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To be “Christian” is to participate in One Indivisble Whole

Posted on 24 November 2017, 15:13

More Afterlife teaching from Stephen the Martyr.

[If it were possible to perceive souls as entities, separate from each other, then Stephen here would be talking about reincarnation as commonly understood. But since there is no such separation, Stephen’s teaching is more about the Communion of Saints, the unity of living and the so-called dead and with the Whole]

Stephen (the Martyr): You have questions of course?

Michael:  The question on our minds is the nature of what one could call the Continuous Self. Now to talk to you, is to talk to a person with feelings recognisably the same as my own, who experiences and reacts in ways that I might experience and react in. I think of you and then I think of myself, of how my continuous self has worn [other personalities] and myself and confusion begins to come to my mind, because I cannot, we cannot, quite formulate the question.  Gerald, just now, to try and express his feeling, has drawn a wheel, with the continuous self as the hub of the wheel and each spoke, each part of the tread, covering fresh ground, rough or smooth, and there is choosing at the hub. Stephen, can you talk about this?

Stephen: I shall be delighted to.

Firstly let me again correct a misapprehension that we are all inclined to be under whilst we are in the physical body: and that is the feeling of separateness.

You will find that you are thinking of separateness when we refer to Stephen, or to Michael and “Charles” [a supposed former incarnation of M’s] as if they were truly separate.

Think of the wheel and the external perimeter of the wheel as the Whole continuously-

With the spokes from the exterior going through the centre, being experiences of the Whole.

The experience of the spoke belongs to the Whole and is the experience of the Whole; the spoke itself is only the instrument of the Whole.

Think of this concept now and ask your question again,  at some other opportunity.

* [In the Upanishads] “the totality of existence is compared to a wheel, and of this wheel the Lord is both the hub and the rim whereas individual ‘selves’ are the spokes that connect the two: they are inseparable from God but they are not identical with him.” [Article on “Hinduism” in Man, Myth and Magic, p.1313]

Michael:  All right. But I think of “Charles” as dead. We have also been thinking of wholes. For instance, we have been thinking of what they call a natural theology, that will embrace in one whole, animals, snakes and ourselves into the one Whole. So much of our thinking has so far, simply involved the growth of the individual human soul. Can you speak of the Whole?

Stephen: You can see even whilst you are speaking where your confusion is.

At one time, we ask a question of the continuous self of an individual.

Now we ask the same question, but of the Whole.

Think again simply of the parable of the Gardener.

He did not make flowers or a border.

He made a garden where each of these parts are [make up] a garden.

The teaching of this you already have.

Let me again make this clearer, for it may answer another question. Many felt troubled when the question “What is a Christian?” was asked. You have even asked this, this night. Perhaps if I answered this question for you, it will answer many questions you may wish to ask.

“Christian” is the name that defines the pursuit of what is Christ. The example of the successful pursuit was in our Lord who indeed was the Christ.  Therefore, a Christian in the terms that you wish to think or, indeed, in the terms in which you should think, should be defined as: “Any cell, [soul) each and any part of the continuous self, which acts in   a like manner (in pursuit of what is Christ)”; whether it is called Christian, “yellow” or “rain” is immaterial.

For to be Christian is to be conscious not of separateness but to be conscious as part of the Whole.

In the past, for joining of the Whole, parts of the Whole had experiences, continued to choose and gained further experiences in differing incarnations. This is the case with the part of the Whole with which we are blessed, called Michael. He is also a part of the Whole that gained the experience of “Charles”. And backwards as it shall be forwards.

The knowledge of this part of the Whole (which is also called Michael) which was to be gained through experience was decided before the separateness of Michael was felt.

Therefore we can say that the experiences gained would be of the whole self of Michael, the choosing of the whole self of Michael.

But let this not go as far as to specify details of the incidents that occur to the body which the Whole, through Michael, is using.

For this body has a mind that has many functions.

This body has a mind that can be influenced and this body was chosen by the Whole through the whole self, the continuous self of Michael, because of its situation and because of the probability of the influences that will be made to bear on the mind of that body that we know as Michael.

Incidents will happen that were not planned and yea even should not be planned; but the total of the experience of that part of the whole which is the whole self of Michael (whilst that part is in the body) was requiring that total experience, not the separate incidents.

Should it be necessary for the “Charles”-Michael* to become a “George”, then it will be decided at which stage the “George” should possess a body, where the body should be situated and also the time in evolution, when it would gain the experience that the part of the whole (which the whole self of Michael) wishes to obtain.

* [ Charles is a presumed former incarnation]

I need to feel and grasp this, and to grasp that I am Michael, that Michael is Stephen and that what I experience now is experience for the You which is also I.
I need to feel and grasp that this is so, that I am but a part that could be described as a spoke in the “wheel” which is the Whole and that together at the outside perimeter we cannot be separated.

