WISDOM & DISCRIMINATION
Excerpt from Joseph S. Benner - Sun Paper 57 - September, 1933
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AND NOW we wish to talk with you about Wisdom and Discrimination, the highest attainments of the human soul and which can be acquired only through the fullest unfoldment of the Love Consciousness.
What is Wisdom? It is Divine Knowing, the Knowing of your Christ Self.
What is Discrimination? It is the ability to listen and know unerringly when the Christ Self speaks and to know His meaning and will for you. Have you gained that Knowing, and are you absolutely sure when your Christ Self speaks and that you understand His meaning?
If not, then you can see how important it is that you gain the ability to retire into the consciousness of your Christ Self at will, there to see with His eyes and to know with His understanding what is necessary for you to know.
There are no surer teachings how to do this than those given in The Impersonal Life, supplemented by those in the Papers. Therefore we urge one and all who are not now studying it to get out the book and in the light of the consciousness you are now in, to go over it again slowly and carefully, listening to what the Loving One within says while you read.
Remember, it is the chief text-book of this Work, and that because of your interest in its truths were you invited to journey with us to the Kingdom, in order that you might prove these truths and build them into your consciousness and life.
We are receiving letters constantly from new and old students in the Work, saying that in the book is contained all Truth, and that one needs no other teachings—if he follows faithfully and always obeys what is so plainly shown therein must be done—to attain union with God and to work in His Kingdom. The lessons in the Papers are only to help make its teachings clearer to those who have not the patience or the persistence to stay with those in the book until they have made their truths a part of their lives.
This being so, maybe if you will now turn to it, with the help and the greater understanding received during the past four years, you may find in it just what is needed to give the final push that will enable you to reach the Kingdom and walk through into Its Glory and Blessings.
If you can only realize it, few even now are able fully to comprehend the great significance of its Message, which is first, to bring your human mind into a full recognition of You, its Divine Teacher—the Comforter within; and second, to teach it without the peradventure of a doubt when You speak, and not when self or some other voice that is seeking to mislead and deceive you.
This, we are finding, is the great need at this particular time; for as disciples approach the Kingdom, the enemy becomes more subtle and more determined in his efforts to prevent them reaching it. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary that every soul be so cleansed of every taint of self, and at the same time will have gained sufficient Wisdom and have developed the faculty of Discrimination, that nothing can tempt them, cause them to doubt or be misled in any way from the straight and narrow path that leads to the Kingdom.
Remember, you cannot enter and abide in the Kingdom until you have met and conquered every temptation that the enemy can bring to you, and you may be sure there will be brought everything that will thoroughly test your Wisdom, Discrimination and Strength of Will, as well as prove that there are no qualities of self still remaining.
And be not dismayed or discouraged at failure, for every failure is but to show you what you still lack and to give you the opportunity to study self the more, so as to learn how better to discipline and prepare it for the next test. Only thus can you gain the strength and what else is needed to withstand all the assaults of the enemy.
TRY to understand that the entering and abiding in the Kingdom is for those only who have thus fully proven themselves—yea, it is for those only who have mastered self, so that it has become their loving and obedient servant. Such are called Masters for that sole reason.
Yet to be Master of self is not sufficient. It must come first; but it is not all—self must lose itself, must merge into the Christ Self, and become One with You, a Son of God.
Those who have not truly found that Self, that All-loving, All-wise Something within, which always knows and will always point them the true way, when they can make self and its desires stand aside so they can listen and hear what Its quiet, gentle voice says, have failed to gain something most precious, something greater than all the occult powers of the greatest adept in the world. For they have not yet found the Comforter, the Blessed Christ within, Who knows all things, has all powers, and will lead them unto all Truth. It is He alone that leads all true disciples to and establishes them in the Kingdom.
Many are turning to occult orders and teachings these days, because of the wonderful things in them held out, the attaining of marvellous powers, and the teaching of them how to become adepts. But do you remember what Jesus said of John the Baptist, the great Adept?
“Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.”
Think long and carefully on these things.
Then again, there are more than a few who are teaching today, giving out messages claimed to be coming from the Christ within, and even from Jesus, our Blessed Lord and Master, who are either fooled by invisible intelligences using such teachers to serve their own sinister ends, or who are woefully self deceived, because of lacking Wisdom and Discrimination—the ability to know that quiet, loving Voice within, the Voice of Him Who knows not material things, but knows their unreality and that they are only the creations of self, which to the Christ Self have no existence. His interest is only in the soul, and in the soul’s good; and His teachings and help will be given only for the soul’s strengthening and blessing.
Until one knows that Voice and can get quiet enough to hear it, one can easily be fooled; and many are being greatly fooled these days, and many more will be fooled in the days to come—until through disillusionment, suffering and sorrow they unfold their Christ Nature, gain sufficient Wisdom and acquire Discrimination, thereby entering into the Impersonal Love Consciousness—that of the Comforter Within.
