Jacob and Esau Reconcile (Rabel)

Jacob and Esau Reconcile

Now, we're dealing with the character of Jacob in a new dimension. We're dealing with a faculty in us which is now not gathering facts about truth, acquiring and piling up observable or recorded knowledge, but now we have truth thinking going on n us. This is a new dimension of our mentality and the wonderful result of this change of name is described in Chapter 33; beautiful reconciliation of Jacob, now Israel, and Esau.

For a time, in our unfoldment, our human mind, Jacob, and our physical body and it's consciousness, do not function as twine, but almost as strangers. Our intellect is seen to go on its separate way while our body consciousness did the best it could on its own. What I've just said now, friends, is a very generalized description of the average state of the average state of the average person. The mentality is going its own merry way, to do its own thing as best it can. We are at this stage, unaware of the very, very close connection of the two. We believe that our mind is one thing, and that it had a perfect right to think in whatever manner it chose. It does have that right, that responsibility, but with taking advantage of that privilege, there is going to be a price to pay, which in some cases we may not deem worth it, but that privilege is there. We believe that the mind had a perfect right to think in whatever manner it chose and however it functioned was its own business. Also, we believe that our body was just a physical organism which nature gave us, and we were sort of stuck with. We just used it according to our appetites or ambitions, but did not correctly evaluate or show much genuine respect for it.

It was only when our body gave us much pleasure or pain that we paid full attention. Also, subconsciously, we harbored a secret fear of its power to kill us. This period in our consciousness is symbolized in Genesis as that period during which Jacob and Esau were estranged twins. But, after Jacob's change of name, symbolizing a change in us from intellectual struggle with knowledge of truth to truth-thinking. A change in relation of mind, Jacob, and body, Esau, occurs. A change in the relationship of our mind and body is occurring.

We now come to a realization that our mind and body do not go their separate ways, unconnected. There is a strong bond between, a very deep connection between the two, although the power of the mind predominates. This is as it should be, it predominates. We now see that the mind has much to give the body, and vice versa. One of the details of the reconciliation was this desire expressed on both parts to give the treasures to the other. This is something we are realizing, that the body consciousness is full of treasures it can bestow on our mentality, and vice versa. The two can, simultaneously share in the benefits which come from truth thinking.

Now, notice that the story of Jacob, Israel and Esau, symbolize actually the beginning of a very important realization. It's only the beginning here, but what a beginning. Most of us are, at this point, in our own spiritual unfoldment, we have begun to see the significance of all this and it has profoundly affected the way you and I now think toward our bodies, and about the life which vitalizes our body. This is the nucleus, the living nucleus of what we call a healing life consciousness. Of course, once the nucleus is given birth to, you know what will follow, what followed the birth of the baby Jesus in the manger? The magnificent adulthood.

In connection with this I want to read to you something that Dr. Cady says in Lessons in Truth, in chapter 3 on thinking, paragraph 23, notice how she brings it all down to brass tacks and puts it in a vernacular that is quite unmistakable. She says, "It does make a great difference in our daily lives what we think about God, about our self, about our neighbors." That's one of the great classic sentences of Unity fundamentals. It's one of those gems of pure Truth thinking and instruction on a very human level. "It does make a great difference in our daily lives what we think about God, about ourselves and about our neighbors."

Heretofore, through ignorance of our real selves, and the results of our thinking, we have let our thoughts flow at random. You know, folks, I'm beginning to realize that random thinking is almost as dangerous and down-right, honest-to-God negative thinking. At least when you're thinking negatively and you know you are, and darn it, you're going to do it anyway to get it off your chest, at least you're being honest. At least you are knowing what you are doing and I think there's a kind of a protective shield around a person when he goes through that, but this lazy, random thinking, simply reacting to anything that goes on and just not really caring, really motivated as to what you're accomplishing, I think that this is the real mischief-maker, in the individual as well as race-consciousness.

