The Calm Poise of the Master
1912-08-11
This lesson from Charles Fillmore was featured on Bob Brach's Unity Classic Radio broadcast on April 28, 2015. Bob writes, "This is an early talk (1912) talk of Mr. Fillmore. He starts out with some comments about the ancient esoteric practice of "Hermetics" and says Unit is similar to this "occult brotherhood" (p.2). He also does a great metaphysical interpretation of Jesus stilling the storm and how to use "Peace Be Still" as an affirmation. (p. 17)"
LECTURE
"THE CALM POISE OF THE MASTER"
by
MR. CHARLES FILLMORE
-at-
UNITY AUDITORIUM
913 Tracy Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri
SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUST 11, 1912
There are records which show that thousands of years ago, in the secret temples in Egypt, there were people called Hermetics, who retired from the world for the purpose of getting closer to Divine Mind. They separated themselves from all religious thought, and made a unity with Divine Resource, the Cause Side of existence. They were like some of our Scientists, experimenters in the laboratory of Being. They tried various ways of prayer and meditation, and found that when they used certain words they came in a very close relations with the Cause Side of existence; and those words were tabulated, a record kept of them. And it was found that all words that had to do with the real of existence, all words that described the good; all words that described health, instead of sickness; all words that described power instead of weakness, those words seemed to bring them into closer touch with the Great Mind, with the great underlying Power; and they became apparently just what they held in thought, what words they expressed.
So, there gradually grew up a brotherhood. This was before the advent of Jesus Christ and that brotherhood proved, so the history tells us, that words do carry carry men in or out, above or below the great tide of thought, and that we can, through the use of words, poise ourselves, put ourselves in the consciousness of weakness or power.
Now, we are carrying out that same occult brotherhood's ideas in Unity. The world has become so free from its narrowness and ignorance, that it isn't necessary to retire into temples or caves. We know the law that God is everywhere.
So, let us continue that great work which those brothers inaugurated. Let us hold the true words, carve out of the great Substance a temple "not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. 5:1).
We take this morning some real words, and enter into that temple. The central idea of our lesson is the poise, the mastery, the dominion of the man. Now, this can be attained through taking words that correspond to that power, that dominion, that mastery. Those words might be selected from a legion, and all bring you to the consciousness of poise, power, dominion and mastery; but words that would get you closest in touch with that State of Mind are those that appeal to your consciousness, your education.
What words bring you the greatest realization of power, of mastery, of dominion? Why, you will say at once, words that belong to the Supreme Mind, that describe that Mind. I can think of nothing higher and greater than God.
Then place yourself in that Divine Mind, and it will place itself in you. Invoke God, and you become one with God. That is the law. We are told that in the very beginning of our creation, we were given mastery and dominion over all things. It is proper and right for us to assume that. It is in accordance with the Law for every one of us to say that power and mastery in dominion which was mine in the beginning, is now restored unto me.
Let us enter into this secret place with that statement that "Mastery, power and dominion which was mine in the beginning, is now restored unto me." As you hold that thought, poise yourself, realize it is true.
(Silence).
(Responsive service).
Our lesson this morning is "the realization of the poise and power of the Master". The Master is Christ, and Christ is the name of the anointed of God, the one of all God's creations upon whom he has poured out His highest power; whom He has blessed and given Himself unto.
This is the Spiritual Man. This is the real of every man. It is the ideal man; the man described in the first chapter of Genesis; and that man was given dominion and power over all of God's creations. And there was the demonstration of that man, which leads to self-consciousness; the realization that I AM that is described in that second chapter of Genesis, the bringing forth of Adam.
We haven't always understood the relation of these two apparent creations; and the result has been an identification with the one or the other. Some people have gone into the Spiritual consciousness, and ignored the Adam; others - and the great majority of the race - have fallen down onto the Adam plane. They knew nothing about the first creation, the spiritual man. But unto each one of the two, a bringing together of the high ideals, and their manifestation, constitutes the real man, makes man what he is in Christ Jesus. Christ is the real man, and Jesus is that man demonstrated.
Now, we are every one of us Christs. It is said by those who have gone deep into mystical understanding, that every human being in the world has a definite plane in Divine Mind. That you are numbered, identified. God knows you especially. You are created for a special purpose, and all of your life's journey, all of your efforts, are tending to the bringing forth of that idea. The very hairs of your head are numbered. God knows you. The creative Mind had a definite purpose when you were given expression. But you are free; you must recognize that place. You must learn your number. You must know where you belong in the creative plan.
