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This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Winter semester 1976 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Lecture 39 given on April 15, 1976
17:20And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God cometh, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 17:21neither shall they say, Lo, here! or, There! for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.
17:22And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it. 17:23And they shall say to you, Lo, there! Lo, here! go not away, nor follow after them: 17:24for as the lightning, when it lighteneth out of the one part under the heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall the Son of man be in his day. 17:25But first must he suffer many things and be rejected of this generation. 17:26And as it came to pass in the days of Noah, even so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 17:27They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 17:28Likewise even as it came to pass in the days of Lot; they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 17:29but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all: 17:30after the same manner shall it be in the day that the Son of man is revealed. 17:31In that day, he that shall be on the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to take them away: and let him that is in the field likewise not return back. 17:32Remember Lot's wife. 17:33Whosoever shall seek to gain his life shall lose it: but whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. 17:34I say unto you, In that night there shall be two men on one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 17:35There shall be two women grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. 17:36There shall be two men in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left.17:37And they answering say unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Where the body is, thither will the eagles also be gathered together.
In “Harmonies of the Gospels” we read, "And being asked by the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God cometh, He answered them and said, 'The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. Neither shall they say lo here or lo there, for lo the kingdom of God is within you.’" (Luke 17:20)
The two key words would be, I think, observation and within. It would seem, here, that Jesus is referring to the outward observation that the kingdom of heaven is not made or realized as a result of what He calls observation, in the sense of outer phenomena and appearances. What we call observation is something that occurs in that area of mind called the intellect. The intellect, among other things, is an observer of knowledge. It is not the creator of knowledge, and many of the things which are assumed to be the work or the responsibility of the intellect, really are not. The intellect really is an area of mind, rather than something the mind does. We say the intellect forms thoughts - no, it does not. It is the area of the mind where thought-forming occurs, but imagination is the thought-forming faculty. Imagination does this job in the workshop called intellect. It is just like saying that the carpenter shop makes the tables. No, no, the tables are made in the carpenter shop by carpenters. Thought is formed in the intellect, not by the intellect, but by imagination in alignment with other faculties, understanding, we hope, is one.
So, the intellect really is an observer of knowledge, or an observatory of knowledge; and while this is a most useful and necessary function, it does not bring the kingdom of God to a person. The kingdom of God comes only when one is not intellectually saying, "Lo here or lo there," but when one is inwardly realizing the truth of I AM. You see, however high one's perceptions may be in this field of observation, thought-forming, and all the things that occur in the intellect, it is only when one learns the art of turning within and seeing inner meaning, that reality itself, the kingdom of God is revealed. You never will find the kingdom of God while you are looking for it. You will find it only after you stop looking for it and turn within and take it easy and relax in the realization.
Here is the mystery or key to one of the mysteries of healing. A person will never be healed while he is working to get healed. He will be healed only after he stops the work for a moment; however, he must do the work of trying to get work. He must work at healing, but he will not get the healing while he is working at it.
He gets it when he is resting from it, but if he is only resting from it and has not worked at it, no dice. That's not according to the rules. Don't be puzzled; don't be doubtful. Listen and learn and believe. You have to work at building a healing consciousness. Alright. You will never find your healing while you are working at it. It is when you are resting from the work you have done that realization will occur.
What are the five steps of true prayer. Isn't the last step the Sabbath?
Q. In reflecting on this, in many cases I have heard that when a person struggles so hard for a healing and then comes to the point where they say, "I don't care if I live or die," that sounds negative, but it's at that point where they receive their healing.
A. That's it. Here is where understanding is important. If a person has this experience without understanding, they are liable to say, "Oh, I tried and tried and tried and got nothing. Now, when I stopped and gave up, I got it." Without understanding, they might jump to the conclusion that they should not work at it.
Q. Isn't it letting go of the personal consciousness so that Spirit can work?
A. It's observing the Sabbath, which means taking time out from externalized creative effort, you see, just take time out. Don't think in terms of letting the Christ take over or taking self out of it, etc. You will only get yourself into kind of a self-conscious bind there. Make it more simple. It's just that, "I've done the six-day bicycle race. I've pedaled for six days. Now, let's take a break. Let's turn within and reflect." To do this, simply stop externalizing your creative efforts, and in that moment, you are observing, the Sabbath. Then you will realize, or as Jesus puts it, "The kingdom of God" will come, the omnipresence of good.
Q. Then, what is the purpose of the intellect?
A. It is the area of mind where thought is formed and where thoughts can be observed, and from which thoughts can find expression.
This realization, which brings the final manifestation, is possessed by inner understanding and not by the perceptive faculties or the senses, you see. A lot of people try to hand over to their perceptive faculties and their senses, the job which they should let be done by the understanding faculty, which is the pure knowing faculty. It will do this job without self having to struggle and dictate what it must do, which is what we must often do if we are trying to use the senses or the perceptive faculties, the children of the imagination, to do the job that the spiritual understanding faculty, itself, would do. The understanding faculty is the major one that brings this realization that we are talking about, which will result in the final manifestation.
Text of the original transcript of the 2nd paragraph of p.235 through the next to last paragraph of p.236.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on 04-09-2014
