The Man Within Lecture 2

Tonight's subject is the man within. The man within is Jesus Christ. So how will I know that Jesus Christ really is within me? I hope to write to make it just as plain and as clear as I possibly can. I hope. I tell you this because last Monday night I thought it was clear. And the next day, a very dear friend of mine called me and told me that her phone had been busy all morning, where so many who'd been coming over the years were disturbed. It was not clear to them. Something said simply, disturbed. And she herself was disturbed by an answer I gave to some question asked after the meeting. I thought I had made it clear, so tonight, again, I hope I can make it clear.

How do I know that he is within me? Here, let me first turn to a small little poem of Blake. It's called A Little Boy Lost. You will find it in Songs of Experience. Not loves another as itself, nor venerates another so, nor is it possible for thought are greater than itself to know. And God, how can I love you or any of my brothers more? I love you like a little bird that picks up crowns around the door. When the priest heard this, he went into a rage and took the little boy by his hair and led him up to the altars high and burned him as he had many burned before. Here it is impossible for man a greater than himself to know So if I would know God, and God is greater, then God has to become me, that I may discover myself as God.

There is no possibility of my knowing greater than myself. Therefore, if the Lord God who created the universe is greater, and he wants me to know him, I can know no greater than myself. Therefore, God becomes as I am, that I may be as he is. So Paul tells us in his letter to the Galatians: I have been crucified with Christ; I no longer live; it is not I but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and became me. He wanted my love. But I couldn't love something greater than myself. Not love another as itself.

Now I know the so -called holy people of the world will scream like the priest in the little poem because they're not honest with themselves. Or they will say, I love my country so, I'll die for it, if you draft me, and I have no choice in the matter. And I love so and so, so I'll die for him, and all this palaver. And no one really looks right into the mirror of his own mind and is honest with himself. But Blake was. Not love another as itself. Nor venerate another self, nor is it possible for thought a greater than itself to know. So, oh Father, you want my love? Well, then you've got to become me.

Because I don't know you. I can't know anything greater than myself. So would I know you? Well, then become me. And then let me discover you as myself. I'm discovering self. So he plotted and planned the whole thing when he became me. He brought the plan within himself. And then as I discover self, I discover it through the plan. And I reveal myself as he who became me. So this is the mystery of discovering this inner man. I am crucified with Christ. It's the past tense treaty. I have been, for that is over. Now anyone who teaches, Paul tells us, he said it in his second letter to Timothy, anyone, and there are those who teach that the resurrection is over and past.

They are upsetting the faith of some. It is not over. It has started. It's continuing, but it's not over. It's taking place in all in whom he became, and he became all. For he chose us in himself before the foundation of the world, and then came the descent.

Now let me illustrate it with a picture of Blake. You might have seen this. I have it at home. It's a 15 by 12, almost. Not quite 15, not quite 12. Unfortunately mine is black and white. is simply the ladder of Jacob. Well, Jacob is lying flat on his back, eyes closed, head turned to the right, and resting lightly on his shoulder. But the arms are outstretched in the form of a cross. And here he is stretched out, flat on his back, and then arms stretched out in the form of a cross. Then comes the dream, and he has the ladder drawn in a circular stairway. The whole ladder is a circular stairway. Under those descending and ascending, as told us in the 20th chapter of the book of Genesis. It is said in one of the ancient manuscripts, it was the God, the God's descending and ascending. But that's the E, because he only has three manuscripts. The E, the J, and the P. The E manuscript has it, the gods ascending and descending. The others have the angels of God. But call it what you will. The gods ascending and descending. All the gods descending are bringing something. One has a basket on its head. I tried with my magnifying glass to see the contents of the basket. You could see something in it, but what it is I do not know.

But a wicker basket. One has a picture on its right shoulder, a beautiful picture that holds well fluid. It's like Rebecca at the well, that beautiful picture. One has a scroll. One has like a volume. But each coming down has something, a talent they're bringing down into this world. but each going up has a child here is a little child on the shoulder a child in the arms a little child being held by the hand and being laid each has a child on the ascent but all have a talent on the way down that is Blake's wonderful picture of Jacob's ladder.

Now here, let me share with you what was given to me this past week. My friend Bill McGann, he said, I found myself, this is only a week ago that he had this experience, I found myself in a dream. I was lying at the base of a huge tree. Above me, up the roadway, was an enormous door, a big door, and it was barking at me. But it was leeched to a post, and I said to myself, I am all right, because my friend has him. Then I looked up, and I couldn't see the form, but here was the outline of a fiery beam of light, and he started down with the door, and the dog and he came down.

