Toward a Deeper Meditation. John Van Auken

we focused more on our own consciousness and gradually lost our connection with the Infinite Mind. We did not go anywhere. There was nowhere to go beyond the Whole. We simply lost consistent consciousness of our oneness with the Infinite Consciousness. Today, billions of years after it all began, we struggle to regain and retain conscious awareness of the One Mind within which we all exist and with which we are all destined to consciously companion forever—if we choose to.

      Just as this is all getting clearer, Cayce tosses a brick into our thinking when he says such mind-boggling things as “there is no time, no space.” He explains that at a deep level, there actually is no beginning, no end; all time is one. He explains that there actually is no here and no there. As demonstrated by his own readings, he could tell someone what he or she (the deeper self) thought eons ago, as if it were yesterday, and could physically be in Virginia Beach while viewing a person in San Diego! During his readings, there was indeed no time, no space. All was one.

      Cayce said it this way: “Learn these lessons well: First, the continuity of life. There is no time; it is one time. There is no space; it is one space. There is no force, other than all force in its various phases and applications. The individual is such a part of God that one’s thoughts may become crimes or miracles, for thoughts are deeds. That that one metes must be met again. That one applies will be applied again and again until that oneness of time, space, force are learned and the individual is one with the whole.” (4341-1)

      Fortunately for our three-dimensional selves, he did instruct that time and space are helpful tools for developing souls to use in our day-to-day, step-by-step process of application and enlightenment. But his deeper mind did not want us to get lost in the limitations of time and space, encouraging us to budget some time and space for experiencing the timelessness and spacelessness; in other words, the oneness. He also instructed seekers to “watch the self go by”—watch the self interact with others, watch one’s mind thinking about situations and people—and see if one’s words, actions, and thoughts reflect the truth of the oneness or the illusion of separateness, multiplicity, and diversity.

      From Cayce’s trance perspective, the greatest evil in the earth and in the hearts and minds of individuals is contention, faultfinding, lovers of self, and lovers of praise, because these forces separate. The greatest good in the world is love, patience, kindness, forgiveness, and understanding, because these forces unite, for “these are times when every effort should be made to preserve the universality of love.” (877-29) He instructed one person to “study the truths about oneness, whether Jewish, Gentile, Greek, or heathen!” (136-12) Among religions, Cayce said that wherever the principle of one God and one people is taught, there is truth. And that in many of the world’s great religions, the principle of oneness is there, but men have “turned this aside to meet their own immediate needs, as a moralist or the head of any independent power, but ‘Know the Lord thy God is One!’ whether this is directing one of the Confucius thought, Brahman thought, Buddha thought, Mohammedan thought … there is only one. The whole law and gospel of every age has said, ‘There is one God!’” (364-9)

      As with all of these concepts, they begin within our individual minds and hearts, and since there is oneness, the more individuals believe in the oneness and live it in their lives, the more it makes an impression upon the Collective Consciousness and finds its way into other individual minds and hearts. We are the leaven that can leaven the whole loaf of humanity. Let’s budget time to experience the oneness in meditation. Let’s practice oneness in our thoughts about others and interactions with others. Ultimately, despite all the indications to the contrary, the world and humanity will be one.

       5

       Mind Is the Builder

      From his deep attunement to the Mind of God, that “Universal Consciousness,” Edgar Cayce stated that mind is the light, the builder, and the bridge to liberation and enlightenment. Here are some of his perspectives on the mind:

      The Spirit moved … and there was Light—Mind. The Light became the light of men.

      1947-3

      In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. How? The Mind of God moved, and matter, form, came into being. Mind, then, in God the Father, is the builder. How much more, then, would or should Mind be the builder in the experience of those that have put on Christ or God, in Him, in His coming into the earth?”

      262-78

      Each entity finds itself in a three-dimensional phase of existence or experience: the world without, the world within, and the mind that may span or bridge the two.

      1100-26

      Mind is the light, the builder, and the bridge between spirit and body. Cayce explained that life, all life, begins in the spirit, which is the creative force that brings all into existence. Then mind takes this life essence and builds with it. Finally, the physical is the result: “Mind the builder, the spirit the creator, the material [is] that created. Great truth! Keep it before you.” (900-374) It certainly is a powerful concept to keep before us. All outer “things” have their origin in the unseen spiritual forces, then find expression in the mind, and ultimately appear out here in the physical. Cayce frequently asked us to accept that “the unseen forces are greater than the seen.” If we want to change something, it must begin in the spirit and the mind.

      “That you think, that you put your Mind to work upon, to live upon, to feed upon, to live with, to abide with, to associate with in the mind, that your soul-body becomes! That is the law. That is the destiny.” He expands upon this: “Mind [is] the builder, the appreciater, the paralleler, the drawing of conclusions, the chooser …” (1100-26) And, Cayce says, mind is driven by “the ideal.”

       The Ideal Is the Mind’s Navigator

      “As you contemplate, as you meditate, as you look upon the Mind, know the Mind has many windows. And as you look out of your inner self, know where you are looking, [where] you are seeking. What is your ideal? What would you have your mind-body to become?” (262-78; also see “The Ideal” section in chapter 32)

      In a deep contemplation session on this teaching, my deeper mind saw the ancient boat of pharaoh, with its twenty-four oarsmen and the navigator’s hut on the bow. As I sought to know the meaning of this imagery, Cayce’s teaching about the twelve elders before the Throne of God in the book of the Revelation came to mind. He said that they represent the twelve paired cranial nerves (twenty-four) in our own heads! As these nerves turn their attention away from worldly pursuits and toward heavenly ones, they bring a “new heaven and a new earth,” meaning a new mind, a new body. As I reflected on this, I realized that the twenty-four oarsmen on pharaoh’s boat represented these same nerves and their ability to bring us across the barrier, which the Nile represented, between what the Egyptians called “the land of the living,” which is the place of the physically incarnate, and “the land of the dead,” the realm of the spiritually living. I realized that the navigator was indeed the ideal held as we sought to cross the barrier between this world and the spiritual.

      “That upon which it [the mind] feeds it becomes. The most important experience of this or any individual entity is to first know what is the ideal—spiritually. Who and what is your pattern?” (357-13) Cayce frequently said that Christ is the consciousness, and Jesus is the pattern. Jesus, for Cayce, is the ideal pattern to use to build one’s own mind—just as one would use a pattern to make clothes from new fabric. Jesus exemplified a human at one with God and making that oneness manifest in his life among others. Cayce often noted that Jesus simply went around doing good according to God’s inner guidance to Him—an ideal for all of us.

      Consider this from Cayce: “What, then, is an ideal? As concerning your fellow man, He gave, ‘As you would that others do to you, do you even so to them’; take no thought, worry not, be not overanxious about the body. For He knows what you have need of. In the place