Michael:  I get confused about this Whole. Are not you, Stephen, also Bill and Olive and everyone else as well as Michael?

Stephen: We are all each other though we are not sharing at this time the incidents of the separate bodies.

But the experience that we are sharing in these separate bodies belongs to us all.
* * *

[ “For to be Christian is to be conscious, not of separateness, but to be conscious as part of the Whole.” This is the starting point, in thinking about this Christian version of “reincarnation”. No question of a separated soul leaving a body, and then entering another. “I am but a spoke in the wheel which is the Whole” and “at the outside perimeter we cannot be separated.”  On the one hand, Stephen gave us reincarnation names that at first embarrassed us and then led us to self-centred feelings of importance; then, on the other hand, he said that we are all each other, including of course, you the reader. You could say that Stephen was the cause of emotional disturbance for which we needed prolonged counselling before we put things into proportion. Those of us who were talking with Stephen were learning about our own spiritual selves but the message that we hope will be heard is that we are all spokes in the wheel and most of what is said of us can be said of everybody.]


Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.

Paperback               Kindle


For more on Stephen go to www.thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02

 


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Stephen the Martyr on “The Sheep and the Goats” and the Afterlife

Posted on 10 November 2017, 10:50

Michael: My questions relate to Trust [in life, in God]. As a matter of fact I think I am trusting more than I used to. I am less worried and am happier. But I am concerned about the theme going through the New Testament, themes of the Sheep and the Goats [Matt 25:32]; those in the fields, where one is taken and the other is left [Matt 24:40], where one is consigned to the fire of Gehenna [Matt 10:28]; “Fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul in Gehenna”, “furnace of fire [Matt 13:42,50” “lake of fire” [Rev 19:20, 20:10, 14, 15], all of which I am not too sure about.

Stephen: Then let me make it clear for you, if I may, that in each of us there are often two people, might I say a kind of schizophrenia.  One is the mind, the conditioning of that mind, and the beliefs that one has gathered.  The other one is the openness of what is part of the Whole.

It is but another body that is the goat, for we cannot take [it] with us and it cannot come to be joined with the Father and with the Lord, bringing with it these prejudices, these misbeliefs, these conceptions, that can only cause doubt. For what joins with the Father is purity and love. They will have nothing with [those things that could cause a separation. This then is what will be consumed in the fire of Truth. This, then, is what will be cast off. This, and these creations of the mind, these beings that can be created from the mind, cannot and never will be joined to the Father and the Whole.
As simply as I can put it!

Do not think that Michael is unique in having this unacceptable twin, unacceptable to the Father as part of the Whole, for all of us do have one; yes, Olive, I also; for did I not still have this mind, were I completely [un]separated, I could not even manifest in this manner, for I too have likes and dislikes.

Michael: Now Michael and his unacceptable twin…

Stephen: Unacceptable to the Father as part of the Whole.

Michael: All right.

Now I do not find it useful to beat myself or punish myself. I find it good to love myself even in my unacceptableness.  On the other hand, let Michael be an example: tell Michael about how the acceptable Michael might survive, but his counterpart…

Stephen: The acceptable Michael can do nothing but survive. For it was, is, and always shall be, part of what we choose to call the Whole. The unacceptability is what the true Michael (or whoever) would find unacceptable, what we cast off.

Michael: Now I say to my friends that we are all children together, all struggling a little with our twins. Now I do not wish to recount the ‘unacceptableness’ of other people, because we are all in the same boat… Could you clarify our minds on how we might approach each other on our ‘unacceptablenesses?’

Stephen: Firstly do let me explain that when I use the term ‘unacceptable’ I do not mean ‘useless’. For this unacceptable mind, this state of being, is there for a purpose. But like our physical bodies, we would know that this would be unacceptable in its decay to join with the Whole. Can you deny the usefulness of your physical body? You cannot deny the usefulness of the body that I have termed ‘unacceptable’. That is all.

The Afterlife.

43. Our passing over.

Stephen: Your conversation this evening has been uplifting - should we say perhaps the Gospel according to St Thomas? How can I best assist you?

Olive: Well, Stephen, we have some visitors tonight, as you have gathered.

Stephen: There are many visitors gathered!

Olive: I am sure. Visible ones I mean. We thought perhaps something that is simple but is probably not a good question to ask at this stage would be about our passing over.

Stephen:  The questions you choose are simplicity. Perhaps if I told you this, that Thomas even now is in that state that we all will be in, as I am, when I return to Thomas this, his body. What you feel is what you are. I will ask Thomas if he feels that he is without something that he should have. He said that he is not without. Then this is the way that you would feel. As you feel now.

You would learn that perhaps you are less limited. Each of you often has had experiences as this whilst in a dream, whilst you go on a journey in your dream; you walk the streets, you speak with friends, you are you, except that you feel neither heat nor cold, nor hunger nor thirst. You discover that you have no sense of touch, or of taste, or of smell. You see, but not with your eyes; you hear but not with ears; for you only feel emotions and vibrations.

