We are here - Here in the Worlds of Existence on an adventurous journey; an extended trip into space, place and time.  From our home in Beingness we project a ray of our Spirit-Soul in to the Worlds of Existence with purpose to experience the extent of God’s creation.  Fortunately we all have a round trip ticket, which means that one day we are destined to return back to our real home, our Divine Nature and our truest of families in Eternity - in the Eternal Now.

While on this journey, we as personalities, have a temporary subsistence here in these Worlds of Existence.  Yet as a Spirit-Being we are, have always been, and always will be in Eternity.   The core of our existence as a personality is but a projection of a single luminous ray of our Spirit-Soul-Being from Eternity into Existence.   In Existence, we dress this Spirit-Soul ray with our emotions, desires, thoughts and behaviors thus creating a transient self-awareness we call our personality.   The quality of the character of this personality-self is primarily determined by the quality of the emotions and thoughts we harbor and express in this lifetime.

So we have two states, the changing, relative reality of the Worlds of Existence and the permanent, absolute reality of Beingness.   Existence has a definite beginning and end.  However, Beingness is Eternal.  It has no beginning.  It has no end.   In Existence there is a conditional sense of space, place and time.   Incarnated in the material world of existence we find ourselves here in a certain space-place at a certain moment in time but in a few hours time we may be in another space-place.  Beingness is not like that.  In Beingness it is always here and always now – the Eternal Present.    

Our Selfhood partakes and enjoys both of these states of reality – the constantly changing states of Existence and Eternal Beingness.  We as Spirit-Soul Beings are (Eternal) and we also have a temporary expression as personality.  Likewise, Life is (Eternal) but also Life expresses a temporary existence as all the forms of life on Earth and in the other Worlds of Existence.   Now, all forms of life are under constant change.  The forms expressing Life may come and go but the Life animating these forms cannot be destroyed.  Life may pass beyond our ability to perceive it but that does not mean it ceases. 

To trace our Selfhood from its lowest expressions of our human nature here in the Worlds of Existence to its Eternal source in Beingness, the image of a line is given.  The analogy of the line represents our Self as a point extending itself into a line.  With any line there are three distinguishable points – one on each end of the line and an invisible point in the middle of the line.   If we envision a line running left to right, we can call the point from the middle to the right, our self as a temporary present-day personality in time/place Existence.   The section of the line from the middle to the left represents our Self as Spirit - Eternal in Beingness.  The point in the middle is our Self as Soul / Permanent personality.  

In the illustration  below, from the mid point to the left end of the line is our immortality, bright luminous and unchanging.   From the mid point to the right end of the line is our mortal personality self, seen as a line with three gradations representing our material body, psychical body, and noetical body.  In expression, this personality self is but a reflection of our real Self, cast in the time-space-place Worlds of Existence.  The personality’s expression in these three worlds may be that of a saint or a sinner or something in between.  Yet at the core of all personalities, the pure, uncontaminated ray of our Spirit-Being shines brightly.  

In the illustration below, the left side of the line represents our Individuality, our real identity, and the right side is our personality associated with our current lifetime.  This present-day personality is composed of all our human expressions - our thoughts and emotions (good or bad). It is this transient personality that we mistake as our real Self.  And this personality has three bodies, each of which corresponds with one of the three Worlds of Existence. The material body belongs to the three dimensional material plane.  Our psychical body belongs to the psychical worlds of the fourth dimension and our noetical body belongs to the noetical worlds of the fifth dimension. 

In the illustration below, the mid point of the line represents our Soul Personality or Permanent Personality, which contains all of the experiences our previous personalities have gathered and distilled from all past incarnations. Some call the Permanent Personality the feet of the Soul.  Others call it the seat of the Soul.  It is this part which projects a ray of itself into the Worlds of Existence; reincarnating again and again as a new personality. 

This ray is seen as the symbolic backbone of each new incarnation.  It is on this ray as a backbone, we build the character of our personality by our unique ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.  And in each new incarnation there is a continuation, a carry over from the previous incarnations.  As we bring into each new incarnation the lessons learned and not learned from our previous life times. In each incarnation we pick up where we left off and continue on with our lessons and interests.  A single incarnation is the extension of the Permanent Personality into the worlds of Separation, manifesting a unique existence as a personality and then withdrawing back again. 

 

We should not imagine a rigid separation between our Spirit-Soul Self and its projections/incarnations into the world of matter.  Likewise, we should not consider Spirit and Matter as two disconnected and diametrically opposed states.  Consider three dimensional material substance as the densest manifestation of Spirit.  Consider the forth dimensional psychical substance as a less dense manifestation of Spirit.  And consider the fifth dimensional noetical substance an even finer manifestation of Spirit.  And the Holy Mind is the means by which Spirit (God) and His Archangelic emissaries manifest the material, psychical and noetical Worlds of Existence.   Of course the above two dimensional illustration, is not capable of adequately depicting the  3rd, 4th, 5th dimensional worlds.  But it can serve as a symbolic reference of these planes of existence and our Selfhood.

After many, many incarnations and many, many life-lessons learned we might begin to seek liberation - salvation from the purifying fires of incarnation in these Worlds of Existence. We then seek to return back home to our real nature in the unity with God the father.  But this journey back home is not measured in terms of time and distance.  It is a journey from illusion to truth, from shadows to light, from mortality to immortality.  When we tire sufficiently of feeling separated from the Love, Wisdom and Power of our own Divine Nature we long to reunite with it.  We eventually recognize our predicament and begin to make earnest efforts to come out of our pain, confusion and suffering.  

Nowhere is this human sojourn of going out and returning home more perfectly explained than in Joshua’s parable of the Prodigal Son (Lost Son).  This parable contains great truths concerning humankind and the conditions we all  face in life.   This story of the Lost Son is also a cornerstone of the teachings of the Researchers of Truth.  

This parable tells us: 
[i] "There was a man who had two sons.  The younger one said to his father, `Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.

 "Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living.  After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
 

"When he came to his senses, he said, `How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.'  So he got up and went to his father.

"But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

"The son said to him, `Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. '

"But the father said to his servants, `Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.

"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. `Your brother has come,' he replied, `and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'

"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, `Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'

"`My son,' the father said, `you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

So we see in this parable the great truth concerning the journey of humankind into a transient condition of separation here in the Worlds of Existence and back home again.  We are all prodigal sons/daughters, though some live more prodigally than others.  Yet, if we study our own life conditions in life deeply, we will find ourselves at some point in this common journey.   Some may still find themselves seeking meaning or happiness in a prodigal life.   Others may be reaching the turning point in this sojourn where we “come to our senses” and decide to leave our self-created conditions of sufferings and illusions to return home to our Divine Nature.  

This is a very, very precious point in the process of awakening and coincides with the 7^th Divine Ray meditation.   This is the point where we can authentically proclaim: “I am a son/daughter of God and I am ready to act like one.”

May God bless your steps from here to Eternity,

Daniel
September, 14, 2004