter, and shares with them their visions of eternity ‘til they awake and see the linen clothes lying that the females had woven for them.” Here again is the linen cloth. The word linen means “white as marble, bleached, blanched.” That’s exactly what you see the very day of your resurrection. You’ve never seen such a ghastly whiteness on the face of the body out of which you’ve just emerged. Talk of death…there is really the appearance of death, really bleached. So here, this is the rock.821 ¶4

The occupant is your own wonderful I AM…that’s God. Your own wonderful human Imagination, that’s God. And he shares with you all these wonderful visions of eternity. Most of them are nightmares, horrible dreams; but to you they aren’t dreams, they’re objective things, they’re facts. But if the day will come that you will awake, then the experiences preceding waking must have been a dream. So he lies down in the grave with them and shares with them their visions of eternity ‘til they wake. So when they wake all that preceded it seemed so real, just like the dream of the night. It seemed so real while you’re in it, and only on waking and reflecting on it does it seem like a subjective experience, a dream.821 ¶5

Well, this whole vast experience of man when God awakes in man will be to him a dream. But it had a purpose, an infinite purpose: For man to expand as God. God became man that man may become God. There is only God in the world, there is nothing but God. So this Rock that begot us…one day you will have the experience of seeing that Rock…beautiful imagery, marvelous symbolism. And yet all through scripture it is all about this Rock, the Rock from which man drank, this supernatural Rock, and the Rock was Christ. You who do not have the concordance will find that in Paul’s 1st letter to the Corinthians, the 10th chapter. The Rock was Christ…he equates now the Rock with Christ. As we find in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy, the word God being equated with the Rock: “And the Rock that begot you you are unmindful, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.” If the Rock begot you and God gave you birth, then Rock and God are one.821 ¶6

His name is I AM, in this wonderful unfolding of scripture, for scripture must be fulfilled in me. What is written about me has its fulfillment and everything written about me is in scripture. The whole book is a prophecy of what must be experienced by every child born of woman. So we are told, call the next witness. Call witness after witness, to do what? To testify to the truth of God’s will. So the first witness is external and we reject it. It’s to us like myth. It’s a rock, so we will not accept that as the building cornerstone on which to build our world. So the more intelligent man becomes, the more he looks upon the Bible as myth. And I tell you it’s the only reality. The Hebrew rabbi was uttering the truth when he said, “What is not written in scripture is non-existent.” Everything will pass like a dream, but his Word will not pass. This is simply a prophecy of all that man will one day experience. So we take it literally and wait for that day when we are called upon to be the witness to the truth of God’s Word.821 ¶7

You can’t force it. So what one should really believe in is simply the testimony of Jesus. As we are told, “He is the first witness, he is the first born of the dead.” Well, listen to his witness, listen to his testimony; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. What prophecy? The whole Bible is prophetic. Not who’s going to win a war, or who’s going to become prominent in the world. Hasn’t a thing to do with secular history. The Bible is sacred history, brought to climax and fulfillment in the story of Jesus Christ. You may look upon Jesus Christ—and I take liberties—but in a sense just as though he were a divine reporter giving an account of that which is of infinite concern to man. Well, what is the concern of man other than to tell him his future?821 ¶8

His real future is to fulfill scripture. I can tell you of a secondary future which is entirely up to you. Anyone can become what he wants to be, that’s scripture too, but that belongs to the world of Caesar. If you know what you want to be in this world, it’s not difficult to become it. If you dare to assume—in spite of the evidence of the senses to the contrary, if reason denies it and your senses deny it—and yet you dare to assume that you are now the man, the woman, that you want to be, and believe in the reality of that assumption, not knowing how it’s going to happen, you’ll become it. But that belongs on this level, to this world, and in the end you’ll leave behind your record but it will fade…no one will know it in the next few generations. I only have to look back upon the great stars of forty-odd years ago, when they were so majestic in the eyes of all of us. You mention their names to my daughter, she doesn’t know them. I speak of Wallace Reed, she said, “What?” And yet when I was a boy the name Wallace Reed itself was magic. You mention all these names…she knows nothing of them. And then what will be her child’s, and her children’s children? They will know nothing of the so-called glittering ones of today.821 ¶9

