SUBSTANCE

by Walter C. Lanyon

AN EAGER student of Truth once went to India to study the ways of the far east under a great teacher, who was reputed to hold Truth above everything else in the world. Having whole-heartedly accepted the world's dictum that poverty and asceticism must go hand in hand with spirituality, the student had long since taken the vow of poverty. What was his horror to find the Master, not sitting in a loin cloth under a banyan tree, but living in ease and comfort in a marble palace, surrounded by treasures that beggared the splendors of the Arabian Nights. Further, the Master was beautifully dressed --- in Oriental fashion --- and wore magnificent jewels.

The student was unable to restrain his amazement, and spoke at some length of his views on the fleshpots of Egypt and the uselessness of material possessions. The Master sat quietly by on his luxurious divan, waiting for the student to finish his tirade against riches, luxury and worldly goods. And then he spoke:
"It is not the possession of things, but the possession by them that counts---I have no interest in things for their worldly value, but for the beauty and comfort they give me."

This did not please the young student, who argued that if the Master had no interest in them, he should renounce them all. Even while he spoke, an alarm of fire was heard in the palace, and through the wide-open portals of the spacious rooms could be seen the flames, hungrily devouring at the precious works of art. As the Master seemed quite unperturbed, the student jumped into action, shouting frantic orders to the servants as to how the furnishings and art treasures should be saved.

The Teacher sat quietly by. The student rushed over to him: "Get up and help---all these wonderful and valuable things are being destroyed." But still the Teacher sat and smiled. Finally, worn out with his efforts, the breathless student once more implored the Master: "For the love of God, do something to save all this wealth," and the Teacher answered: "I am not concerned. I possess it now, and can always replace it, but as `wealth' it has no value to me.Yet you, who have come all this way to tell me how you have renounced wealth, are in a terrible state of excitement and rage over the destruction of that which you have repeatedly told me was nothing." Then, as the astounded student looked about him, he saw that the fire had receded, and had left no trace of damage.

There is a difference in possessing things and being possessed by them---and so watch out that your condemnation of money and wealth is not motivated by the sad knowledge that you cannot attract it. Many people who claim that "things do not matter" only say so because they cannot get things. And many a person has taken the poverty vow because he already had so much poverty in his life that he knew nothing else to worship.

As long as you have to have a chair, it might just as well be the type and kind which pleases you most. The value being put on it by man makes it valueless to God. I have seen the chair that a so-called famous personage sat in raised to such value that one could have bought perhaps a thousand chairs of the same make and age for the price. And the bed of a French Court favorite has brought such a fabulous price that it was fantastic---yet the bed and the chair were comparatively worthless in materials---the only value was that placed on them by man. Rosewood is burned for firewood in some parts of the world---and yet rosewood in some places is very valuable. Do you begin to see how it is that before any sense of substance can come through to you the value of things must be taken away from them---this does not imply disrespect for works of art or even things for everyday use---but it breaks down one of the great barriers between you and the manifestation. Do you possess things or do they
possess you?

The apparent failure of prayers for substance is due to the fact that man has mistakenly placed the idea of substance in the "thing" instead of in what is back of it. The substance is not in the symbol of money but in what is back of it---as has been so clearly demonstrated by the various inflations and failures of monetary systems? It is a big step towards the possession of substance when the LOVE of things and money is taken away. Then nothing is found to be wrong with the money or things, and the recognition of the primal substance is placed in God instead of in the shadow of matter cast for the moment into expression. Feathers and beads were given in exchange for much land---yet of what value are those feathers and beads today?

Are you fooled in your understanding of the Truth to the extent that you say one thing with your lips and feel another with your heart? I often hear people say, "I want no money except for the bare necessities of life." That is subterfuge---if you don't believe it, while that one is talking drop a dime on the pavement and see what happens! If you don't want money in a land where money is absolutely essential for the convenience of exchange it is time you checked on your honesty of purpose. Don't fool yourself in wanting to serve the world when you cannot serve yourself. Do you begin to understand why the Master has given such strict and meager---yet elaborate---instructions for it all. "He that hath eyes let HIM see what the scriptures say unto the churches" (temples-bodies). What the Scriptures say unto your church-body is for you and only for you, and through this Temple service are you able to "let your light so shine" that there will be "enough and to spare" of everything necessary for you to carry on the expression of the John Smith incarnation you have taken on at this time. Until you can see this "substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen" you can expect few and small financial returns from affirmations and following organizational instructions of how to "get what you want."

The "Hand-writing on the wall" is plain. When you begin to "watch" with the single eye you will detect the spurious from the true. Jesus offered no courses in "how to get health, wealth and happiness" in twenty-five lessons for so many dollars. He held no secret KEY to the Truth for which he charged a price. He made it especially clear that no man had a special dispensation, or enjoyed any preferred rights that all men did not have the same opportunity to appropriate. There is only one mediator, remember. Location has nothing to do with God---and so, He is as much present in the worst sump-hole of so-called iniquity as He is on the most lofty mountain or temple dedicated to HIM. If God is all-present HE is---or else HE isn't. Choose ye this day whom you will serve----for when you serve God He "will give YOU (not you and some secret method or group---but you) the desires of your heart." It says the desires of YOUR heart---and it does not qualify those desires; and it also says that windows will be opened in Heaven (your consciousness) and blessings will be poured out to such an extent that you cannot receive them. The John Smith incarnation has never dreamed of such things---in fact he cannot think of it because it is not possible on the three-dimensional plane of his thinking. But nevertheless it is so, and it is true.

