{"id":1129,"date":"2009-09-28T19:59:49","date_gmt":"2009-09-29T02:59:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2012-12-04T20:11:27","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T03:11:27","slug":"our-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/?p=1129","title":{"rendered":"OUR WORK"},"content":{"rendered":"

OUR <\/strong>WORK<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>A Lecture Given At The <\/strong><\/p>\n

Detroit<\/strong>, <\/strong>Michigan<\/strong>, Conclave<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 2009<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Richard K<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the Rosicrucian Order and with the Rosicrucian philosophy, we are tapped to challenge, because when we challenge, we learn the truth from experience.\u00a0 Therefore, I am now going to challenge you.\u00a0 I challenge you to remain awake.\u00a0 It\u2019s that kind of a talk.\u00a0 I once heard that if you\u2019re going to be a speaker, it\u2019s good to do something that helps people to understand your very human qualities.\u00a0 What I like to do is make a confession of some sort.\u00a0 The confession that I have to make is that I am a Rosicrucian fundamentalist.\u00a0 So, what this talk is going to be is fundamentalism.\u00a0 It is about Our Work.\u00a0 Most of the talk is introduction, and nothing is exciting in it at all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As above, so below:\u00a0 What has gone before in heaven will follow after on earth.\u00a0 Know this and rejoice.\u00a0 That is a statement from a teacher in very ancient Egypt, called Hermes Trismegistus.\u00a0 Max Heindel was a twice-born Hermes.\u00a0 Not only was he a twice- born, he was a thrice-born.\u00a0 Max Heindel, in his writings, called it the hermetic axiom.\u00a0 Other people call it \u201cthe principle of analogy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the vertical pole of creation, the principle of analogy is how unity is maintained, because from the deepest spiritual realms, through the more and more material realms, on each plane things are analogous.\u00a0 In that analogy the unity of the oneness of the universal spirit is maintained.\u00a0 That\u2019s a very, very important thing to us.<\/p>\n

Some of the ancient mystery schools, like the orphic mystery schools of the Pythagoreans, especially the Platonists \u2013 they actually believed that this was how the universe was created \u2013 that while using the principle of analogy from within, the universal spirit differentiated each of the different planes.\u00a0 It was expressed by a member of The Rosicrucian Fellowship in a book called The Creative Word and It\u2019s Undertones<\/em>.\u00a0 Like in music we use \u201covertones\u201d but actually it is the other way around in the great cosmic creation.\u00a0 It starts out with the one word and within that there are undertones and those become the basis for the different worlds.<\/p>\n

Everything in the divine plan, the scheme of evolutionary creation, is analogous.\u00a0 For example, it\u2019s in our lives.\u00a0 In the first seven years of our life we recapitulate both the Polarian Epoch and even earlier times when we were mineral-like.\u00a0 If a little child hurts its body, its whole being has been challenged because it is in the mineral state.<\/p>\n

A little later on, in the second seven years when the child grows very rapidly, that is a recapitulation of the Hyperborean Epoch and a still earlier time in the Sun Period when we went through a plant-like existence.\u00a0 One of the worst things you can tell a child at that time is, \u201cIf you don\u2019t eat your veggies you\u2019re not going to grow.\u201d\u00a0 The identity of the child is in growing.<\/p>\n

Between 14 and 21 it is an analogous recapitulation of Lemuria and the earlier Moon Period, so, everything in our lives is analogous to what we have done before, and by all the repetitions on the grander and grander scales we awaken our consciousness.\u00a0 Even the second half of our life is analogous to the second half of the evolutionary creation.\u00a0 In the second half of our lives we look back more, and the more that we look back, the more our bodies go into disintegration and we take the soul stuff into our being so that we\u2019re much, much more soulful after we have looked back on our experience.\u00a0 All of these things are analogous.<\/p>\n

It is with great wisdom that the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order made all of their exercises to be based on these same principles.\u00a0 When we awaken in the morning, the first thing that we do is we concentrate on the early verses of St. John\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.\u00a0 The same was in the beginning with God.\u00a0 All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.\u00a0 In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.\u00a0 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

