1971
We greet you and we give thanks with you for all the lessons we have learned. For the Spirit of truth which we have been allowed to make our own. And at this same time when the peoples of the Earth have sought for the love of God, through this or that so-called religion, have been with thankful hearts proclaiming their thanks for the living, resurrected Christ.
And yet so many of these same little children realise not the Spirit but only the letter. They concentrate upon the man, who hung upon the tree hundreds of so-called years ago. And they think of just one man who rose from the dead and showed himself to the multitude.
And yet they still do not realise the true, deep, inner meaning of this symbol of immortality, this symbol of everlasting life. Because they concentrate upon the incident and upon a man who died and rose again, but they do not accept fully, because they do not understand the message. The message that Christ tried to convey to them, that He had only, within himself, what every other human being has deep within his own being. The very Spirit, the very same Spirit, the Father within. The Father which doeth the work, and the Spirit which is joined with the universal Spirit of love and of power and of peace.
In their minds they separate themselves from the great oneness, from the absolute, from the great perfection. Looking here and there, up and down, into the depths and into the heights, but never into their own being, wherein the treasure lies.
And we have told you so many times, that all that happens upon the Earth, all the good and lovely things, are but a reflection but a reflection of the true and of the real. And as a man will search into the bowels of the Earth for this gem or that, he must break away all that which would keep him from his treasure. For always there is the counterfeit, always there is the false, always there is something else which shines but is not real. And the man who searches for gold must search and work, and oft-times almost give up his physical life and his physical energy before he reaches the true gold buried within all the other minerals which are about it, trying to engulf it, trying to hide it, the false and the untrue trying to hide the centre, the true and the absolute reality.
And all these things which beset the physical form, which draw together in the flesh and the blood and the bone, all these things which cause disharmony in the body, are the untrue, the unreal, the part which will perish and go back to the dust from whence it came. But hidden and buried, within this very stone of flesh is the vein of pure gold. The vein of the Spirit, the vein of truth, the everlastingly beautiful, that which nothing can destroy, and the man that recognises that through the flesh, through the bone, and all that which makes up the human casket, the vein, of gold, the Spirit is always there. That which is indestructible, that which is his very own, that which he will take with him from one world, from this world, into the next. Into the other world, where all is pure, all is real, all is true.
And so we ask you to remember that all the great treasures are deeply, are taken away, as it were, from the surface, and placed in the very deeps. Where no other hands can plunder, and where dread and lust cannot corrupt, for only the one who searches and is willing to work can find the true gold that is hidden in the Earth, and only the one who is willing to give up the false and the counterfeit for the real will ever become aware of the Spirit, of the vein of gold within his own being. And this one, in very truth, finds the true stone and is the keeper of his own stone. Of that treasure which one can carry even while still in the flesh, and know and be aware of its presence, this one is truly blessed, is truly blessed.
Because he sees his body, and all the weaknesses and all the frailties for what they really are, and the inner peace, in spite of the discomfort, in spite of the frailties, this truth will uphold and keep him, and he can look up, as it were, look up and find a foothold in the mountain of truth. And there can rest awhile. Because the one who is aware of the Spirit within, has always the power within himself to overcome because he recognises his kinship with the Creator of all creation.
And so we ask you to stand awhile upon the ridge and know that love is beneath and above and all around you. And the inner peace will show itself and make itself known unto you and at such times you will think of the words, "The sick and the poor are always with you, but I only for a little while." The peace of the Christ within yourself will control if only for a little while. But it will never, never, leave you. It will be with you always and for ever, and will be that which you will take with you. And the one who becomes aware and who knows of these things, whilst in the casket of flesh, will have power and peace beyond his wildest dreams, when all that is false and counterfeit, when that which he calls his body, returns from whence it came.
And so, take your treasure and come face to face with it, and see it for what it really is, the real you, the developed Spirit, that which was before you, and which will be after you as far as the body is concerned. Gram the reel. Hold it to your heart.
And forsaking all other things, see it as your treasure, as your true God, because it is love, and this is the gem that has the power to draw unto itself all that is pure and true, all that is good, all that is immortal and everlasting. And thou art rich. Thou hast more than rubies, thou hast more than all the coin of the Earth put together in one place. All this is nothing in comparison with that stone which you have found and made your own, and which can be used for every occasion. When you are tired it will give you rest, when you are hungry it will feed with a peace, and you will not be athirst for it is righteousness itself. It is the God which is love within your heart. Peace be with you.
This transcript is critical of a very common way of keeping Easter — thanking God for "the living, resurrected Christ" while fixed entirely on one man and one incident two thousand years ago, without grasping what the resurrection was actually meant to reveal: that Christ "had only, within himself, what every other human being has deep within his own being." Focusing on the incident rather than the message, the transcript says, keeps people looking "up and down, into the depths and into the heights," everywhere except "into their own being, wherein the treasure lies."
Its extended image is mining for gold — a real, hard search, requiring one to "break away all that which would keep him from his treasure," working past everything false and merely shining to reach the true vein buried beneath. The body itself, with all its weakness and frailty, is described in exactly these terms: mostly the surrounding rock — real, but destined to "perish and go back to the dust" — with the true vein of Spirit running through it untouched, "that which he will take with him... into the next" world regardless of what happens to the rest.
Its central promise is availability under any condition: this treasure, once found, "can be used for every occasion" — rest when tired, nourishment when hungry, peace regardless of physical discomfort — not a reward for the search's end but a resource usable throughout it. And its closing measure is deliberately, almost defiantly, extravagant: "thou art rich... thou hast more than rubies, thou hast more than all the coin of the Earth put together in one place" — the whole material world weighed against this single, inward find, and found to be nothing beside it.