Now, if God should give you that, as wholly from himself, and reveal it to you all at once, why, you would be a mere automaton, a piece of machinery. You wouldn't have free will; you couldn't choose to be what you are or not to be. So poise, you can see, rests with every one of us; and when we understand this wonderful law of the ideal man manifesting through the Adam man, and that we can bring forth and make ourselves whatsoever we desire; that all the power is here, all the machinery, every ideal is here for our fulfillment, why, what a wonderful possibility it opens to us. What a grand man we find that we are.
We should every one be about the Father's business. The only business that God has with us is to make ourselves what he has idealized us to be.
Now, we have taken up these different attributes of the spiritual man here and there, trying to make the great plan visible; but haven't given as much attention to the idea of the power of the Christ man, the Spiritual man that we should.
Now, we have come to a place where it is necessary that we accent that, we throw special emphasis upon the Truth that man has all dominion and power. That proposition given out to people who believe in weakness, seems absurd, but it is a fact that in Spirit and in Truth every one of us have, all power. All power over what? First over our own thoughts. And when once you have attained the mastery over your thought, you will be master of the Universe. Everything that comes your way will fall in line with your desire, your will will be supreme.
This is the teaching, and you find it will demonstrate. Then the very essential point in the demonstration of power is mastery over my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions; and that brings us down to a very simple proposition, a proposition that even a child can solve. We begin like little children, mastering our thoughts.
Now this is not anything new. The world has been using this law, but not directly through the power of the word. We haven't known first that this mastery, this supreme power, is our birthright; that we are, like princes of the realm, given power over all our subjects; that our word was the open door to everything in the world. Now, the ruling prince of a Kingdom understands that every wish that he has can be complied with, that all the different nationalities who come under his father's rule are subject to him.
Now, the same relation exists between the child of God and the Universe. When we have attained the full stature of a king, through our use of the word, we shall have complete dominion; but, like the prince, we need education. We must bring out our powers, and we do this through quietly going, in consciousness, to that inner place, the secret place of the Most High. What does that mean? Why, it means the high state of consciousness; it means a realization of the Absolute; it means freedom from the limitations of the mortal; it means that there is a place in the mind of every man and every "women where they can be freed from all conditions, all the sense consciousness, all the mortal pains, and all the mortal ignorance, and all the mortal worries, and all the mortal errors of every description.
Now, there is such a place, and that is the Kingdom of God within you; that is where the annointed one, the spiritual man, first exercises his dominion. We are every one of us, if we are in what is called the regeneration, passing through the changes described in this New Testament, as happening to Jesus Christ. He went over all the ground, and symbolically, this is represented as his healing people. In the lesson today we had an example or illustration of his power to still the storm, to cast out the demons, to do apparently marvelous things in the outer world. Well, we would not deny that those things may have been accomplished, but, to the overcomer, to the one who is desiring special lessons in his overcoming, he must get at the Spiritual meaning. What does this mean to me, in regard to my daily thought, to my daily overcoming?
Now, in the lesson today (Mark 4:35), Jesus Christ had been healing people and preaching to them, and he became weary, and asked his disciples to cross the sea of Galilee to the other side, which they attempted to do. And he lay down in the stern of the boat and fell asleep. And a great storm came up and they were afraid that they were to be wrecked, and they called upon him, "Master, are you not aware that we are about to be drowned? And he arose and said, "Peace, be still", and the storm was abated. He said unto them, "Oh ye of little faith. Had ye no faith; didn't you believe in the power of the Spirit in you?"
Now, this symbolically means that there is a work going on in every one of us. We are healing the sick thoughts in ourselves; we are casting out those errors that don't belong to this spiritual man, that I have been describing to you. That man was made perfect, and he is perfect, and it is your work to cast out, to heal all thoughts of error, all thoughts that are opposed to the one Truth in you. You are also to preach the Gospel. Then you take your little rest.