So, what we do in our exercise is we follow the Word right into our daily life.\u00a0 In the evening when we retire, we look at our day backwards.\u00a0 We withdraw the essence of the day and carry it into our spiritual being, and we leave the body free and clear.\u00a0 So, everything, even our exercises are based on the same principles that are used in the cosmic creation.\u00a0 We learn that everything in the creation is spiral, and the spiral is a way that the analogous thing can be delineated through time.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just a circle where you go through the same circle again and again, but there\u2019s always a little bit of progress, and each new circle is a little bit different, but there is something analogous.\u00a0\u00a0 And there are spirals on other spirals until it is all within the one individuality or the one spirit that creates it all.<\/p>\n

Now, we as students and probated people of The Rosicrucian Fellowship are told to do things analogous to nature.\u00a0 We\u2019re taught that at the turning points, for example, at Christmas which is the true New Year, (before they got the calendar screwed up) we\u2019re taught to look back at our year and to make resolutions for the New Year.\u00a0 The same thing at the Vernal Equinox and Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox; so every time that there is an important point, that important point is a moment that determines the difference between the past and the future.\u00a0 We draw on the past and we resolve and carry things into our future with our spirit.<\/p>\n

Now we are at a very important turning point in the Rosicrucian Fellowship work.\u00a0 Our organization is now 100 years old, and we have been given a charge to carry the Rosicrucian work forward in the service of Christ.\u00a0 That is our work.\u00a0 When we look back at our lives at night, we don\u2019t do that in a nebulous way.\u00a0 We look at it according to very clear objectives.\u00a0 We don\u2019t just say I had a good day today or I had a bad day today.\u00a0 We ask, was I loving to that person?\u00a0 Or, did I really strive to do what I should do?\u00a0 So, we are specific relative to aims, objectives, and purposes.\u00a0 So, what we want to do as we are looking at this century turning-point for The Rosicrucian Fellowship is look at the aims, purposes, and activities of The Rosicrucian Fellowship to see whether we have done well or have not done well, at least to clarify in our minds what we\u2019re doing.\u00a0 It\u2019s very easy to get carried away in our things that are our own things, and they might be very good things, but if they\u2019re not what we have intended to do and what is most important to do, we\u2019re not doing the best that we can do.<\/p>\n

The Rosicrucian Fellowship, which emanated from The Rosicrucian Order which is a completely inner organization, has very specific objectives.\u00a0 So, the purpose of this talk is, in the simplest way possible, and the most fundamental way possible, to review some of what those objectives are.\u00a0 And if we are not in line with those objectives with our lives, to re-attune ourselves, just like he tuned that instrument, so that we are re-attuned to what we\u2019re supposed to do.\u00a0 You know, this is not something where we just do our own thing.<\/p>\n

Max Heindel, the founder of The Rosicrucian Fellowship, was very dedicated in that way.\u00a0 He could have taught all kinds of things, and he could have given us all kinds of scientific knowledge and things like that, but he didn\u2019t do that.\u00a0 He worked off the Bible verse, \u201cSeek ye first the kingdom of heaven and all of this will be added unto you.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He didn\u2019t indulge himself in being that grateful liberator.\u00a0 He did what was asked of him, and that was to teach the Rosicrucian philosophy, and he did not put personal ambitions in the way of doing that.<\/p>\n

The official title of The Rosicrucian Fellowship is An Association of Christian Mystics<\/em>.\u00a0 Another name for The Rosicrucian Fellowship is A Spiritual Service Organization.\u00a0 <\/em>It follows the admonition of Christ, \u201cWho would be greatest among you, be ye the servant of all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In both, the definition and the statement of activity, the word, Christ<\/em> or Christian<\/em> is used.\u00a0 The basic philosophy of The Rosicrucian Fellowship is Christian.\u00a0 It does not contradict biblical Christianity, and it is in agreement with most of the tenets of most of the denominations.\u00a0 But, that said, the Rosicrucian philosophy does not exclusively rely on the New Testament for its Christian basis.<\/p>\n

