The past week our assignment has been to discover what would happen when some unusual, unexpected challenge came along that decidedly brought about a disapproval, or some slander, or what-have-you to us. This week we will consider some more things that might be well to experiment with in our everyday existence. This will be in a slightly different field.

A general idea of so many people that have not experimented with it, but only dreamed about it is that the spiritual life is one of ease – that one attains some state or some “thing” and that then all is reward from there on.

But really the spiritual life is not a reward. It is experienced by those that have been in the spiritual life a long time that actually there is ever a greater challenge, ever a greater responsibility from everything that one experiences. Then one begins to experience still greater challenges and greater responsibilities. It seems that there is always a challenge that is, at least, a little beyond one’s present place in the spiritual world, regardless of what one has experienced. There is always just a little more challenge than one is quite capable of handling, because at that moment one sees where there are still things in the self that are obstructing, that is interfering with the greater and deeper experiences.

So, one doesn’t reach a plateau, or a level, or an exalted position and thereafter sit down and say, “I have it made!” You see, it’s not like the world when we get to retirement stage, but many seem to think it is like that.

Luke, Chapter 12

The assignment for this week is from Luke in Chapter 12. We will start reading at verse 13, and we will make comments as we go along as it applies to each of us, and as we will apply it through the coming week, the coming month, the coming year, and the coming century.

“Now, one out of the crowd said to him; Master, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Someone had passed away and the older brother had the inheritance and he was probably the administrator of the estate, as we would say today; and a younger brother was saying, ‘Master, get this brother of mine to give me what is rightfully my own so I can be happy.’ You know, brother was the cause of all his trouble.

“But the Master said to him; Man, who has appointed me a judge or arbitrator over you? And He said to them; Take heed – pay attention – and guard yourself from all covetousness, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

A man’s life is his inner spiritual body, his inner spiritual frame of reference, the things he has experienced himself. But most generally we talk about how much a man is worth. He is worth $50,000 net, he’s worth $500,000, that man is a millionaire. We generally evaluate a man according to his physical possessions. We don’t even think about wondering even about his inner state, his inner riches, his frame of reference, his spiritual body. We seldom give the spiritual body a passing thought, even in self.

“But he spoke a parable to them, saying: The land of a certain rich man brought forth abundant crops, and he began to take thought within himself, saying; what shall I do? For I have no room to store my crops.”

I’m really in a predicament. Here the whole field has brought forth a bumper crop and I don’t even have space to store it away. What in the world will I do?

“Then he said: I know what I’ll do. I will pull down my barns and build larger ones and there I will store up all my grain and my goods; and I will say to my soul, – his awareness – soul, thou has many good things laid up for many years. Take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry.”

In other words, now I can retire and have an abundance. I can go to Florida in the winter, I can go to Minnesota in the summer; I can go to the coast and sail a boat; I can go to the mountains in the hot weather; and I can go to all the “in” spas in the world where all he “jet set” goes. I’ve really got it made, I have truly self-improved. Now he has a sign and a demonstration that his self-improvement towards the ideal of being non disturbed has been achieved. Isn’t that wonderful?

“And I will say to my soul, soul, thou has many good things laid up for many years. Take thy ease, eat, drink and be merry. But God said to him: Thou fool, this night do they demand thy soul of thee, and the things that thou has provided, whose will they be?”

In other words, he dies tonight. Was he so smart, after all? Because in his greed to have security, to have the signs and the wonders that he had improved, thinking what a wonderful farmer he was that his crops were so big they couldn’t be stored, he had to tear down the barns and build new ones. But now after this bumper crop, “I can retire, I have everything I need.” This is called success, is it not?

“So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich as regards toward God.”

He is not obedient to his nature as being an observer and a reporter to X. He is building no spiritual body by experimenting with seeing what this crippled spiritual body that has usurped and taken over the being, that state of conditioning ruled by mammon. Obviously the man was thinking of mammon – the ideal to have everything where he would have pleasure and comfort, attention and approval, he was important, he had enough to control everything so that he could buy anything and everything and maybe every person he really wanted.

But what does all that amount to when a man falls dead from a heart attack tonight? Not very much, does it? Somebody else will spend the loot and really not much happens. So when our total idea is to be secure, or even when it is very small, as one may have experienced many things, and the urge to be secure gets smaller; but the suggestion from every side is that security is the whole purpose of existence – that one should be secure so one may retire in one’s latter years and that one can then have social security checks, and retirement checks, and that one can have dividends, and that one can have annuities coming in – and then that one can do as one pleases, can’t one? Then one has then really obtained success! One has a sign and a demonstration that one has somewhat nearly approached the ideal. There is still something that he didn’t take into consideration… can he buy life?

“But he said to his students: Therefore, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life.”

Now, here’s where we start the assignment for this week. We are going to take these and see how many of them we can live by, without suddenly fouling up. In other words, it will tell us whether or not there are still many areas of the self that have been unobserved by I, the observer, and reported to X. So let’s take these and see how many of em – as they occur in the next few weeks – that we can see them as they are.