But, back to Dr. Cady, we have let our thoughts flow at random, our minds have been turned toward the external of our being and nearly all our information has been gotten through the five senses. We have thought wrong because we have been misinformed by these senses. Now, that's a good, compassionate analysis of why do we think wrong when we know better. Notice, she's not blaming, she's not tearing anybody apart, she's simply stating it in a very logical way, we have thought wrong because, misinformed by our senses, our troubles and sorrows are the result of our wrong thinking. So, it does make a great deal of difference what you and I think and especially in our private world.

So many times we think - nobody can see what I'm thinking, nobody can know, because it's my secret, only within me, but what did Jesus say about such secrets? They'll be shouted from the housetops. There is no secret once it's told. A secret can be a secret only if nobody knows it. Once it's told, even if I tell me, it's been told, and what I know the whole world will know. The only thing that can be kept secret is what I don't even tell me. How did Jesus state that when he talked about keeping your good deeds, your giving of alms a secret? Don't even let your right hand even tell your left hand what you are doing, because that right there is the result. You see? The satisfaction of letting your right hand tell your left hand - oh, I'm being generous today. That's it. It's an even exchange, there's no growth.

Q. Is Dr. Cady putting down the five senses then?

A. They are unreliable as sources of information, they are reliable only as observers of and retainers of knowledge, not as sources of knowledge. You're asking of them something they are incapable of fulfilling. That isn't their function. They are designed to help you observe and to retain facts and knowledge, not be the source of what you think you base your wisdom on.

Q. How can we not tell our self what we think? How can we keep a secret from our self?

A. By not talking to yourself about it. You think something and it becomes a part of you, but - you think something and you are just thinking it, but telling yourself is something else. Telling yourself is not the same thing as having a thought come to you, you're aware of the thought, telling yourself is after the thought, something that you do following the thought. Everything about us is not to be kept secret. Don't get that idea, but there are, in fact, based on what Marina is saving, and she is confirming what Jesus says, it simply means, once anything comes into your mind as knowledge, it cannot be a secret. Once a thing is known by one, it will be known by all. Isn't it true that when certain great technological discoveries are brought forth into manifestation, isn't it a very common thing that many people in different parts of the world claim to have had the thought or the information around the same time? Because, once the thought comes into one mind, then it is available through race consciousness to all minds. I don't believe Jesus was advocating keeping secrets, he says, you can't, because that which is secret will be revealed, and that which is known in silence will be shouted from the housetops.

Q. I have a question that goes back to Jacob. Where the angel touched Jacob in the thigh, what does that mean?

A. Actually, in the Hebrew, it was his genital organs, and, you know, King James was a prude, so it - the Jewish religious symbolism, the thigh, the genitals, of course, are the symbol of the ego, the downright personal ego. And to have that injured would simply mean there is often an injury to our personal ego in these changes of consciousness, for the better. The ego often does - suffer a setback in the sense of making a - even a crippling in some cases, but this is good for the overall man. You all know that some of your greatest improvements occurred right after your ego received a painful blow. It may hurt at the time - I'm sure his "thigh" hurt at the time, but look what he gained. Many times you and I will suffer a setback in egotism, but will gain a change of name through it, so we look back and say, it was well worth it.

Q. We've had the Bible on a historical basis, and we're getting a metaphysical interpretation here and I'm wondering as this pattern begins to unfold, is this something that we need to look at as an understanding of soul development or is it rather a pattern we will follow in soul development?

A. I don't believe it is a pattern that you want to literally think of following. I much prefer that we take all this, not necessarily the narrative sequence of it, but the general meat of it and absorb it as food for development of greater consciousness, rather than have it categorized in your mind. Except for one little point in your cases, you are going to be teaching and you're going to quite likely be teaching courses in this sort of thing, and you will want some orderly arrangement in your mind of the material, some retention of my example, for example, or any other example you may wish of how it is done, and sort of follow that, but far more important than this is how to use this for your own self-improvement. Merely as food for thought. Material for reflection.

Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on February 15, 2015.