The claim is that those who are initiated and those who are the teachers of the Rosicrucian Order, from the inner worlds, research with their own scientific spiritual observation, and working under the commandment of Jesus or under the commandment of the Cosmic Christ, that all of the philosophy that they bring forth is a statement of reality about the nature of the cosmos from a Christian point of view.\u00a0 And the Christian point of view is very different.\u00a0 There are a lot of philosophies that are like the Rosicrucian philosophy that go way back into history, but they do not have the attitudes that were brought to us by Christ, and this is something that we have to stress here in all of this work.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t go into the whole Rosicrucian philosophy, because that would be too much, but the very few things that I\u2019m going to state are going to be stated in terms of biblical Christianity.\u00a0 The basic statement or the basic commandment that comes from Christ Jesus in the Bible is that the work<\/em> is to preach the gospel and heal the sick.\u00a0 That is our work \u2013 to preach the gospel and heal the sick.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s a very direct statement, and it\u2019s kind of hard to shirk doing that, but we seem to do it.<\/p>\n

If we look at the testament of the Bible, it\u2019s clearly not an \u2026.?…. book.\u00a0 There are parables that can be interpreted many different ways; there are stories; there are all kinds of things \u2013 it even says in there that some of the teachings were only for the disciples and not for the masses.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean to be elitist, but it means to say that some people have prepared themselves more so they can reach and receive the teaching that comes straight from Christ.\u00a0 It says that there are mysteries, but it also says that the mysteries that have been the foundation of the earth will be shouted from the rooftops.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve got to be really careful here, because Thomas knows the Bible almost by heart and if I misquote, just come and tell me later on where I \u2026.(laughter)\u00a0 There are statements from Christ that says that the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u00a0 But what does that mean?\u00a0 Does that mean at hand in time?\u00a0 That\u2019s what most people take it to mean.\u00a0 But the kingdom of heaven is at hand in space, because it\u2019s closer than hands and feet,\u00a0 so all of these things need interpretation.<\/p>\n

If what we teach is correct, the ultimate authority is our experience.\u00a0 What we do not know, and what we do not have from direct experience, we always refer to Christ.\u00a0 The only way we can tell is the very way that the Bible tells us.\u00a0 \u201cBy their fruits ye shall know them,\u201d and it goes on to describe the fruits of love and all of the qualities that we as Christians are supposed to be.\u00a0 We are supposed to be people who love, not because we\u2019re supposed to love, but because we love.\u00a0 To love lives in us, and if Christ does not live in us, there\u2019s nothing much that we can really do.<\/p>\n

What is the gospel that we\u2019re supposed to teach?\u00a0 Obviously, what we are to teach is something that enlightens people and helps them to live better lives, helps them to live in harmony with the cosmos in which we live, so that they can be receptive to the spirit of truth coming to them and they can live and give to creation as part of their lives.\u00a0 So, our work is loving, self-forgetting service.\u00a0 It\u2019s very fundamentalistic \u2013 loving, self-forgetting service.<\/p>\n

It means that we sacrifice our ego-nature for the sake of the truth.\u00a0 It\u2019s something that we usually only hear as curse words \u2013 as mention of the Christ, we sacrifice our ego, our self when we give that over to Christ, which is the self of all selves, you might say the selfness of the universal spirit, and that is our work.\u00a0 This is what we are here to do.\u00a0 We\u2019re here to teach love.<\/p>\n

Nineteen hundred years after the crucifixion of Christ, the Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order, who have been spending hundreds and hundreds of years with their seer-ship, investigating the spiritual worlds, came to a philosophy which was given to the world through Max Heindel.\u00a0 This was given in accordance with the will of Christ.\u00a0 We have to trust them in saying that this philosophy is according to the will of Christ.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t contradict anything of Christianity, and it is filled with love and truth and all of those things, so maybe taking it on trust is not a hard thing to do.\u00a0 Intuitively, I believe that the teachings are something that we can accept quite easily.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at some of the evidence to determine whether the Rosicrucian philosophy applies and is an extension of the gospel and if it is something that carries out the work of Christ.\u00a0 The first has already been mentioned and must always be re-mentioned.\u00a0 We are in no way contradictory to Biblical Christianity.\u00a0 In all cases it extends Christianity.\u00a0\u00a0 We have a Bible course, and in that Bible course, explanations are given that open up a lot of passages of the gospel.\u00a0 They are very, very opening.\u00a0 They are very philosophical.\u00a0 They help us to live better lives because of their truth.<\/p>\n