I still could not see the actual form, but there was an outline of this fiery being of light, and as he came down, they went past me. Then he unleashed the door, and then melted into me. At that, as he melted into me and became me, then I thought to myself, I must now get up as fast as I can. And like lightning, I ran up to the very topmost point. And there I said to myself, as the dog started after me, I am now in the top room. And so I am safe. The dog came, and as the dog came in, he came over and licked me on the face. And then I woke, feeling thrilled beyond measure, because I knew it had tremendous significance.

Well, Bill, if you haven't read The Hound of Heaven, do so. Francis Thompson. It's a very small, tiny little poem. It's considered his best. Some people think it is the best thing ever written. I don't, but I think it's perfectly marvelous. It's the hound of heaven, which is Caleb. But the hound of heaven is God. It's God himself. He started off in these words, I fled him down the night and down the day. I fled him down the arches of the year. I fled him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind. and in the midst of tears I hid from him under running laughter. Then the hunt continues as he is running and in the very end the voice now is the hand of heaven which is God and speaks to him and says, I am half -bonded, blinded, weakened.

I am he whom thou seekest thou dravest love from thee who dravest me and that's how it ends it's simply the pursuit of God. What is he seeking? He's seeking your love, for he cannot receive my love that he wants unless he who has infinite love becomes me, for I am incapable of knowing a thing greater than myself, so. So he who is the greater must become me. Actually become me if he would have my love that would satisfy him. For if God is infinite love, he's a lover. And a lover without a beloved is unthinkable. So he needs the beloved. So be it told, I no longer call you slave. I call you friend.

For a slave does not know what his master does. So now you are my friends, he said, for all that I have heard from my father I have made known unto you. For here he becomes as I am, that I may be as he is. So in the descent he brought me down with him. And I went through all the fires, all the afflictions, all the tears, all of everything. thing, but I could not begin the ascent until I was born again. I had to be born from above. Unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Then Nicodemus said to him, how is it possible? One who is old, can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

and he answered you, a teacher of Israel, and you do not understand this, except you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now he gives them the cue. As the wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. it. The Spirit and the wind are the same word both in Hebrew and in Greek. So he tells us what is going to happen. You're going to hear it. It will come as a wind. This fantastic wind. An unearthly wind. Then you'll know this is it. But it is so much a part of you, you don't know until after the event.

When the infant. And so you take your infant up. It's the sign of your birth from above. Where now you discover who you are. You begin to discover God. For you are God. But not until God actually fuses with you and becomes one with you. So I can say to Bill, Christ is now your intimate companion of your soul. He's now within you. And now, all that is said of him, you're going to experience. The birth, the resurrection, the discovery of the fatherhood, all these things will happen in you. They must. For he is fused with you. And you saw Caleb, the hound of heaven, and he comes over as a friend. He kisses you.

That's what a dog does when he licks you in the face. He kisses you. And he kisses only his friend. So you are told in Scripture, not in Scripture, but the way it's interpreted, that he died for sinners. He died for his friends. He died for those that he loved. God is infinitely merciful. So here man is made a living being, but he sleeps, we are told. He's dead. But mercy turned death into sleep. And then the sexes rose to work and weep. but not until mercy turned death into sleep did the sexes rise, and they rose to work and to wean, until that birth takes place from within. There's a little poem by Rilke, and it says, Behold, O man within, the maiden within you.

creature one from a thousand nations creature only just one but never as yet beloved he hasn't yet brought forth the child in fulfillment of the prophecy that here the Lord himself will give you a sign a maiden who can see and bear a son and he shall call his name Emmanuel which is God with us so you brought him brought her forth through a thousand natures all the horrors you've gone through you suddenly discover her you haven't yet really turned her into your beloved it. For you're told it's the woman from above that brings this child into being, and the woman from below brings in these, the garments of flesh, these things that are slave garments.

But there is a woman in man called the Jerusalem from above, and she brings children into freedom. And the Jerusalem from below is Hagar, and she brings them into sleep. So here, the woman within, you create by the life that you lead. I saw it so clearly when I saw this angelic being. You never saw such beauty in your life. At the same time, I saw this monstrous being. one was the result of all of my misplaced energy all of my violence went right into this monster and all of my ideals and my faith that I kept when I was faithful to the vision in time of trouble it all went into this noble creature and then came that moment in time when both confronted me this beauty beyond measure and this monster and when I discovered that the monster was my own creator, I made a pledge to myself, not to another, I'll redeem him.

