Not beyond but within….
In the course of researching oneness, I came across two sentences from Jesus through John Smallman that spoke volumes to me.
Jesus said, “There is no beyond. There is only within.” (1)
When I speak of dimensions, I tend to use the metaphor of higher and lower. Higher is beyond me, outside of me; it awaits my vibration or frequency becoming “higher”; etc.
But my own experience has shown me that this metaphor, though useful, may mask the truth.
When I found myself in the presence of the Self at Xenia, I travelled within, not higher. I went deeper and deeper inside me, into my heart until I reached, as I’ve said elsewhere, its deepest part – what I called “the bottom of my heart.” (2)
And there I found the Light that the Self is. The Light was external to me but its “location” was internal.
There’s an anomaly here: I went internally but I saw the Light externally.
That’s not an uncommon situation if we’re to look at the experiences classical sages have had.
My experience was truncated so that I didn’t bliss out and leave lightwork forever. That’s not the plan for my life. (3) But the experiences of classical sages were not.
These were people for whom personal enlightenment was part of their life’s plan.
Krishnamuti, for instance, described his fourth-chakra experience, in which he saw a Light external to himself when, in meditation, he went inside:
“Over my head I saw the Star, bright and clear. … Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. … I am God-intoxicated.” (4)
This Star is of course the Self, the Christ, the Atman.
John Ruusbroec had a similar experience:
“In the abyss of this darkness in which the loving spirit has died to itself, God’s revelation and eternal life have their origin, for in this darkness an incomprehensible light is born and shines forth; this is the Son of God, in whom a person becomes able to see and to contemplate eternal life.” (5)
Ruusbroec has gone into the internal darkness and yet he sees the Light as external to himself.
He calls this Light the “Son of God.” It is the true Christ, the treasure buried in the field of the heart, the pearl of great price.
What he thinks of as “eternal life” we’d call Ascension. It’s “eternal” in that we never need to die and be reborn into Third-Dimensional matter again.
Finally, St. Augustine tells us that, in the midst of his spiritual experience, “by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” (6)
You recall that I experienced purity and innocence in the presence of the Self. Serenity is another good word for it.
I could give numerous other examples. (7)
As an aside, I once asked Jesus about this Light in the radio program, An Hour with an Angel. He confirmed what Ruusbroec said, that the Light – not he himself – is “the Son of God.”
Steve Beckow: When you say, “I am the light,” who is “I am”? Are you speaking as Jesus, or are you speaking as the Christ, as the Light?
Jesus: No, I am speaking as the Light. (8)
Now combine this internal seeing of an external Light with my experience in 1977 of the spirit body as being located inside the physical body: The more subtle body is located inside the more dense.
Again we have the pattern of the more refined entity being contained inside of or internal to the more dense. Once more we have the implied need to go inward to connect with the deeper aspects of ourself.
I suggest that all of our more refined bodies lie inside our more dense bodies, like a Babushka doll. We call it our Higher Self. But it might be more fitting to call it our Inner Self.
If I’m correct so far, then I’m willing to go a step further and hypothesize that the dimensions also are not somehow outside of us and on a “higher” plane, but, in fact, inside us, in our deepest recesses. In other words, they’re not beyond but within.
This is just speculation, but time – and experimentation – will prove these to be either true or false statements.
In the meantime, I resonate very strongly with what Jesus hypothesized, that “There is no beyond. There is only within.”
Footnotes
(1) Jesus via John Smallman, January 21, 2014, at http://johnsmallman2.wordpress.com.
(2) “From the Bottom of My Heart: Where Does the Phrase Come From?”
(3) The Divine Mother said that, if my experience were not toned down, I’d have been knocked over and would leave my present life:
“If you had seen the light as it actually is, yes, a million, billion suns… You would have simply departed. …
“ We don’t mean die but you would have departed the life that you have designed – yes, with us, for yourself, for the service you are providing – you would have departed and simply said, ‘I do not need to do this. I will just simply sit in the bliss of love and good luck, everybody!’” (The Divine Mother in a personal reading with Steve Beckow though Linda Dillon, Oct. 26, 2018.)
Michael offered this advice in a reading in 2013:
AAM: You did not come to live as a guru in a western or eastern manner.
Steve: Can you help me make sense of returning to my interdimensionality while not becoming a guru figure?
AAM: It is very simple: Visit; don’t stay. (Archangel Michael in a personal reading with Steve Beckow though Linda Dillon, May 6, 2013.)
(4) Here’s the whole quote:
“Over my head I saw the Star, bright and clear. … I was supremely happy, for I had seen. Nothing could ever be the same. I have drunk at the clear and pure waters at the source of the fountain of life and my thirst was appeased. … I have seen the Light. I have touched compassion which heals all sorrow and suffering…. Love in all its glory has intoxicated my heart; my heart can never be closed. … I am God-intoxicated.” (Krishnamurti in Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening. New York: Avon, 1975, 171-2.)
(5) John Ruusbroec in James A. Wiseman, John Ruusbroec. The Spiritual Espousals and Other Works. New York, etc.: Paulist Press,
1985, 147.
Ruusbroec goes on to urge us to contemplate this Light:
“It is Christ [the Son, the Self, the Atman], the light of truth, who says, ‘See,’ and it is through him that we are able to see [realizes our true identity with God], for he is the light of the Father [the All-Self, Brahman], without which there is no light in heaven or on earth.” (Ibid., 74.)
(6) Here’s that quote:
“I seized [the Bible], opened, and in silence read that section, on which my eyes first fell: Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in spite and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in concupiscence.
“No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.” (St. Augustine in E.B. Pusey, trans., The Confessions of St. Augustine. London: Dent, 1934; c1909, 170-1.)
(7) Let me give three more reflections on “seeing the Light.”
Jacob Boehme: “A wonderful light arose within my soul. In it I recognized the nature of God and man.” (Jacob Boehme in Maurice Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness. A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind. New York: Dutton, 1969; c1901, 183.)
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within.” (Ralph Waldo Emerson in William H. Gilman, ed., Selected Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. New York and Scarborough: New American Library, 1965, 258.)
Notice “from within.”
Bodhidharma: “If, while you’re walking, standing, sitting or lying in a quiet grove, you see a light, regardless of whether it’s bright or dim [mine was “dim”], don’t tell others. And don’t focus on it. It’s the light of your nature.” (Bodhidharma in Red Pine, trans., The Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma. Port Townsend, WA, Empty Bowl, 1987, 16.)
Bodhidharma again: “If, as in a dream, you see a light brighter than the sun, your remaining attachments will suddenly come to an end, and the nature of reality will be revealed. Such an occurrence serves as the basis for enlightenment.” (Loc. cit.)
This event serves as “the basis for enlightenment” in that it’s the first stage of enlightenment, which culminates in Buddhahood, Salvation, Redemption, or Ascension (beyond the Third-Dimensional seven-chakra system).
Only complete mergence with God – way, way, way into the future – could be said to be “complete” enlightenment.
And so on.
(8) “Transcript of an Hour with an Angel, with Jesus, Jan. 16, 2012,” at http://goldenageofgaia.com/ascension-as-of-2012/the-masters-speak/transcript-of-an-hour-with-an-angel-with-jesus-jan-16-2012/.