I came to the Rosicrucian philosophy when I was an atheist. \u00a0By studying the Cosmo-Conception and then seeing Bible interpretations that made sense to me, that answered my intuition and [appealed] to my heart, I found that I could accept everything of Christianity that I couldn\u2019t take before from what I called cookie Christianity.\u00a0 I called it cookie Christianity, because I came out of the Methodist Church, and it was my nature to ask a lot of questions, and every time I would ask a question that wasn\u2019t within the accepted theology, they would say, \u201cHere\u2019s a cookie.\u201d<\/p>\n

It [this philosophy] answered all of those things, and there is nothing new about the Christianity, I think that some of the churches make grave mistakes, (and I think some of them teach a doctrine that is anti-Christian) but nonetheless, I can be completely pro-Christian about all religions, because I can see that in their own way, even though they misinterpret things they make the world a better place and that is a positive, forward-moving thing.<\/p>\n

The whole idea of verification (this is something that I and, I think, other people of The Rosicrucian Fellowship get wrong) is we become complacent and we accept much.\u00a0 We read the Cosmo-Conception and the other works of Max Heindel, and we intuitively know the truth is in there.\u00a0 But, we do not continue to question, and we do not continue to question our own knowledge of those things that we intuitively accept as true.<\/p>\n

If you look at the very first edition of the Cosmo-Conception, right on the title page it quotes from the Bible.\u00a0 It says, \u201cTry all things.\u201d \u00a0And this is the spirit that we should have.\u00a0 We should constantly try things and constantly test things, because that is what they are brought for \u2013 life.\u00a0 The philosophy of the Rosicrucian Fellowship cannot do us any good except if we can live it.\u00a0 We know the truth, but applying it is the way we live the truth, and in that we have the testament of both the Bible and of the Cosmo-Conception.\u00a0 We have a good way to test our own progress.<\/p>\n

If we go back and read the gospels, or if we go back and read the Cosmo-Conception, and we find a passage and we say, \u201cI never knew that was in there,\u201d it\u2019s like it\u2019s a new book.\u00a0 The book is not new, we are new.\u00a0 This is an example of the fact that we have grown spiritually. If we read it and it\u2019s the same old, same old, that means that we have gone stale.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t tried to test this to see whether it really works.<\/p>\n

That was really a wonderful story that he told about bringing the heart into the classroom, because you tested it and you tried it and you put it to work, and it worked.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019re supposed to be doing.\u00a0 The most important thing for us is preaching the gospel, and the question is, how do we do it<\/em>?\u00a0 The first way that we do it is we live our lives.\u00a0 What happens when we get involved with things \u2013 like initiations and trials to become disciples and things like that \u2013 is people read about these trials and they think that\u2019s all something artificial.\u00a0 You\u2019re going to get a test, and when you pass that test you\u2019re going to think you\u2019re something glorious.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the way it is.\u00a0 This is about reality.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a dress rehearsal.\u00a0 This is the real thing.\u00a0 To the degree that we live it in our life, we bring up our own trials.\u00a0 What our character is<\/em> is reflected back to us by the cosmos.\u00a0 This is what cause and consequence is.\u00a0 As you sow, so shall you reap<\/em>, and the way we deal with those trials is how we move forward, but really it\u2019s not something apart from life.\u00a0 A trial is just the amplification of life.\u00a0 It is an amplification to see if we can live life in a more intense way \u2013 to see if we can live life at a higher and a better level.<\/p>\n