If it took me eternity, I'll redeem him. And before my eyes, he melted. And the energy returned to me, who had misused it. And my energy felt so great at that moment. At that moment, I never felt such intensity, such power. And this one loathed. He thought it would be destroyed. He is the maiden within me who brought forth the child. So every one is acting. This story is told by Ruthie. Behold, O man within, the maiden within you. Rejoice. Now, or now one, from a thousand nations. Now this is the inner man. man. The inner man has powers beyond the wildest dream of anything on earth. So let me share with you now another one of a friend of mine who is here tonight, Sharon.

And she said it happened to her here recently. He got a new edition of the book called The Lost and Forgotten Book of the Bible and Eden. He said, I sat there and began to read from the beginning. When I got to the 13th chapter, the third through the seven verses, suddenly I went cold. For here I am reading in a book, supposed to be the last books of the Bible, and Eden. And I am reading an experience of myself that happened to me when I was 14 years old. for when I was 14 here I sat at the dinner table with my father, mother and sister my mother had occasion to go to the kitchen I could see her through the door open the refrigerator and she called from the kitchen to me and she said Sharon, would you like a glass of milk?

and I said I'd love it, thank you I saw her pour it into the glass I saw her put the container back and then she came in, and at the moment that she offered me the milk, at that moment, time stood still. I looked at my mother, and here, she is completely unaware of what is taking place. Not a thing has moved, it's all frozen. My father, my sister was like a blur. But everything is frozen, frozen, and time stands still. And suddenly, it all began to move. My father was beginning to chew something when he couldn't, and suddenly he continued the action. My mother continued the action, my sister, and I jumped from the table, ran to my bedroom, threw myself on the bed, and I was not, but I could not stop the tears.

I cried and cried and cried. my parents justified it by saying, well, teenage emotionalism all little girls go through it she's 14 years old, boys go through it just a teenage explosion she said, at the moment I felt I was crying for everyone in the world because they didn't understand it the world is dead it's animated by the Lord Jesus Christ Christ, who became us. And in her, the tasting of the powers that will be hers in the new age. And so one moment, and it could have been several moments, but all things continued as though these moments did not stand still. And to them, they did not stand still. So what I asked my mother recently about it, she said, no, she has no memory of that, just just an upset.

And she asked, is that similar to your experience of entering into a place in spirit when everything stood still? I said, yes, it's identical with that. You tasted of the power of the age to come. Now here, he said, as I read the book, I was so frozen to see that here recorded in what is called the lost books of the Bible and Eden, an experience of my own that happened when I was 14, that I quickly turned a whole page over and all the pages to the very end, just to get away from it. And here before my eyes, this is what I read. A cup of milk was offered to me, and I drank it.

A cup of milk was offered to me, and I drank it. In the sweetness of the light of the Lord. The son is the cup. He who was milked is the father. Old 19 of the Odes of Solomon. Then she underscores the thought. There is no escape. No, there isn't. How will you tell the world that this whole vast world truly is dead? And we descend into it. Animated. For we descend with Christ. And we animate it. And the whole thing goes on and on. And we play our part. At intervals, as we're beginning to awake, we stop it. We stop a few moments of it to see the whole thing is dead. And then we become locked in it once more and play it again.

At another moment, we stop it again. Maybe a year later. Maybe ten years later. For I've had these moments scattered over the years. And it's fantastic. You almost forget that you did it before until all of a sudden you stop it again to bring back to memory the death that is here. So when Blake speaks of this as eternal death, he knows what he's talking about.

That here it is of the passive through eternal death and of the awakening through eternal life. So the question that disturbed me the other night was when my friend Jack, who is here tonight, asked concerning concerning the one birthed through the womb. For I quote it from the ninth chapter of Hebrews, that it is given to men to die once, then comes judgment. And then we are told, for Christ was offered once, but he shall come a second time, not concerning any sin, but to stay those who are eagerly waiting for him. His return is when he awakens in us; that's his return. No being coming from without. For if there be a Christ other than he who is crucified on us and who rose and continues to rise in us, he is a false Christ; there is no other Christ but the Christ who was crucified on us. He rose in John Brown, in Mary Smith, in so and so, but he's rising, and he's continued to rise until all are resurrected. So the rebirth is through the resurrection of Christ in us, as we are told in Peter.

Man is born from above through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Well, if you aren't born from above, is the resurrection over? You have to say no. Therefore, those who teach that the resurrection is past and over are upsetting the faith of some. It took place, yes, but it is taking place in everyone in the world. And when it takes place in the individual, there is no doubt as to what happened. He found himself rising within himself.

