Cosmic Consciousness: The Man-God Whom We Await by Alexander J. McIvor Tyndall

Author:Alexander J. McIvor Tyndall [Tyndall, Alexander J. McIvor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00B02V7P4
Published: 2004-11-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

PAUL OF TARSUS

The system of worship known as Christianity owes its systematic foundation to Paul of Tarsus. Paul’s sudden conversion from zealous persecution of the followers of Jesus of Nazareth to an equally zealous propaganda of the gospel of Light, offers a perfect example of the peculiar oncoming of cosmic consciousness.

Paul evidently occupied a position of authority among the Jews and it is equally probable that he was near the same age as Jesus, as he is referred to as a “young man named Saul” in Bible accounts of the persecution of the early Christians.

His illumination occurred shortly after the crucifixion, probably within two or three years.

In Acts, chapter 8-9, we read:

“And Saul was consenting unto his death (Stephen). And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea, and Samaria, except the apostles.

“And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him.

“As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them to prison.

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings, and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women,

he might bring them bound, unto Jerusalem.

“And as he journeyed he came near unto Damascus, and suddenly there shone round about him a light from heaven.

“And he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him: ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?’

“And he said: ‘Who art thou, Lord?’ And the Lord said: ‘I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.’

“And he trembling and astonished, said: ‘Lord, what wilt thou have me do?’

“And the Lord said unto him: ‘Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.’

“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no man.

“And Saul arose from the earth, and when his eyes were opened he saw no man; but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.

“And he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink.

“And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias, and to him said the Lord in a vision: ‘Ananias;’ and he said: ‘Lord, behold, I am here.’ And the Lord said unto him: ‘Arise and go into the street called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus; for behold, he prayeth. And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.’ Then Ananias answered: ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done by thy saints at Jerusalem.

And here he hath authority from the high priests to bind all that call on thy name.’ But the Lord said unto him: ‘Go thy way; for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.’

“And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him, said: ‘Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.’ And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been

scales; and he received sight forthwith, and arose and was baptized.”

Like all those who have entered cosmic consciousness, Paul sought the blessing of solitude, that he might readjust himself to his changed viewpoint, since he now saw things in the light of the larger consciousness.

He says:

“Immediately I conferred, not with flesh and blood; neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus.”

The irresistible longing to get away from the sights and sounds of the external world, is one of the most characteristic phases of Illumination. It is only in order that they may take up the work of bringing to others this great blessing that those who have entered into the larger consciousness, eventually bring themselves to enter the life of the world.

Thus, we find that Paul’s great desire to bring the light to others, took him again to Damascus; and from the records we have of his utterances and his mode of living, we may gather some idea of the great change which Illumination made in him.

Certain statements, which characterize all who possess cosmic consciousness, in any degree of fullness, emanate from the converted Paul. He says:

“I must needs glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord—for if I should desire to glory I shall not be foolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations—wherefore that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me.”

One of the characteristics of the Illumined is a deep humility. This is not in any sense an abasement of the self; not in any sense a feeling that it is necessary to

“bow down and worship;” nor yet a tinge of that nameless fear, which the carnal-minded self feels in the presence of exalted beings.

It is a humility born of the desire to make every one know and feel a sense of kinship with him; he hesitates to reveal all that has been revealed to him, lest

those who hear his words may think he is either “speaking foolishly,” through egotism, or else that they may look upon him as a being superior, more exalted, than themselves. And a divine compassion and love for his fellow being characterizes the Illumined. Again, Paul wishes to make clear the fact that he is still living in the physical body; living the life of a body, and until liberated from the conditions that influence the external world, he is himself subject to the lesser consciousness, and he does not want them to expect more of the personal self, than that personal self is capable of, under the conditions in which he lives.

He desires no personal exaltation, or praise, therefore he hesitates to speak fully of his own revelations, but prefers to teach by reference to the experiences of others.

Nevertheless, he tries to make clear the fact that he is not merely preaching a

“belief,” which he has embraced because of doubt or fear, or because it is a creed. Indeed, he is free from the “law” and is, therefore, not merely following a system, neither the old one which he has abandoned, nor a new one which he has accepted. He speaks from the “Lord,” which is no other than the highest authority that man may know—namely, the authority that comes from the realization of his own imperishable godhood—the effect of cosmic consciousness.

He says:

“For I make known to you brethren, as touching the gospel as preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Christ.

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. But before faith came, we were kept inward under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. For ye are all sons of God through faith in Christ. For with freedom did Christ set us free.”