But here is the Bible forever going right through, still remaining contemporary. But I can’t tell anyone who has not experienced scripture the thrill that is in store for them when they begin to experience it. Now, if you just read this one simple little statement, you could no longer conceive of Jesus as a man. We speak of the universal, cosmic Christ buried in every man, and that cosmic Christ is God. Take the very last verse of the simplest and yet the most profound book in the New Testament, the gospel of John. Read it! Only a few things are recorded, he tells us, that you may believe, but if everything he did and said were recorded, the world itself would not be big enough to contain the books. Well, can you conceive of a life of a few years doing things that you could not write about in all the volumes, and so many that the world couldn’t contain them?821 ¶10

But if you see him as a cosmic Christ, from the beginning of history up to the very end, and everyone in the world lives because Christ lives in him, and everyone does what he does because Christ does it in him. Christ is the slave of man. So you have the most horrible thoughts, he’ll execute them, yet he is love, infinite love. But being your Imagination he does not question your right to imagine the unlovely; he will do it. For he laid down the law in the very beginning: “All things bring forth after their kind,” everything. So you will know when you reap, don’t be surprised that was corn, that’s why you’re reaping corn; and you’re reaping sesamum because it was sesamum when you planted it. So I would say the law…the law of identical harvest. When you reap it it is only the multiplication of the identical seed.821 ¶11

So he will actually take upon himself all the sufferings of the world. Who? The cosmic Christ, your Imagination. So he doesn’t question your right to want to hurt, he carries the burden, and he is your own wonderful human Imagination. When you know that, you become extremely selective, extremely discriminative. For I tell you, in the end there is no other; there is nothing but yourself made visible, for the self of man is God. As he wakes in man, you know you are the God that begot you…you are self-begotten. When you have the experience, you read it, how could it be? Out of death came life? Well, here’s the mystery of the seed: Except it falls into the ground and dies and rots, it remains alone, but if it falls into the ground and dies, it brings forth much. So we’re told, God dies in the most literal sense, and yet it is not death as the world sees death. The Bible equates death with sleep: “Awake, you sleeper, and arise from the dead.” So when God puts himself into this self-imposed restriction called man, it is, relative to what God is, death. He emptied himself of his glory and took upon himself the form of death, which is man. He animates it by being present; he animates it as the dreamer.821 ¶12

Now we’re told, “And the voice said, ‘Come and I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lord…the wife of the Lamb.’” Well, the lamb is a symbol of the Lord. Come and I’ll show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. “And so in Spirit he took me,”—always in Spirit—“and there I saw the new Jerusalem descending from heaven”—here, the King James Version translates what he sees now as the most priceless stone—“adorned like a bride.” The others, that is, the Revised Standard Version calls it a radiant light. Well, both are correct. It is a stone, but a stone capable of assuming human form, becoming alive and breathing; and then radiating beyond the wildest dream of man…more brilliant than the sun, more brilliant than the stars. And that’s you, because you’re looking at yourself.821 ¶13

Here you are contemplating your own being, and it began, as far as you see, a stone, just a quartz. It says, “Come, I’ll show you the Bride.” Well, what bride? Am I the Bride of God? Yes, I am the Bride of God. So the story from beginning to end is all about Christ. And man must leave everything and cleave to his wife, cleave to the woman, until they become one. So you see it when you become one. When you become one and not two, a new man is formed, and the new man is Christ. So he is being formed in us as it were by cleaving to us. As Blake brought out so beautifully, “His emanation, yet his wife, ‘til the sleep of death is past”…his emanation yes and yet his wife. He becomes it and individualizes himself as you.821 ¶14

When it happens, we’re told, he gives us a new name, and he writes it on a white stone, that luminous, radiant thing, and it’s a new name known only to the one who bears it. But I’ll tell you the name—but you won’t believe it until you are called by it—the name is Jesus. In the end, Jesus only…everything disappears and there is Jesus only. As we are told in Isaiah the 27th, “And I will gather you one by one, O people of Israel”…I know from experience why we are gathered one by one: Because of our uniqueness you can’t bring two together. One by one, to unite into a single body which is Christ—Christ awake, the risen Christ, is God. And everyone, as we’re told…of course, the translation is, “And he will transform or change our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body”. But that phrase “to be like” literally means “of one form with” his glorious body. So you will wear the body of love which is the body of God. These experiences are literally true and you’ll have them.821 ¶15