What is Wisdom? It is Divine Knowing, the Knowing of your Christ Self.
What is Discrimination? It is the ability to listen and know unerringly when the Christ Self speaks and to know His meaning and will for you. Have you gained that Knowing, and are you absolutely sure when your Christ Self speaks and that you understand His meaning?
If not, then you can see how important it is that you gain the ability to retire into the consciousness of your Christ Self at will, there to see with His eyes and to know with His understanding what is necessary for you to know.
There are no surer teachings how to do this than those given in The Impersonal Life, supplemented by those in the Papers. Therefore we urge one and all who are not now studying it to get out the book and in the light of the consciousness you are now in, to go over it again slowly and carefully, listening to what the Loving One within says while you read.
Remember, it is the chief text-book of this Work, and that because of your interest in its truths were you invited to journey with us to the Kingdom, in order that you might prove these truths and build them into your consciousness and life.
We are receiving letters constantly from new and old students in the Work, saying that in the book is contained all Truth, and that one needs no other teachings—if he follows faithfully and always obeys what is so plainly shown therein must be done—to attain union with God and to work in His Kingdom. The lessons in the Papers are only to help make its teachings clearer to those who have not the patience or the persistence to stay with those in the book until they have made their truths a part of their lives.
This being so, maybe if you will now turn to it, with the help and the greater understanding received during the past four years, you may find in it just what is needed to give the final push that will enable you to reach the Kingdom and walk through into Its Glory and Blessings.
If you can only realize it, few even now are able fully to comprehend the great significance of its Message, which is first, to bring your human mind into a full recognition of You, its Divine Teacher—the Comforter within; and second, to teach it without the peradventure of a doubt when You speak, and not when self or some other voice that is seeking to mislead and deceive you.
This, we are finding, is the great need at this particular time; for as disciples approach the Kingdom, the enemy becomes more subtle and more determined in his efforts to prevent them reaching it. On the other hand, it is absolutely necessary that every soul be so cleansed of every taint of self, and at the same time will have gained sufficient Wisdom and have developed the faculty of Discrimination, that nothing can tempt them, cause them to doubt or be misled in any way from the straight and narrow path that leads to the Kingdom.
Remember, you cannot enter and abide in the Kingdom until you have met and conquered every temptation that the enemy can bring to you, and you may be sure there will be brought everything that will thoroughly test your Wisdom, Discrimination and Strength of Will, as well as prove that there are no qualities of self still remaining.
And be not dismayed or discouraged at failure, for every failure is but to show you what you still lack and to give you the opportunity to study self the more, so as to learn how better to discipline and prepare it for the next test. Only thus can you gain the strength and what else is needed to withstand all the assaults of the enemy.
TRY to understand that the entering and abiding in the Kingdom is for those only who have thus fully proven themselves—yea, it is for those only who have mastered self, so that it has become their loving and obedient servant. Such are called Masters for that sole reason.
Yet to be Master of self is not sufficient. It must come first; but it is not all—self must lose itself, must merge into the Christ Self, and become One with You, a Son of God.
Those who have not truly found that Self, that All-loving, All-wise Something within, which always knows and will always point them the true way, when they can make self and its desires stand aside so they can listen and hear what Its quiet, gentle voice says, have failed to gain something most precious, something greater than all the occult powers of the greatest adept in the world. For they have not yet found the Comforter, the Blessed Christ within, Who knows all things, has all powers, and will lead them unto all Truth. It is He alone that leads all true disciples to and establishes them in the Kingdom.
Many are turning to occult orders and teachings these days, because of the wonderful things in them held out, the attaining of marvellous powers, and the teaching of them how to become adepts. But do you remember what Jesus said of John the Baptist, the great Adept?
“Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist; notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.”
Think long and carefully on these things.
Then again, there are more than a few who are teaching today, giving out messages claimed to be coming from the Christ within, and even from Jesus, our Blessed Lord and Master, who are either fooled by invisible intelligences using such teachers to serve their own sinister ends, or who are woefully self deceived, because of lacking Wisdom and Discrimination—the ability to know that quiet, loving Voice within, the Voice of Him Who knows not material things, but knows their unreality and that they are only the creations of self, which to the Christ Self have no existence. His interest is only in the soul, and in the soul’s good; and His teachings and help will be given only for the soul’s strengthening and blessing.
Until one knows that Voice and can get quiet enough to hear it, one can easily be fooled; and many are being greatly fooled these days, and many more will be fooled in the days to come—until through disillusionment, suffering and sorrow they unfold their Christ Nature, gain sufficient Wisdom and acquire Discrimination, thereby entering into the Impersonal Love Consciousness—that of the Comforter Within.