If we can\u2019t live it, we just go on as we are; it doesn\u2019t mean we have dire consequences like being thrown in the furnace or anything like that.\u00a0 It just means that we live our same, dumb old life.\u00a0\u00a0 I once applied for discipleship and it took me half a year before I realized that that event that happened there was<\/em> that trial,<\/em> which was just part of life.\u00a0 You know, events are the things that are repeated by Christ in the gospels and are the things that are the most important.\u00a0 \u00a0One of the things that is repeated is, \u201cIt cometh as a thief in the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spiritual life is not going to be only spectacular \u2013 it\u2019s not going to be like a fireworks demonstration; it is more and more subtle.\u00a0 We become progressively more subtle, so that we can see through \u2013 that\u2019s what initiation<\/em> means.\u00a0 It means seeing through, seeing clearly so that we can see through the denser and grosser things of life to the finer things behind.\u00a0 You cannot force your way; you cannot take heaven by storm.\u00a0 You develop the subtlety and live your way into it by living a more subtle life.\u00a0 It might be that right within this room there might be initiates, because they don\u2019t go around with name tags, Hi, I\u2019m Richard, I\u2019m an initiate<\/em>.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t like that.\u00a0 Some people have the insights and they live, uh, probably it\u2019s in the way that they live.<\/p>\n

Now, Max Heindel was chosen to be the messenger, because he lived that kind of life.\u00a0 \u00a0He lived a life of integrity; he lived a life of service.\u00a0 He gave it everything that he had.\u00a0 There is no substitute for character.\u00a0 A person can be intellectually brilliant, artistically creative, but if they don\u2019t have moral and spiritual character, they are not fit to be a teacher.\u00a0 In fact when Max Heindel formed The Rosicrucian Fellowship he was told only to associate with people of good character.<\/p>\n

Now, all of this brings up yet another distinction that needs to be made.\u00a0 That is, Max Heindel is something of an ideal to us, not the ideal that Christ is, but how do we serve \u2013 our loving, self-forgetting service?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that we\u2019re all going to be Max Heindel\u2019s.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean that we\u2019re all going to be great leaders or founders or anything like that.\u00a0 We\u2019re told very clearly that we serve or that we minister according to our own talents.\u00a0 We don\u2019t try to become somebody we aren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

We take what we are and we carry it forward and we make something better of it.\u00a0 And because we all have the spirit \u2013 the one universal spirit in us, we all eventually become Gods.\u00a0 In this process, there is no substitute for good, sound judgment.<\/p>\n

So, if we are preaching the gospel, whether it be the Cosmo-Conception or whether it be the Biblical gospels, we have to realize that this is a creative art, especially when we\u2019re dealing with people who are new to this.\u00a0 Somebody was saying, \u201cWhat is this?\u00a0 There are not many young and new people in the churches right now; it\u2019s all older people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of that is due to the fact that older people are more soulful, because they\u2019ve suffered more in life, and they\u2019ve had their rough edges hammered off and maybe they\u2019ve been very much humbled.\u00a0 But part of it is that people are going to come to Christ in a new way.\u00a0 I know people who almost know the gospel by heart.\u00a0 I have one friend who reads the St. John\u2019s gospel once a day.\u00a0 But the Bible may not be the way of the future.<\/p>\n

If we look at the Bible and we look at, relative to what the old prophets said and compare that now with science, it\u2019s very anachronistic.\u00a0 And so if we take something like the Bible, or if we take something like The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception, it is our duty to use good, sound judgment to state it in words that exactly \u2013 that come from us and that are perfectly attuned to the person that we\u2019re talking to.<\/p>\n

There is Biblical testament to that with what Saint Paul says \u2013 to be many things to many people<\/em>.\u00a0 We are the ones who are supposed to be more expansive people, and we are the ones then that should be able to adapt ourselves and be able to bring truth to other people in their own way.\u00a0 It\u2019s all about words.\u00a0 We are all told not to be \u2026(??)\u2026 And we just don\u2019t quote.\u00a0 People don\u2019t want to hear just quoting again and again.\u00a0 They want something live from people.\u00a0 It\u2019s more like birds that have little ones in the nest.\u00a0 They go out and they get worms or bugs or whatever and they partially digest it, and then they feed the little ones that way.\u00a0 That\u2019s the way the Rosicrucian philosophy should be for us.\u00a0 We should digest it, and unless we can say it in our own words, without having to rely on technical terms\u2014this is one of the things I do a lot with astrology, I teach a lot of astrology, and any time you\u2019re doing astrological work and you have to use an astrological, technical term, you have failed.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t say what you have to say in English in a way that you can explain it to someone, then you\u2019re stuck in a technical jargon.\u00a0 You\u2019re not clearly being helpful in that.<\/p>\n