This we take to refer to his former adherence to, and belief in, the system of worship taught by the Jews, as a necessary and probably the only “way of salvation” acceptable to God. He wishes his hearers to understand that he is not bound by adherence to any creed; neither the old one, nor yet the new one, but that what he preached came from the light of cosmic consciousness, in which there is no law, nor sense of law. Cosmic consciousness gives to the illumined

one a sense of freedom (Christ means cosmic consciousness, and not a personality).

Cosmic consciousness confers, above all else, perhaps, a sense of freedom from every form of bondage.

The duty and the obligations that bind the average person, are impossible to the cosmically conscious one. Not that he displays indifference toward the welfare and the rights of others. Far from that, he feels an added sense of responsibility for the irresponsible; an overwhelming compassion for the unfortunate, and a relationship greater than ever to mankind.

But this sense of freedom causes him to do all in love, which he hitherto did because it was so “laid down in the law.”

Again St. Paul makes this plain:

“The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance; against such as these there is no law—

neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

When we are armored with the “fruit of the spirit,” we have no need for rules of conduct; for methods of salvation; or for any of the bonds that are necessary to the merely sense-conscious man.

Plainly, Paul recognized the fact that systems of religion, of philosophy, of rules and ethics of intercourse, are necessary only so long as man remains on the sense-conscious plane. When Illumination comes, there comes with it absolute freedom. God does not want to be worshipped on bended knee; by rites and ceremonies; by obedience to commandments, but the undisciplined soul acquires power and poise through these exercises, and in time grows to the full stature of god-consciousness.

Nor is intellectual greatness to be confounded with the godlike character of the one who has attained to Illumination.

Elsewhere in these pages we have made the distinction between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge alone can never bring a soul into the path of Illumination.

Wisdom will point the way, but love is the unerring guide to the very goal.

St. Paul’s expression of this fact is concise, and to the point. This observation alone, stamps him as one possessing a very high degree of realization of what cosmic consciousness is.

“If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God.”

The worldly wise man or woman asks “how much do I get?” The truly wise person cares nothing at all for possessions. He only asks “how much can I give?”

And although we find in the marts of commercialism a contempt for the gullible, and the credulous; the trusting and the confiding, let it be known that the “smart”

bargainer will indeed smart for his smartness, for in the light of cosmic consciousness, this alleged “wisdom” of men, appears as utter foolishness; wasted effort; a perversion of opportunity.

Because “all these things shall pass away.”

Love alone is imperishable.

Love alone is the savior of the human race, and whenever we fail to act from motives of love, we are disloyal to the light within us.

Again says St. Paul:

“If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.

“And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

“And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

” LOVE NEVER FAILETH.

“But whether there be prophecies they shall be done away; whether there be tongues they shall cease; whether there be knowledge it shall be done away. For

we know in part and we prophecy in part, but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.”

It must be remembered that in the days of St. Paul the high priests and the prophets were accounted the wisest and most exalted persons in the community.

The ability to prophecy presupposed a special favor of the God of the Jews. St.

Paul’s exposition of the changed viewpoint that comes to one who has entered into cosmic consciousness, was therefore aptly illustrated by his open avowal that there was a far greater power—a more exalted state of consciousness, than that of the gift of prophecy and of “knowing all mysteries;” that state of one in which love was the ruler, and in order that they might the more fully comprehend the simplicity, and yet the perfection, of this state of consciousness, he made clear the fact that no one truly who became “a new creature”, as he characterized this change, ever exalted himself, or made high claims; or became exclusive, or “superior,” or “holy,” in the sense the latter word had been used.

How, then, would they know when they had attained to this state of consciousness, of which he spoke, and which they but dimly understood?

How might they know when they had found this great love that was to make them “a new creature”?

First of all, they might know because:

LOVE NEVER FAILETH.

Love suffereth long and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself; is not puffed up, does not behave unseemly; seeketh not its own; is not provoked; taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things; endureth all things.

In fact, LOVE NEVER FAILETH. Love is always a safe guide. No matter what may be said to the contrary; no matter how much suffering it entails; no matter how seemingly fruitless the sacrifice; or how ungrateful the results, love never faileth.

How can it fail when we “seek not our own,” but only love for love’s own sake, without regard to compensation or gratitude?

St. Paul, with all who have expressed in any considerable degree this cosmic realization, seems to have expected a time, when cosmic consciousness should become so general, as to bring the kingdom of love upon earth. This corresponds to the Millenium, which has always been prophesied, and which the present era fulfills, in all the “signs of the times” that were to usher in The Dawn.