Now here, take the story of Jacob and the ladder. He came to a place, it was late, and he took a stone and used it for a pillow, put his head upon it. Now you think a man took a little stone. Every night that you go to bed, you put your being on that pillow. The skull is that stone on which you rest night after night. When I lay down at night, I'm on the stone. Then we are told he saw this ladder that was set up from earth to heaven with the gods ascending and descending on the ladder. And the Lord God stood above it.

Now it says stood above it. Well, the word translated above it literally means top. It actually means the highest point. Well, the highest point, the drama is taking place in me. That spinal or that serpentine ladder is my own wonderful back. That's how I go up. So the top of it is my skull. So when the Lord stood at the top above it, where is he standing? The Lord entered death's door, my skull, with me. when I entered and laid down in the grave with me to share with me my visions of eternity, my dreams, until I wake.

And when I wake, I will know who I am. I am he. And I will see the living clothes, not these things here, but the garment, which I discard. It was my emanation, but now I discard it as I begin now to ascend.

And in the ascent, I will take the sign of my birth, I'll take the child. In that ascent of Blake, all had the child. Everyone a child. And it fades into the distance. You can't paint it in that form. How would you paint it within a man?

So you've got to use your imagination when you see the wonderful picture.

So you see a man lying flat on his back. and then you see this wonderful circular stairway and you think it's something on the outside. It's all within himself that the drama is taking place.

So this man within is your own wonderful human imagination. It's the awakening of the imagination.

But if I am incapable of knowing a greater than myself, and there is a greater than myself, that greater self, if it desires me to know him or it, it must become me if I would know him.

For it is impossible for thought a greater than itself to know.

But if I cannot know greater than myself, and there is a greater than myself who desires that I could know him, well then let him become me.

And so he becomes as I am, that I may be as he is.

So this is our story concerning the inner man.

Don't be concerned about it. Don't be frightened. It's the most fantastic play in the world. the greatest play ever, completely misunderstood.

When certain little isms claim that they have all the truth, truth is an ever -increasing illumination.

So although I said in one way, I said, I only die once.

I am born twice. I am born into this world, and then I am reborn from above, well, which allows me to enter the other age, the two ages altogether.

But I can use the word die in many ways.

Paul said, I die daily. Well, he doesn't mean it in another sense.

For instance, he said, I die daily. I die daily too, if I change my ideas concerning anything.

If an experience of tonight forces me to change, sometimes only a little way, but quite often a radical change of the ideas that I sponsor.

Well, then, am I honest enough to face the same audience and confess the change?

I must be that honest.

If tonight an expansion in consciousness forces me to modify or radically change the ideas that I champion, well, now, as I expand and expand, I've got to, for I'm ever expanding and therefore growing and outgrowing.

So Paul said, I die every day. saying.

Blake made the statement that death is the greatest thing in life. There's nothing like death. But he said, most people die so late and take such an unmerciful time in dying, God knows their neighbors never see them rise from the grave. Well, you see what a different concept he had of death. He had an enlarged meaning for the word death. He wrote his own obituary, his epitaph, the year before he died. And this is what he said. William Blake, who was very much delighted to be with good company, born the 28th of November, 1757, in London, and has died several times since. Well, you read Amain's epitaph, and that's what he said. Well, he was growing from the time that he became aware that the world was all imagination.

And so one day, all these scientists got around and were discussing about the vastness of the universe, this enormous immensity of space, and they're speaking of light years. And he said to them, it's all false. Last evening, I went to the heat and put my finger upon the sky. You doubt it? it? I don't. The whole thing is within you. The whole vast universe is contained within man. All that I behold, though it appears without, it is within, in my imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. And so he would have none of it. God is not a mathematical design, a diagram. God is your own wonderful human imagination. He became you.

that you may actually know the infinity of his own being, which is your being. For unless he became you, what could you do? You could never in eternity know more than yourself, not in eternity. It is impossible for thought a greater than itself to know. Therefore, if I cannot know anything greater than myself, and there is a greater being, and he desires me to know him, I can't know him unless he becomes me. And so God becomes as I am, that I may be as he is. And therefore from then on it's only self -discovery. So people speak of discovering God, I'm discovering only myself. But I will read the story, what did they say of God?

Well they said he was born differently. In what way was he born differently? Well, the one who begot him, who brought him forth didn't know a man. And it is said that she conceived of the Holy Spirit. And then when those came to bear witness to this birth, they were told a sign would be given them. And the sign would be a little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. That would be a sign. But he was born. That was a sign of his birth. Only a sign. Well then, all of a sudden it happened. Happened to you. But what else did he say? He said, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Who is speaking?