The description says that Jesus was lying on a pillow in the stern of the boat (Mark 4:38). Well now, it is a fact of soul or thought consciousness that when we fall asleep the soul, or the identity, retires to the little brain at the base of the skull, called the Medulla, and it rests there. The natural forces of the being go on, but you rest at that little place. And the boat is the body, and the pillow is that little point where you quietly sleep. But, in this state of rest, if you have been very active, the activity, throes of thought, begin to pour into your mind and body, and sometimes a disturbance is set up. People, after they have been very much wrought up, or very active in consciousness, sometimes, when they are asleep, have jerky states of consciousness; they twitch in mind or body, or they have bad dreams; things are disturbed in the mentality; and they sometimes awake with a great start in a disturbed condition. Well, that means that a storm has set in in the subconsciousness, and the Master, the Spiritual man, comes from his sleep, and all you have to do is to say, "Peace, be still".
Why, haven't you, speaking to your disciples, the centers of consciousness, found your faith in the Supreme Power, found your faith in yourself, as the spirit, as having the power? You can see how these lessons apply in the simplest way to everyday life.
Now, this will be the experience, probably, of nearly all of you, at some time in your development. We all are passing through these stages, and here is a law showing you the power of the I Am, the power of the Mighty One in you, to master all feeling. When you awake in the morning, and the system hasn't been in perfect harmony, storms have been going over your mind, your subconsciousness, and your body during the night, you have but to say, in Spirit,
"Peace, be still. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I say unto you Harmony, peace, poise",
and you will set currents going in your mind and in your body, and it will straighten you out. It is better than getting up or taking a tonic, or trying, in some material way, to regulate forces that pertain definitely and strictly to the Mind.
Here is where the unregenerated man falls down, He doesn't know the law; he doesn't know that he is the mighty one of God. Now, this Mighty One of God must be cultivated. You must know that you have the power to still every storm, to master every emotion, to direct every thought; that that power is given to you. It isn't something that you have to cultivate. You cultivate simply the consciousness of it; you come into relations with it, but it always existed. It is innate in God, and it comes through the affirmation of the individual, that I AM.
You know that I Am is the name of God. Jehovah is I AM. "I Am the beginning and the end; I am that which was and is". I am shall ever exist; I am has no ending. I Am is not only the mighty one, but I Am may, if you will, be the weak one. You can say, "I am a poor, weak worm the dust", and immediately you become that, apparently. This is your privilege. It is the result of a freedom of the I AM.
But the real character of I AM is like its source, masterful, powerful, having dominion over all things. Now, it may be that you are so mixed in your thought element that you have gotten so into the storms of the body and the mind, that it is a little difficult to realise your dominion and power; but if you know that the Spirit of Almightiness is here, and if you will attach to your knowledge true words, speak those words under all conditons, the realization of your mastery and dominion will come to you. You will begin, in a multitude of ways, to set into action these forces, and the storms will be stilled. The Master will be yours - will be crowned with that dominion which you had in the beginning, which you have now.
Then let us affirm the I AM, and attach to that affirmation all words that you can think of that describe dominion; that describe power; that describe mastery. This doesn't mean that you are going to dominate, that you are even to go out into the world and stop the storms. You grow to that. It means that you shall take possession of yourself. It means that you shall not allow these waves of thought to come in from the outer, the exterior, and dominate you. Walt Whitman said, "Nothing exterior shall ever take possession of me". Have you ever said that to yourself: "Nothing exterior shall ever take possession of me?" I tell you it will give you an awakening. You will find, when you begin the affirmation of the Host High, the Christ Mind in you, that other's minds will drop their hold upon you - you "won't be the puppet of everyone's thought. You may now be under the thought dominion of people. There may be someone that is directing you and leading you. You really are not aware how much you give of your thought to your companions, to your father, your mother, your brother, sister, your husband; you are meekly submitting to their thought.
Now, is this under the law? Why no! We should every one of us stand upright. Man, stand upon thy feet! Stand in your own God-given dominion; stand in the mastery of the Christ in you. You will be a new creature; you will give God an opportunity to come in and make you what you are, what you were intended to be under His Divine Law; a new Universe will open, a new Kingdom will be yours; But God can't come to you until you become His child. He is the Mighty one of the Universe, and He expects you to be mighty; he expects you to be powerful; he expects you to exercise dominion and that no condition of thought, no appetite or passion - there is nothing in the world above or the earth beneath that can interfere with the dominion, the mastery, the power of the spiritual man. Remember that.
And the name of that Spiritual man, to every one of us, is I Am, I Am. You don't have to say that on the house-tops. You say it way down deep in yourself. Go by yourself; pray to the Father that you may realize the power of I Am: "I am that I Am; there is none beside me".
11:39 A. M.
12:04 P. M.
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