So when you’re told you must be born again, that’s literally true; and you will be, but not in the world of flesh and blood. For God is Spirit and if you’re born into the world of God, you’re born of Spirit; and you’re born from above, not from below from the womb of woman. Everyone will have this experience. If you’re here for the first time and just not quite familiar with this teaching, you might say, “Well, suppose I die tonight without having had the experiences?” May I tell you, I know this too from experience, you’re instantly restored to life. You’re still in this world, this world and this time called “this age.” You enter the new world through that new birth, which is preceded by a moment by what is called in scripture the resurrection. So we are resurrected one by one, and then as we are resurrected we are born of the Spirit into an entirely new world, wearing the body of God. And in the end, there is only God, nothing but God.821 ¶16

If you are here for the first time, and you’re concerned about improving your lot in this world of Caesar, may I tell you, it is very easy to do. It’s simple if you could only believe in the reality of your unseen, invisible imaginal acts. If you could sit here right now and contemplate what you would be like were it true that you are already what you want to be. Well, how will I know that I’m doing it correctly? Well, I do the frame of reference—I take a circle of friends, friends so close and so concerned that they would be conscious of the fact of my transformation. If I shared with them my secret, what I wanted to be, when I become it they will know it. So I let them know it…all in my Imagination. I bring them into my mind’s eye and let them see me as they would have to see me were I the man that they know I want to be. So should I become that man they’d be aware of it. I let them become aware of it and I believe in the reality of what I’ve done.821 ¶17

Because who did it? Christ did it, and all things are possible to Christ. Did he really do it? Well, he must have done it, because I did it. And we’re told, “By him all things were made and without him was not anything made that was made.” If I did it, I made it. It’s unseen as yet; it isn’t clothed in three-dimensional form, but I did it. And he is the one who does everything, and all things are possible to him. So my reasoning mind will tell me, well, you don’t know how it’s going to happen. As far as I am concerned, it has happened and I’m only awaiting confirmation. It has happened.821 ¶18

Like scripture, all this is foretold, as we’re told in the 44th of Isaiah, everything is foretold: there isn’t a thing that I haven’t shown you. But who will believe it? And here, everything is told. Now you become a witness to prove how true all that was hidden comes into your being through experience, and you become the witness. I must have two witnesses if I go to court. The outer witness is the Bible; the inner witness is the Spirit, and so when two agree in testimony, it’s conclusive. I have my Bible as a permanent record, and if my experiences parallel the Bible then I am the internal witness; I don’t need anyone else. I stand before the one who judges which is myself in the depths of my soul. I can’t lie to myself. So if I know that I have experienced this, that and the other, I know because I can’t fool myself, I can’t lie to myself. So when we are told, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.” Bring the next witness…so he comes in, and when he comes in, his very life, his very being testifies to the truth of the fact that he has witnessed and experienced scripture. That’s all that we are here for.821 ¶19

But in this wonderful world of Caesar—and it’s for a purpose—it’s a world of educative darkness. So you and I simply can change our environment regardless of where we were born in this world. Don’t complain because you were behind the eight-ball, born on the wrong side of the tracks. It doesn’t really matter if you know God’s law and you’re willing to trust God. God acts in you through your imaginal acts. Well then, single out what you want your friend to be, what you want yourself to be, and believe that they are.821 ¶20

You can start doing this now with a friend in your office. If you are having any problems with him, treat him as kind, as though he were. Treat him as though he were generous. Treat him as though he had intelligence. Treat him as you would like to see him. Do you know, he’ll conform to it. He may be the same rascal to others but to you he wouldn’t be. He has to conform to what you actually persuade yourself that he is, and in your presence and in your world he is the person. You can take anyone in this room…you’re not the same person to any two, far less any twelve. They see you differently, because they see you through their concepts of you; they see you through their assumption of you. Well, what is right?821 ¶21

So tonight, you take yourself, start with self, and try it. See if you do not in the immediate future actually change your world to conform to these changes that take place within your mind. As I change within, I change it without. And how I do it, I don’t know. I only know I believe in the reality of the imaginal act, and then if it takes one person or a thousand people to aid the birth of this imaginal act, it will take one or take a thousand. And really it’s only an extension of myself…they’re all arms of myself. They seem to be detached, but in the end they aren’t. So they’re going to help…they’ll do their part to bring about the birth of what I’ve assumed I am.821 ¶22