Knowledge<\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0What we\u2019re talking about with the Rosicrucian philosophy \u2013 the Rosicrucian philosophy is not for everyone.\u00a0 I would almost like to get everyone to say that.\u00a0 \u201cThe Rosicrucian philosophy is not for everyone<\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s for people who need explanations in order to follow their heart.\u00a0 It\u2019s for people who \u2013 you might call it \u201cegghead Christianity.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s for people who are way too mental and who are way too involved with technical, scientific things, and they\u2019re so far away that their heart is starving to death.\u00a0 And some of them can be pretty obnoxious people.\u00a0 I was pretty obnoxious.\u00a0 I was a vociferous atheist when I was an atheist.\u00a0 One person said, \u201cWell, where is your book for atheism?\u201d\u00a0 That is a symptom.\u00a0 If someone is an obnoxious, vociferous atheist, that\u2019s a symptom of the fact that your heart\u2019s starved.\u00a0 They\u2019re looking for something more, and you probably know, working with some of those kids, the ones that are the toughest ones are the ones that have the greatest emotional inner needs, and if you can get through all of that\u2026\u2026\u2026.So this is what we need to do with the Rosicrucian philosophy or with just sharing Christianity,<\/em> is we need to be able to use good judgment.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we talk only about one simple thing, and that\u2019s all that a lot of people need.\u00a0 Donald Finch spent most of his life talking about one principle, the principle of cause and consequence which he stated in a different way.\u00a0 He just kept working on it until people got the idea from himself and when they got the idea for themselves, their lives were better.\u00a0 Most important of all, when we\u2019re applying good judgment about how we teach, we don\u2019t try to impress other people intellectually, because that\u2019s almost like slugging them.\u00a0 You\u2019re just putting out words and principles and concepts; that\u2019s not what Christianity is.\u00a0 Christianity is a religion of love; it is a religion of forgiveness.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m practicing it, but I\u2019m trying to practice it, even on the highway.\u00a0 You know, when people are coming into a lane that they\u2019re not supposed to be in, and you say, \u201cI\u2019m not going to let him in there,\u201d it\u2019s still a challenge for me.\u00a0 You know, sometimes that \u201cstill small voice\u201d tells me \u201cyou\u2019ve got to let him in there, because you\u2019re giving him a break even though he doesn\u2019t deserve a break, and that is what grace is. \u00a0Grace is when we get a cosmic break even though we didn\u2019t deserve it, when we were sinful, selfish, uncaring people.<\/p>\n

And if we are carrying light, some people won\u2019t even accept it.\u00a0 So, unless what we\u2019re teaching \u2013 you know, you can teach nothing but cause and consequence, and you can be a hard-nose about it; that\u2019s not Christianity.\u00a0 Christ said, \u201cI came to fulfill the law,\u201d and Christ superseded the law, so that when we are preaching the gospel, which is the first one of our objectives, we do it with an attitude of Christ.\u00a0 If there are sophisticated arguers and they try to make a fool of you, so be it.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s no different than being sucker-punched into a fist fight.\u00a0 It\u2019s just done intellectually, but you have to love them no matter what.<\/p>\n

We have only a few minutes to talk about the second thing that is our work.\u00a0 That is to heal the sick.\u00a0 It\u2019s very important right now.\u00a0 It is the way humanity advances itself the most.\u00a0 In the Bible, Christ tells us it is more blessed to give than to receive. \u00a0That\u2019s a strange notion.\u00a0 If you take that in a small scale of time, that disrupts the whole idea of cause and consequence or action and reaction.\u00a0 You have to look at it in a deeper and more far-reaching way.<\/p>\n