“Therefore, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life – what you should eat, nor yet for your body what you should put on.” What kind of clothes you wear. How am I gonna get a new suit, etc.?

“The life is a greater thing than the food, and the body than the clothing. Consider the ravens. They neither sow nor reap. They have neither storeroom nor barn; yet God feeds them. Oh, how much more value are you than they. But which of you by being anxious about it – making it important and so forth – can add to his stature a single cubit?”

We shall say today a single inch. How many of us, if we are 6’1″ can by taking thought – even positive thought, now, and really thinking positive about it for many days – can be 6’2″? That is, of course considering that we are an adult, grown up.

“Therefore, if you are not able to do even a very little thing, why are you so anxious concerning the rest?”

Here is the reminder: we don’t even know how to walk, we don’t know how to grow, we don’t know how to throw a ball, we don’t know how to move an arm, a leg. We don’t know how to eat; but still all of it takes place. And if you can’t even do these little things, why be so anxious about what’s going to happen tomorrow, the next day, the next week? Where is the money coming from to get new clothes? Where is the money coming from to buy food? Have enough food today? Have enough clothes today?

“Consider…” – which means to think deeply about, take it under due observation – “Consider how the lilies grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I say to you that not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed like one of these. But if God so grows the grass, which grows in the field today, but tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more you, oh you of little Faith!”

One who has not experienced Faith, here is the challenge – to find out why one hasn’t experienced more Faith – why one hasn’t experienced it in any greater degree. Something is obstructing it and where is that obstruction? It is some unobserved area of the self, some area that mammon can still get a word in and say, “But look, you must make arrangements so you will be comfortable later. You will have to have food, and you will have to have clothing, those are essential.”

And of course that sounds very logical. So here is the area where one is given a challenge. He said,

“Oh, you of little Faith.”

If you have little Faith you have experienced very little or maybe none of Faith. It is a spiritual experience that, it is said, is possible to man. We will find out if by continually observing the self – the foxes and the more cunning ways as they maneuver so that they cannot be observed as easily. It takes more acute observation. It takes more acute listening to the inner speaking that goes on all the time that we commonly call thought. It is to be heedful, take attention, pay attention to it. It is not as crude as it used to be; it’s more subtle now. So we have to pay more attention and then when one has Faith – not just a little or maybe none – then the things that are being challenged here, one can do.

Now, if you tried to do it by an act of will, by an act of appearing to be different, and you really didn’t feel it within and think, “I will go ahead and do this. I’ll put on the act,” one might find oneself in a rather precarious position. Because one has not used the ordinary mammon’s judgment. And neither has one Faith, so one is in a state of neither. What is being challenged is not to be foolhardy – not to pretend, not to put on words, and certainly not to act as though one already had, but is to observe what the obstruction is – that one does not have Faith at this moment.

You see, it is a challenge and the challenge says: “Well, look, I don’t know, I couldn’t see how I would have food and clothing if I didn’t make these certain arrangements, if I didn’t take precautions.” So he says “of little Faith.” All right, I have a little Faith. NOW I HAVE MADE A DISCOVERY. I have a very small amount of Faith. I’ve only experienced very little – enough to get up and walk to the door, enough to turn the light switch, and enough to depend on the car. But I haven’t got enough to see that food, clothing, and shelter will be provided for me the same as the plants in the field and the birds in the air do. But I must have an obstruction to Faith. At least, it’s worth looking and finding out if that kind of Faith is possible to experience, not to force on oneself.

We have observed a few who tried to pretend they had Faith when they didn’t. The pretension always shows through; and it shows through very quickly. So we are not interested in pretending that we have Faith. We are interested in having a challenge to see that we have little or no Faith. And seeing that everything that there is everything that there is that hasn’t occurred in the spiritual realm in man is because there is an obstruction to it. So now we will take up observing the self in all its hidden little corners and throwing more light in it that we may discover the obstructions. It continues,

“And as for you, do not seek what you shall eat or what you shall drink and do not exalt yourself.”

And say look here, I’ve really got food and clothing stored up. Cause that says when one exalts oneself one is saying, “I” have self-improved. and “I” am approaching the ideal – look at me, look at me, look at me! And one goes and tells everyone how wonderful he is doing. Sometimes we call that bragging; sometimes it’s called other things, but I have heard it called “testimony,” I believe.

“For after all these things the nations of the world seek.” The world is the nations that seek for Ideals, self-improvement, signs and demonstrations, and for what to blame.

“But your Father knows that you need these things.”

He knows… X is well aware that It needs food, clothing, shelter, transportation – like when one is aware, “I need a drink.” And you know, you get up and walk to the water fountain or wherever the source of water is and you drink; and you take that for granted. That act is an act of Faith. It’s a little Faith, which is why we probably haven’t paid much attention to it.

“But the Kingdom of God and all these things shall be given you besides.”