And may I tell you, it’s all in scripture. They may even intend it to be evil, they may even intend it to hurt me, but time, on reflection, will prove that God intended it for good. Because, I did it and I intended good…but I did it. Their intention may be evil. When the brothers sold Joseph into Egypt into slavery, and they came and they were filled with remorse, he said, you didn’t sell me into slavery, it was God. “You intended evil against me; but God intended that it work for good”. If you know the story, he became equal with Pharaoh in the ruling of Egypt and he could interpret dreams…the medium through which God speaks to man. So he interpreted the dream. Without his interpretation of the dream, the world would have starved to death, for it lasted seven years. And this famine was so great that no one remembered any time in history when they ever had anything; that’s how intense the famine was. Their very memory faded, they couldn’t remember a moment in time when they had anything. So he prepared, from seven years of plenty he prepared and filled the barns. Every year a certain amount had to be put aside. So when the famine came as foretold, it lasted seven years, and he had enough to take care of civilization.821 ¶23

His brothers came down and they simply were filled with remorse. But he knew they only played parts…he had a job to do…and getting to Egypt he’d be sold there. And the brothers were moved to play the parts they played. So someone may want to hurt you, and time will prove their hurt was used…for all things work for good with those who love the Lord. So everything that was done to him moved to work for good, and he became equal to Pharaoh in power, equal to Pharaoh in might, and yet transcending all in his wisdom; for he was in communion with God and could interpret the language of God. So here, don’t be concerned. If someone tomorrow on the heels of your assumption that things are perfect, accuses you, well, falsely, you’ll prove in time, on reflection, it contributed to what you are, and you’re moving towards the fulfillment of your assumption.821 ¶24

I came from a very small, little island. My family is a large family. The day that my father had this terrific blow in business we all despaired and thought this is the end, this really is the end, the whole bottom of the world has fallen out. Here he had these ten children to feed, to educate, to clothe, a wife, mother-in-law, and the usual help that we need in the Indies…and he had no money but none. Total strangers…not strangers but people that we did not entertain at home and who never entertained us…but they, too, came to his aid. One said, “Joe, what can I do?” Well, he said, “All I need is money and I have none, I have no collateral.” He said, “Alright,”—he was a commissioned agent—he said, “You want to go back into the same kind of business?” My father said, “I know nothing else but. I know how to be a good grocer, meat vendor, liquor salesman, and so these things I can do.” Well, he said, “Find a place, I’ll take care of the rent and I’ll stock you.” He found the place, or we found a place on a little side street. He gave orders to his clerks that every order that came from Mr. Goddard must be filled, no compromise. Fill it without any questions asked, and send no bill until Mr. Goddard pays you. When he feels like paying, he’ll pay. So we had what was to us unlimited credit, in that sense, and as the merchandise moved we paid.821 ¶25

Then on reflection, from that little beginning, the greatest day in my family’s life in the world of Caesar was the day he was wrongfully accused and eased out of this junior partnership in a grocery shop. Because, had he not been eased out he would have simply gone through the next years of his life doing what he did for the first nineteen in that partnership—working hard and getting nowhere. Then he started just with the help of two friends, who never came home for a cup of tea. And so, on reflection, what day in our life as a family could compare to that day!821 ¶26

My brother—not being superstitious, well, he’s a very practical, down-to-earth businessman—because this happened on the 13th day of the month, and he opened his new business on the 13th of the month, he got married on the 13th of the month, the new building was bought for him out of nowhere and now he took his signature on the 13th of the month—no one could come to him and tell him thirteen is unlucky. He waits for the day. Thirteen, as far as he is concerned, that’s the greatest day of the year, certainly of the month. And so, all the major things in his life fell on the thirteenth. And in spite of his know-how and really a terrific businessman, like so many people of the world they carry one little superstition. He carries that.821 ¶27

So here, don’t fall for the thirteenth, fourteenth or any other delay. All days are God’s days, all equal. The thing you must watch is what you are doing in your Imagination, for your every imaginal act is God in action, and all things are possible to God. It’s because of our shortened memory we don’t recognize our own harvest when it appears in the world. We don’t see it. But here, the whole thing comes up to confront us, to fulfill God’s law that all things bring forth after their kind. You can’t plant an apple seed and grow something other than the apple. That happens to everyone in this world.821 ¶28

