By John Berges
The goal of this discourse is to redirect the student’s aspiration from the impossible desire to experience the inmost self (Wholeness Navigator∗) while in a human instrument, to the achievable goal of expressing the qualities and attributes of the Wholeness Navigator, which it transmits to the human instrument at all times. Sensitivity to the inmost self can be contemplated through meditation and reflection, but cannot be directly experienced as a dominant reality.
∗ NOTE: In the first discourse, the terms Wholeness Navigator and soul are interchangeable with the term inmost self.
1 (1) Paragraphs 1-34 Sensory Restraints
The first point of interest in this discourse is that “sensory restraints” were built into the human instrument in order to maintain its focus in the physical world.
Additionally, an instinctual fear of being displaced from the dominant reality of the physical world is built into the Genetic Mind of the human species.
Teacher: You are here as a human instrument to interact with this world and attune to its dominant reality, and bring your understanding of your inmost self to this world even if this understanding is not pure, strong, or clear. 33.
4 (4) Paragraphs 35-54 The Unreachable Self
The student then complains that if he could get in touch with his inmost self he could bring more understanding to the world.
The teacher states that such is not the case and then he asks the student why he believes that getting in touch with the inmost self will be helpful to others. The student admits that he is not sure why.
The next point is that no one can fully experience the inmost self while living in a human instrument. No master has ever done so.
6 (6) Paragraphs 55-64 Qualities of the Inmost Self
The student asks why he (and many others) have this desire to experience the inmost self if, in fact, we cannot do so.
Before addressing this question the teacher points out that even though we cannot have a direct experience of our inmost self, we can contact many of its qualities. Using the metaphor of experiencing wind and rain in order to better understand a hurricane, the teacher explains that we touch the outlines and features of the inmost self through experiencing the qualities of “unconditional love, supernal beauty, harmony, reverence, and wholeness.” 62.
7 (7) Paragraphs 65-78 Reality Check
In this key section the teacher points out that those who have achieved some degree of brief contact with the inmost self realize that they cannot know that self in its fullness. More importantly perhaps, they realize with complete certainty that what they CAN do is transmit and express the spiritual qualities of that contact within the dominant reality in which their human instrument exists. At this point the teacher answers the student’s question with a metaphor of a flying fish. The fish’s natural habitat, its dominant reality, is the sea, yet it has the natural instinct to break the surface of the water and “fly” briefly in the world of “air-breathers.” While in this new environment it experiences an entirely different reality from the sea, yet knows next to nothing about this different reality. We pick up the dialogue from paragraph 68:
Teacher: Then why does it fly above the water?
Student: I suppose it’s an instinct, something of an evolutionary imperative—
Teacher: Exactly.
Student: So you’re saying this is true of humans as well. We strive to experience our God-fragment out of an evolutionary imperative or compulsion?
Teacher: Yes, and like the flying fish, when we break from our world it is only for a short time and we fall beneath the surface once again. But while we are above the surface of our world, we momentarily forget we are just a human with a beginning and an end. Yet, when we do this, we do not imagine that we can touch the face of God within ourselves.
Student: But I do. I feel that I can, and even should, touch this God-fragment.
Teacher: You think this way because you have the hopeful exuberance and naïveté of a person unacquainted with the experience of First Source. [Emphasis mine.]
Student: So you don’t feel this way? 68-75
Key response:
Teacher: Anyone attuned to the highest vibrations of their innermost self will feel this and be guided by it. The only difference is that I am content in knowing that I will not experience it while I am embodied in a human instrument.
Student: And what does this contentment provide you that I don’t have?
Teacher: The ability to channel my energy into this world rather than to apply it in the pursuit of another. 76-8. [Emphasis mine.]
8 (8) Paragraphs 79-80 Live In This World
The student asks how he is to control this desire to seek the inmost self.
Teacher: Live in this world with all your passion and strength. See the God-fragment in this world, even if it is only a diminished beacon or tired light. See it! Nurture it! Do not be so quick to look for it in the depths of your heart or mind where you believe it might be. 80. 68 (8) Paragraphs 84-90 Right Action
Learn to recognize the things that can be changed and the things that can only be experienced.
9 (9) Paragraphs 92-98 The God-fragment
The teacher adds that discretion and discernment are important tools for living life in a state of fulfillment or frustration.
The student then applies this principle to the idea that he must accept the fact that the inmost soul or God-fragment cannot be known by the human mind. (By implication however, the inmost soul’s qualities can change the human instrument.)
See paragraph 62 on p. 1.
The lesson of this discourse is:
Teacher: The concept of the God-fragment within you has power. It can be contemplated, but it cannot be experienced as a dominant reality in a human instrument. Through this contemplative approach you can learn discernment, and through this discernment you will learn how to navigate in the world of shadows and echoes in such a way that you bring changes that are in accord with the objectives of First Source. You externalize the will of the God-fragment, rather than seek its experience. In so doing, you eliminate the fear and frustration energies that flow through your mind. 96. [Emphasis mine.]The power of the God-fragment does not lie in experiencing it as a dominant reality, but by contemplating its nature. Through this meditative approach the Godfragment communicates the objectives of First Source and the human instrument comes into contact with energy qualities of the inmost self. Thus, the will of the Godfragment is externalized in this world.
Summation
Human instruments are designed with sensory restraints which focus and maintain the consciousness of each individual in the dominant reality of the time-space dimension.
No human, no matter how advanced, can fully experience his or her inmost self (the Wholeness Navigator) while incarnated within a human instrument.
Apparently, those who report experiences of nirvana, cosmic consciousness, satori, etc. have not tapped into the inmost self completely, but have only touched the fringes of it. Despite this, just a small degree of contact with the inmost self allows the individual to realize that the true nature of the inmost self is so profound and grand that it transcends the descriptive capacities of the human instrument. It is this very lack of such capacity which has led those in the past (and present) to falsely conclude that they have contacted the inmost self, soul, or Wholeness Navigator to its fullest extent.
The individual cannot maintain that intense contact for more than a brief time, but must return to the dominant reality in which he or she is living.
The individual then channels the contacted energies of the inmost self into the dominant reality of the human instrument rather than into the world of the Wholeness Navigator. The task of the individual is to express (in the manner of his own choosing) the qualities and characteristics of the Wholeness Navigator in this dominant reality, in contrast to spending one’s energy learning how to leave this dominant reality in search of the Wholeness Navigator elsewhere.
The qualities of the inmost self, the Wholeness Navigator, are to be expressed in this world to the fullest extent possible.
This is expressed at the end of the discourse as follows:
• The concept of the God-fragment within you has power.
• It can be contemplated, but it cannot be experienced as a dominant reality in a human instrument.
• Through this contemplative approach you can learn discernment.
• Through this discernment you will learn how to navigate in the world of shadows and echoes in such a way that you bring changes that are in accord with the objectives of First Source.
• You externalize the will of the God-fragment, rather than seek its experience.
• In so doing, you eliminate the fear and frustration energies that flow through your
mind.
Conclusion
We have an inborn instinct to seek our highest self, the soul, inmost self, or Wholeness Navigator, but no matter how we try we can never experience it fully while incarnated in the time-space reality. Our human instruments are designed to experience and explore this dominant reality not that of the soul. We can visit the reality of the inmost self, but not stay there.
We are urged to meditate on the inmost self with the understanding that we visit the soul’s habitat in order to bring back whatever knowledge, wisdom, and insight we can apply to our dominant reality on Earth. These qualities are specifically described as “unconditional love, supernal beauty, harmony, reverence, and wholeness.”