If you continue in that seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these other things – these little insignificant things of food, clothing, shelter and transportation – will be provided for you. It is rather strange that as soon as one is really diligently seeking that spiritual area of experience, when one is experiencing things, one is seeking to remove the obstructions to the prevention of the various spiritual experiences, it seems that the necessities of life come fairly easy. They come from various and sundry unexpected sources. It is not a struggle or a strain and neither is it that one never works. There is just an opportunity presents itself. This many have discovered. If you haven’t already, you will.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom.”

In other words, they are having the Teaching and so it must be pleasing to something to give it to them.

“Sell what you have and give alms.”

You don’t need all the stored up things; enough for this week, this day, this month is enough. But you know, the things that we have stored up for our old age, and for security, and for vacations, and so forth. He says, “Sell em!”

“Make for yourself purses that do not grow old, a treasure unfailing in Heaven.”

A spiritual body of the spiritual experiences. How do they come about? By removing the obstructions that are in the self to one experiencing that which is real. And these, it says, are unfailing. They never die. They are not rusted and the moths don’t eat it. But we could have all the things on the earth stored up, including gold, silver, diamonds and rubies, and the thieves can break in and steal them and we have nothing. But every spiritual experience that comes about one has the capability of being experienced day by day: Confession, Repentance, Baptism, Being a New Man, Seeing Differently, Agape, maybe Grace, maybe Faith… as they come.

Then one has a completed spiritual body of experiences. Then one is Living! And there is Living when there is always work. And as far as we all know, there is some ways always a challenge on beyond to use all those.

“Make for yourself purses that do not grow old, a treasure unfailing in heaven, where neither thief draws near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.”

That which is really valued by one, there’s where one’s heart or attention is, where one’s whole awareness is concentrated. Now, is our awareness on experiencing the realities of spiritual experiences? If we do, our attention is on the self to observe where it still has dark corners, where there are new suggestions falling into it in moments when one is taking a nap, so to speak. One isn’t paying attention and the suggestion finds lodging and falls within. Or we can be striving for physical wealth, physical objects that represent wealth – buildings, land, stocks, bonds, coupons, money, various and sundry kinds of properties. Now, all of these are fairly well to use – it is only when one makes them important or depends upon them, or looks to them as a source of what is worthwhile: to use them as tools for the benefit of all mankind.

One has a business and that business provides a service or a product that other people everywhere roundabout want, then one is making a contribution. But if one is using that same business for a place to accumulate security, then it’s an entirely different thing. You see, it’s always the inner meaning of a thing that counts. It is not the outward form in either place.

There’s two men, we will say, running a business side by side. One man is seeing that his business is making a contribution to the community. To him flows enough money that he has what he needs. He may not get rich; but he has food, clothing, shelter, probably transportation, and he is making a contribution to the community of beings thereabouts. The man next door has a similar store and provides something that people want. But he sees it as a means to accumulate wealth, as a means to accumulate so that he can be like the man with the barn, that he can store up sufficient, that he can say to his soul, “Soul, take thy ease. You’ve got things stored up for many years.”

These on the outward appearance are two about the same type of businesses, run approximately in the same neighborhood. But the inner states of those two men is as different as noonday and midnight. One is building at least some degree of a spiritual body. The other is totally unaware of the spiritual body, is totally intent upon serving mammon. He is not thinking of serving the people or making a contribution. He is serving security – to accumulate. And those businesses are very, very different in everything about them. But the main thing we are interested in is the inner state of the men that operate the businesses.

So, it is not that one throws away things, disposes of it, and gives it to alms. Sometimes one gives more by operating a given business than one would by selling the business and going and giving to the poor families around the area. Sometimes he contributes more by setting up a place where people can work and provide a service for the community, making a contribution more than he would than if he gave everybody a few dollars. Suppose we consider, a man had $100,000 – we’ll take a round number – and there were 100 families in the area that he knew about that were in the needy way. They have less than sufficient clothing, they have less than adequate nutrition, and possibly less than adequate housing. So he decided to give his $100,000 away. He takes $1,000 to each of the needy families and gives it to them. Nobody knows it but him. So he’s done something very worthwhile, one might say. But very shortly the $1,000 will be gone and while the families have had some relief from their discomforts, etcetera, they are still unable to provide for themselves and shortly will be back in the same way.

Suppose he took the $100,000 and invested it in tools so that he could put 100 men to work. He would still have the $100,000 in the form of tools. He could hire the l00 men and he would be making a much greater contribution, possibly, than he did when he was “helpful,” and gave them all $1,000.

So when it says dispose of something or sell it, it means to cease to identify with it, cease to see it as important, to see it now as a tool, to see it as something to work with that does not belong to me. It is a means and a way of making a contribution. So one can dispose of everything one owns and still use some tools and possibly make a very decided contribution.

So let’s see this week if we can discover how little Faith we have or how much. And then we will see, possibly, that there is still need and requirement to be observing the self to see the obstructions to Faith.