What you do is you see that as the whole first half of the whole evolutionary creation.\u00a0 It is a creation; it\u2019s not just an evolution like a machine; it is the creation of the universal spirit.\u00a0 In that whole first half, when we were creatures, we were receivers, and we advanced ourselves by receiving what the angels, the archangels, and all the other hierarchies were giving to us.\u00a0 Now that we have taken the creative force into our own hands, even though we\u2019ve jumped the gun in what is called \u201cthe fall of humanity,\u201d now that we have taken that creative force into our own hands, we are now among the creators, and for the whole second half of the creation, we are the creators, which means \u201cgivers.\u201d\u00a0 It is more blessed to give than to receive<\/em>.\u00a0 I believe that this is what Christ was pointing to when he made that statement\u2014like we are becoming creative beings.<\/p>\n

But, that ignores the fact that we have this large burden of sin.\u00a0 And we have this great distorted character and personality from many, many past lives of sinning.\u00a0 So, what the spirit is<\/em> works its way out<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bad thoughts lead to bad desires.\u00a0 Bad desires lead to bad actions, and bad actions lead to sick bodies.\u00a0 If we\u2019re going to become creative beings, our first work in creation is regenerative.\u00a0 By that we use our creative abilities to help others be uplifted.\u00a0 This is why healing the sick is put on the same level as preaching the gospel.<\/p>\n

In fact, they actually are both the same thing, but the Rosicrucian philosophy has a wonderful healing practice. It has a service that is designed to put us in touch with Christ and to draw on the healing energy of Christ to bring it down to where it can be used here on this plane and shared with other people.\u00a0 Moreover, through the use of astrology and other things, we understand what is wrong in the character so that in spiritual healing, when we try to help people with their attitudes that have degenerated, the healing may not always be a dramatic laying on of hands \u2013 it might be bringing an understanding to someone that they need to change their life forever.\u00a0 When we heal the sick, we study, not with an idea of knowing things, but to know things that can help people, and that we then can help heal them.<\/p>\n

Now, in the Rosicrucian Order and with the Rosicrucian philosophy, as we said in the very beginning, we are tapped to challenge, because when we challenge, we learn the truth from experience.\u00a0 First hand experience is very, very important in the Rosicrucian philosophy.\u00a0 Healing prayer is probably the best way to get first-hand experience.\u00a0 You have heard these stories of people \u2013 of fakir\u2019s in India who sit and concentrate and they put a seed in the ground and you see the tree come up and then you see the fruits come off of the tree.\u00a0 Madame Blavatsky who was a deep student of Eastern philosophy said \u201cthose are the dropouts.\u201d\u00a0 She said those were the people who only worked on concentration or psychic phenomena.<\/p>\n

They said, \u201cLook at what I can do,\u201d and they got all fascinated with that, and they didn\u2019t use it for service.\u00a0 If we want to develop our inward powers, especially the power of concentration, there is no better way to develop concentration than to do healing prayer.\u00a0 At the same time that you\u2019re developing your talents and your abilities, you\u2019re helping people.\u00a0 If you give it over to their free will and in accordance to Christ, you\u2019re helping people without sticking your nose in their business.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very strong about this.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made several ventures in life.\u00a0 I\u2019ve made some success in S. America, not so much in N. America, on getting people to do the healing service on a regular basis\u2014on forming core healing groups that are like teams, that you work together and that you know because of each other that your prayers are stronger and that you can be much more effective.\u00a0 As far as trying to grow as Christian mystics, I can\u2019t think of a better way than to participate in the healing work.\u00a0 It\u2019s practical, and it\u2019s down-to-earth and it\u2019s the best way to develop your talents.\u00a0 That\u2019s about all I have to say, so we\u2019ll close with the Rosicrucian Student\u2019s Prayer.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OUR WORK \u00a0A Lecture Given At The Detroit, Michigan, Conclave September 2009 By Richard K \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In the Rosicrucian Order and with the Rosicrucian philosophy, we are tapped to challenge, because when we challenge, we learn the truth from experience.\u00a0 Therefore, I am now going to challenge you.\u00a0 I challenge you to remain awake.\u00a0 It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,27,5],"tags":[88,87,13],"class_list":["post-1129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-lecture-notes","category-philosophy","tag-heal","tag-preach","tag-rosicrucian-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4341,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/4341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}