Moreover, the idea that there shall come a time when death shall be overcome, is a persistent part of every prophecy, and of every religious cult. In these days we find that science is speculating upon the probability of discovering a specific for senile death, as well as for the final elimination of death from disease and accidents.

Whether or not this is to be the manner of “overcoming the last enemy,” the fact remains that the almost universally held idea of physical immortality has a basis in fact, which this postulate of science symbolizes.

“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortality must put on immortality, but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’”

So said St. Paul, and his words show clearly that before his time there had been a prophecy and belief in the final triumph of love over death, not as an article of faith, but as a common knowledge.

St. Paul speaks of the time when “we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.

“And then come to the end, when he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have abolished all rule, all authority, and all power.”

Unquestionably, if all men on earth in the flesh and in the astral, were to come into the light of the cosmic consciousness, there would be no need for laws, for authority or power. The kingdom, which signifies the earth as a planet, would indeed be delivered to God, which means Love, and “Love never faileth.”

And while we admit that these words of St. Paul may be applied to individual attainment of cosmic consciousness, and not refer to an era of earth life, in which the fruits of this larger consciousness are to be gathered in the physical, yet we maintain that the argument for such an hypothesis is strong indeed. He says:

“For the earnest expectation of creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God.”

For the term “sons of God” interpret “those who have attained cosmic consciousness,” and we may readily parallel this with the many allusions to the earth’s redemption, with which history is strewn.

To “redeem” the earth is quite comparable with the idea of redeeming any part of the earth’s surface—either as a nation, or as a tract of land—which is not yielding the best that it is capable of.

In the cosmogony of the heavens, the planet earth may well be likened to a territory that has possibilities, but which needs cultivation; encouragement; work; to bring out its possibilities and make it a place of comfort and enlightenment.

So we have been informed—and an understanding of deeper occultism will bear out the information—that this earth is being made a “fit habitation for the gods”

(i.e., cosmically conscious beings, to whom love is the only authority necessary).

Paul clearly alludes to the redemption of the body, as well as the continuance of the life of the soul, when he says:

“For the creation was subject to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

And not only so, but ourselves also, WHICH HAVE THE FIRST FRUITS OF

THE SPIRIT, even we ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body.”

St. Paul declared that even those who had glimpsed that wonderful Illumination (which have the first fruits of the spirit), are not free from the travail of the sense-conscious world, until such time as the cycle has been completed, and those who “are already in Christ, and then they that are Christ’s at his coming,”

shall have made possible the perfected creation, and brought about the reign of love on earth.

So that, when a sufficient number of souls shall have attained to this Illumination (cosmic consciousness), the “last enemy shall be overcome.”

That this present era gives promise of this hope, is evident.

The attainment of cosmic consciousness brings with it immunity from reincarnation, as a necessity—as a law, but it does not provide against the coming of avatars—“sons of God,” who are to “deliver Creation from the bondage of corruption.”

This also is clearly stated by Paul:

“There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ made me free from the law of sin and death.”

There never is any doubt in the minds of those who have attained cosmic consciousness, that they are spiritual beings and immortal—free from the law of karma; neither is there any thought of evil or of condemnation.

They know that men are gods in embryo and that until they have been born into the cosmic consciousness—the realization of their reality as spirit, they must travail; but this sense-conscious state is not to be condemned any more than the child is to be condemned because it has not yet grown to adultship.

The advice of St. Paul himself was simple enough and straight-forward enough.

It was devoid of all subtleties; free from complexity; free from fear, or haste, or doubt, or strife, while confidently awaiting the universal attainment of Illumination.

To the question as to what path to follow; what should be done to gain this great boon, if the law of the ancient Hebrews was not to be followed in its literal significance, Paul said:

“Whatsoever things are honest; whatsoever things are true; whatsoever things are just; whatsoever things are pure; whatsoever things are lovely; whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, THINK ON

THESE THINGS.”

Which is to say, do not seek the letter of the way of Illumination. Do not look for forms and ceremonies and rules and systems, but look for that which is clean and pure and good wherever it may be found.

In St. Paul we have fulfilled all the points that characterize those who have been

blessed with the great Illumination.

His broad outlook upon humanity, which refused to see evil or to condemn where formerly he had been noted for his zeal in bringing to condemnation all whom he believed to be heretics; his conviction of immortality; his humility, as far as personal aggrandizement was concerned; the great light in which was revealed to him the truth; the annihilation of the idea of sin and death; the realization that systems and laws and methods of worship and giving of alms and all the by-paths which formerly he had deemed necessary, were as naught compared to the great illuminating, all-embracing power of Love—the Savior whose kingdom should sometime be established upon earth—the time being when cosmic consciousness should be general.

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