Often those who are in the physical believe that the lack of knowledge causes great distress in one who leaves the body. This is not so. For a while perhaps the state may appear to be dreamlike but it is no stranger than when you do leave the body in dreams.  Ask yourself this: when you have been in your dreams and in another place did you feel that you were dead or that things were not as they were? No, you felt that you were a spectator of happenings. Other things may be strange but never ourselves.  Others may act in a peculiar manner but never ourselves.

Did we yearn in our dreams for those that we love? Did we think perhaps of our clothes? For those we had left behind, with little or no memory, for the need is no longer there.  If we were to stay in our dreams long enough, what we had witnessed and where we were would become normal; just as where we are and what we see now is normal. 
 
Ask yourselves this: should others from another house be here now they would perhaps think that they were in another state. Now we have the manifestation of those who have left their body becoming conscious of those that are still with their bodies, such as myself and others of our friends. Their thoughts are no different to the thoughts that you have yourself now when you contemplate others who have no body.

Begin to understand as those without their bodies understand you. They often cannot feel your needs but they do recognise sadness; their emotions and feelings are the same. Should you dream that someone who is well loved by you is unhappy or in danger or in need, then in your dream state you might cry out but they would not hear. How often in your dreams have you tried to avoid for others happenings which you may see? This is the state that you become when you leave your body in relation to those who are still with their body.  On the realisation that in no way can you affect, or only temporarily so, the state of one still with the body, you search as you do now for the needs which you yourself have.

With us now are many who are learning to communicate, to understand; to them what they see and hear but cannot touch and taste is a little like a dream. You, yourselves, are unaware of them. When the morning comes and you are in a different place and you concentrate on the things that you need, do not these things take precedence in your mind, rather than us without the body?
Think not that when you are without your body you are going to be much different, although your needs are different. Except through feelings there is little association, for your tasks and your needs are no longer what they were whereas the tasks and needs of those that are still in the body are different. These are the first things that you learn.

The others that you learn in a later time are the same things that you learn now: the purpose and need of us all, for we are but one in the Father. Would you ask more that I can help?

Bill: Stephen, I had heard that when we pass on we do have a counterpart of our physical body in a different wave-length or a different sphere. I have heard that this happens in some cases; is this not true?

Stephen:  Thomas, [in trance] at this moment, would feel that he still has a body. He is surprised, therefore I ask him to touch. The body is relative to the plane that you have now. To a stone your skin is soft and of no substance, to your finger the water is liquid and your finger can pass through; but to the smoke and air it is as solid as a wall or as this chair that Thomas can no longer feel.  Each stage of development of you, yourself, always has you as you feel and as you know yourself, for even with your physical body you can change. If you were in the company of men that were large and tall you would be small; if you were in the company of children you would be large, in the company of fat people you would be thin, in the company of thin people you would be fat. You are you, and you will always feel you, in relationship to what else there is in your own presence.

Bill: It is a bit hard to grasp this relativity but I dare say it will come in time. Thank you, Stephen.

Stephen: Are there other questions that you would ask? Then I shall answer for you: our theories, all of them not untrue, of different lands and lands now past, where symbols from one country appear after ages have passed in another, where the tongues and complexion of some bodies, in the art and paintings of some, are the same as others from a distant land where these bodies have never trod. We forget one thing, that each of you has walked in a different land, has spoken with a different tongue, has been in ages past and many of the things that you do now are things that you had done then. Would it then be strange that the habits of one race of people, who in that life could not have travelled great distances, were the same as the habits of people in different lands, unknown even to each other with ages as well as distance between them. Ask yourself, “Have I not made this journey? Have you not made this journey?”  I give one word of caution, that often these theories can give rise to beliefs in gods and divine beings and all mysterious practices. Therefore, be reminded there is but one God and He is the Father, the Creator and the Source of all things and His magic is there for your eyes to behold each day. Listen yourself to your own breath and perceive His miracle for what He has created is there for all to see, as it was in the beginning and is now.  With this we shall leave Thomas no more dead. God bless you all.

Michael Cocks edits the journal, The Ground of Faith.
Afterlife Teaching From Stephen the Martyr by Michael Cocks is published by White Crow Books and available from Amazon and other bookstores.

Paperback               Kindle


For more on Stephen go to www.thegroundoffaith.net/issues/2017-02


Read comments or post one of your own
 
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“Life After Death – The Communicator” by Paul Beard – If the telephone rings, naturally the caller is expected to identify himself. In post-mortem communication, necessitating something far more complex than a telephone, it is not enough to seek the speakers identity. One needs to estimate also as far as is possible his present status and stature. This involves a number of factors, overlapping and hard to keep separate, each bringing its own kind of difficulty. Four such factors can readily be named. Read here
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