Illumination – An Exercise In the Expansion of Consciousness

Illumination – An Exercise In the Expansion of Consciousness

This excerpt on the meaning of illumination from Our Brotherhood, Part 1 by Lord Lanto from September 24, 1967 published in the 1967 Pearl of Wisdom Vol. 10 No. 39.


Men ask, “Which way is the age going, up or down?” But the power of one man or woman to influence the age is seldom sensed. And when it is, this power is too frequently used as the doorway for egoistic opportunity whereby one or more individuals can secure the attention that is often captioned, “The eyes of the world are upon you.”

The difference between the teachings of our brotherhood and the concepts of mankind which revolve around the ego is quite simple — simple enough for a child to understand. “The eyes of God are upon you” is the motto of our temple and the significant order of the day in our brotherhood.

We who understand the meaning of illumination are not so much concerned with rote — with the memorizing of earthly formulae, flights of fancy or poetry, a grasp of flora and fauna, or even an understanding of history itself.

Unless the motive behind the acquisition of knowledge be an exercise in the expansion of consciousness and memory in order that the finer and more subtle senses of the individual may become God-attuned for the purpose of cosmic revelation, the real purpose of academics is not fulfilled.

Without cosmic revelation all men would be ultimately dead, for the goals of men (artificial and superimposed by society as they are in most cases) which they esteem so highly are played out in threescore and ten plus. To create the fineness of mind and spirit which God has done, to create the glorious opportunities he has fashioned, would have but little meaning if life were but a merry-go-round whirl, its purpose lost among vast cosmic cycles, and the goal coming to a close as “terminus” is written on each individual chapter.

The beauty of infinite life was captured in the Psalms of David and in his statement “Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” Thus all of the beauty of life without end was created for the joy and glory of the manifest son; and the eternal brotherhood serves only to release infinite directions to finite man as a means to effect his permanent liberation from the cycles of birth and death.

Here in the Grand Teton Ranges the high and holy vibratory action of the sacred fire pulsates within our temple. The pulsations of that flame of golden illumination are beamed every moment into the world atmosphere, and what we do here is done in every retreat of the Great White Brotherhood. Outwardly our temple represents the Rock of Ages; within it represents the golden flame of illumination which the Rock of Ages really is.

It has been said that “no man is an island.” Yet every man is his own gatekeeper. At the gateway of the eternal temple he must free himself by knowing his real nature.

Just as man knows his outward nature and can psychoanalyze himself, giving a host of names to various situations in which he finds himself, so must he learn to know the man that is within, the man of the Spirit, the Infinite One who guides the outer man into the temple of divine experience and immortality.

Without immortality, life has little meaning. With it, life has all meaning.

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