Who knows that his partners had to do what they did because he was ambitious for his family, and in his daydream he was dreaming of something bigger, something better, to leave his family, to give his family. He never shared that secret with us, but he could have undoubtedly dreamed these things. So having dreamt these things, they played their part, and so he never condemned them. In the very end, if one wanted help, he helped him. They all went to work for other people, eventually, and he was the only one when he died—of course, the others died before him—when he died he could leave his family financial independence. He had a large family, nine sons and one daughter. He didn’t just leave them as a unity, individually they were all independent.821 ¶29

It was all from that little beginning where he started behind the eight-ball. So what was the end of the world as a family became the beginning of a glorious future for all the family.821 ¶30

So if tomorrow your world collapsed after you’ve assumed that you are what you want to be, look upon it as a contributing factor. Time will prove that it is. Don’t get on the phone and call someone and say, “I asked you to help me and look what happened! I was fired!” Best thing in the world! The day I was fired I went to my boss and said, “Why did you fire me?” I was making the large sum of twenty-two dollars a week working for J. C. Penney, busboy, putting hats in bins, and all kinds of things. Any moron could have done what I did. I worked for a year, and one day they fired me. When I asked him why, what have I done that’s wrong, he said, “Not a thing…but you come from a little island where you don’t have the same concept of business that we have, and when business declines we simply let people go.” I said, “What am I going to use for rent and food?” “That’s not my concern.” Well, he must have felt sorry for me and so he gave me a little note to a friend of his who employed people at Macy’s, and said, “He’s a greenhorn, just in from the West Indies, help him out.” I went over to Macy’s and so they gave me eighteen dollars a week.821 ¶31

So one day, instead of being fired I quit…and that was the beginning of my world. I had the courage to quit. And when I quit, and didn’t depend upon Macy’s to feed me or pay my rent, I never worked for another person. Oh yes, I had six Broadway shows, but I never considered myself working for Mr. Schubert. I was an artist and he employed me, and so, when he employed me I never thought that he was my boss. I tore that word completely from my vocabulary and threw it through the window. From then on I was simply on my own. If I starved, no one would know it. I would know it, that’s all.821 ¶32

And so on reflection, my wonderful day was when J. C. Penney fired me, for I might be today the captain of the elevator operators, could easily be. If I held on just as securely and only securely, then longevity would have given me something there, for that’s going all the way back to 1922.821 ¶33

So I say, don’t be concerned if tonight you have a blow, a horrible blow, a great disappointment after you’ve assumed something big and wonderful for yourself; for that assumption is coming into being and has to break up all these things to make way for its birth. When you grow in this world, you outgrow. You can’t grow and not outgrow. And so, the growing pains are painful sometimes.821 ¶34

But I tell you, everyone in the world will witness to the truth of God’s Word, everyone. And the most impossible statement in scripture will one day be experienced by you, and you’ll see how literally true it is. Who would have thought that the statement of “the Rock that begot you you are unmindful, and you forgot the God who gave you birth,” that that Rock and God are the same in scripture? And the Rock from which you drank as you went through the wilderness, that supernatural Rock was Christ? Well then, I saw the Rock, a fragmented being gathered together, and it wasn’t any picture I’d ever conceived of as Christ. Then I understood the epistle of John, “If anyone said, ‘Look, look here…look there, that’s the Christ,’ don’t believe him!” Don’t believe him, why? Because, “It does not yet appear what we shall be. We know when he appears we shall know him”. Because why? We shall be just like him. So when you see that Rock which is Christ assembled into human form, it’s you. And then you know who Christ is, that it’s yourself begotten, that God achieves his limitless desires by putting upon himself these self-imposed restrictions and becoming obedient unto death on the cross that is man.821 ¶35

So, when you leave here tonight, don’t forget it. Try to remember it every moment of time. As you walk the street, no matter what you’re doing, just bear in mind that you are actually creating your future here. Your real future, as I told you earlier, is to fulfill scripture, and that you will do. Your secondary future is to use God’s law wisely while you are in the world of Caesar. Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have the talent, you don’t have this, that and the other. You have all that it takes because you can imagine. If you can imagine, I ask you to imagine the loveliest things in the world. Not only for yourself but for everyone you know, and see how everyone conforms to your Imagination, to what you have imagined them to be. You’ll prove it.821 ¶36

Now before we go into the Silence, I want to remind you, if you don’t come on Tuesday, this coming Sunday, on the 20th, my friend Freedom Barry… * * *821 ¶37