The Lord God. To whom did he speak? To David. And David recorded it in the second Psalm. I will tell of the decree of the Lord. He said unto me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Then comes an explosion. Where? In your head. Where the whole drama takes place. And what happens? Here stands David. And he is calling me father. And I know I am his father. And there is no other way to know that I am God the father other than his own son calling me father. So he is not compromising his gift. He gives me his entire being. Then what comes next? He tells me that he's going to take his own blood as the sacrifice of his journey, not the blood of another.

And all of a sudden, the veil, we are told, is split from the top to the bottom. And then I find the veil is my own body, as told us in Hebrew. And the veil, he rent the veil from top to bottom, and the veil of the temple was his own place. I find my own body split in two and parted. I see the blood, living blood, and I am it, for life is in the blood. And I am life. And life is an activity of my imagining, because I have discovered it. I imagined and stopped it, and things froze. I released it, and they continued working. I froze it again, and they stopped. And so I fused now with my own blood.

I didn't take the blood of a bull or a goat or any other blood. I took my own blood and up I went in the form of a serpent. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up in the same serpentine manner. But now I know that happened to the Lord, for he calls himself the Son of Man. Well, I am a son of man, and so up I went in that manner. And then we are told of the Lord that it was said, anyone in whom you see the dove descend, rather the Holy Spirit descend, and remain upon him, that's he, the Lord's anointing.

And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Well, the day came that the dove descended in bodily form, which is simply the form that the Holy Spirit presents as himself. And it descends and it remained. and smothered me with kisses. So then I knew that the whole drama was unfolding within me. ¶Now go and tell it. Tell it to everyone. If they turn their back upon you, I have made your forehead like a flit. And so you will keep it and will not turn back and modify it because they will not accept it or understand it. So you keep going and it doesn't matter what they do. If they are like flit, I'll make yours even more so.

And to let the whole world say it isn't so, it doesn't really matter. I'm telling you, the drama is not outside of you. The drama is in you. And that goes for everything in your world. Your business is not on the outside. Your business affairs is taking place within you. You can be a success or a failure. It's all within you. The minute you turn on the outside and think, he will help me, he will help me, they will help me, you're lost. God doesn't need anything because he became you. And he's your own wonderful human imagination. That's who God is. And so here, when the priest took him by the hair, and then took him up and said, what a fiend have we here.

The little boy is not a little child, it's every person in the world. It's you, it's me. that we come to this conclusion based upon vision. And man without vision, trying to keep alive the traditions of his earthly parents, he will call us a fiend. And if the day allows him to burn us, he'll burn us. There were days when they were allowed to burn them and call them heretics. But that day has passed for a moment, only for a moment. It's a circle, it'll come again. And they will take over and burn. But those whom God afflicts for secret ends, he comforts and heals and calls them friends. The miniature called a friend, that's important.

And so when the dog came up, hung to heaven and kissed him, he only kissed the friend. And so he's called a friend. So in him tonight, Christ is his intimate companion. And he will never leave them, not in eternity. And so he will lean against this in time of trouble. He'll remember this experience. If things go wrong, he'll remember it shouldn't, but nevertheless it has. Therefore, I'll get back and recognize the one who loved me. Who not only loves me, but he became me. He melted into me. He took off the leash from the hound of heaven, turned around, and melted into me. And he hasn't left me. and then the hound of heaven, who is the Lord himself, gives me.

Does he not kiss his son? When you read scripture, you've got to be so careful because translations are strange. For instance, here's the one I started off tonight. In the King James Version, they will put it in the present tense. I am crucified with Christ. The real translation is, I have been crucified. That is found in the Revised Standard Version. But as we go on, the King James has a far clearer expression. And it is this. The same word translated of in Son of God is the word that comes just before it, which in the King James Version is translated of. But in the Revised Standard Version, it's translated in. That's false. For instance, let me quote it.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and became me. Not my faith in him. It's all the difference in the world. And the identical word translated of Son of God is the word that precedes it. Therefore, the King James Version gives us the right translation, not the revised standard. It is not my faith in God. I don't know if it exists. It is God who desires me to know of him and to love him. Therefore, it is his faith that sustains the whole.

when he becomes me now I take on this part of your faith and apply it on this level in the world of Caesar but I am sustained by his faith the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me how did he do it? he became me he died he forgot his infinite being and took upon himself the form of this slave faith, this servant, and then I begin to expand, discovering more and more of myself, which would be impossible if that greater had not become me. I hope that is clear tonight. And whatever I said in answer to my friend Jack's question that confused a few of you, I regret it, but I hope this has made it clearer.

Thank you.