Once the old idea of demonstrating money is destroyed in you, you will see that substance is as natural and normal as anything else in life. Your breathing is natural and normal until you get the human thought in the way of it---and then it becomes congested and produces a stoppage. So is it with substance. The impossible becomes the possible when you stop trying to make it happen, and find it NATURAL. The going unto the Father----the blending into the ONENESS of God---the recognition of your permanent identity---all these things bring you to understand that substance is natural and real; and is not at the beck and call of human thought. A woman told me she had "worked" as a practitioner for God for twenty years, and yet she did not have carfare home. She was worthy and she was apparently honest, but the fly in the ointment was that she imagined she had been "working for God" when she collected all fees and lived from them, and also when she wondered (of course as she explained it was none of her business, nor was she criticizing) how her friend who "did not work for God," but lived joyously and happily, could have everything, and live a life of silken dalliance. Well, the harder you "work" for money the poorer you get---and the more you stop "working" for money the greater the possibility of the LIFE element functioning through your temple-being. It is all contrary to your course o twenty-five lessons for twenty-five dollars---but everything in God's kingdom is contrary to the laws of man for the simple reason that "the WISDOM of man (and that includes your twenty-five lessons at twenty-five dollars) is foolishness in the eyes of God." If it is all "foolishness," then what can you expect to do about it? And will you find yourself caught in the same false equation in which the student in India found himself---saying one thing but believing another? As a man "thinketh (feels) in his heart so is he." How do you feel about money anyway? Don't tell me---tell yourself---perhaps you will be surprised at what you hear.

Of course at the heart of the "love" of money is the fear that something might cut things off for you and that you would eventually die for want of bread. This fear is backed up by plenty of tangible evidence ---there are plenty of appearances to justify the fear ---that is why Jesus said, "He that loseth his LIFE shall find it." He that loses his individual separate life shall find the Universal Life, which is not at any time deprived of its manifestation. It is only the thought of separation which causes the idea of lack to manifest in the world of matter. The contemplation of Oneness fills you with light and revitalizes all fear of lack. Arising from this "touch" with Oneness, this recognition of the ALL, causes man to experience the manifestation of substance in whatever degree he can "take it." There are thousands of degrees of substance and what is wealth to one is poverty to another---yet it makes no difference about that---your degree is your own---and if it is not large enough to meet the needs amply and beautifully, it is time for you to push out from the shores of your former limitations---to launch out onto the deeper waters---to enlarge the borders of your tent. Such a wonderful new vista opens before the individual when he even touches the ONENESS of Life. He begins to sense-feel dimensions of God which cannot be easily set down in black and white. He looks again and sees things taking place which cannot happen---and by a way which is natural and normal, instead of supernatural, as it was in the days of waiting for miracles or magic to happen.

It is recorded that "their clothes waxed not old----nor their shoes," etc.---and they had been using them for forty years. See anything in this? How does it fit in with the law of friction, deterioration, age and all the rest of the man-science laws? Just cannot be, can it? Well, of course not. You have never seen it happen and no man can prove it---so it must be foolishness---and so it is in the eyes of man. But why in heaven's name will that very same man try to "demonstrate" money or jobs or health, since they are all quite as impossible.Remember, too, that just because you have never seen a thing done does not mean that it cannot be done ---and also that you will never see it done as long as you indulge in any curiosity, for curiosity is merely disbelief which hopes to get by and "peep" into the holies of holies. Remember there are "no peepers allowed" in the Kingdom of Heaven---for nothing is going to profane the works and the powers of God. "All Power is given unto me"---and when you begin to sense this, "Look again, the fields are white," you will also begin to understand why the "grain of mustard" can also do the works---and so on down the line of Life. You have been told that a "rich man cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven," and have misunderstood this to mean a man with many possessions; yet it could mean a man possessed of the love of money, while yet wanting for love of anything else. It is merely an attempt to show you that the worship of anything other than God is one of the ways to keep you out of this consciousness of ease and substance. The rich man referred to may be "RICH" in many things---that is, he may have an abundance of evil in his soul, or judging, condemning, criticizing, and the like---and he may also have a large bank account. But the "rich man" is many times the poor man when it comes to actual dollars and cents. The "RICH YOUNG MAN" could not let go of his worship of money as a power apart from God--- hence  he could not enter in, for he depended on things and not on God. Do you begin to see how it is that the value placed on money is what keeps it away from you; and how it is that the "trying" to demonstrate it only puts you in the power of the gods of man's creating? Money is the chief god of this thought-taking world, and if you fall down and worship this god you must commit your ways unto him and be directed by him in order to attain money. When a person sets out to demonstrate a fortune---he immediately runs into the battle with the gods of this world, and naturally he is going to be defeated.

"Render unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar's." Do you begin to understand a little of the laws of Substance?

"You shall ask whatsoever you will and it shall be done unto you"---that is a pretty large order, but it is true---your "whatsoever" is what you ask for and that is all you can get, no matter how much another takes by the same asking. "Awake thou that sleepest and Christ shall give thee light---awake and arise from the dead!"

The vacuum created by human want increases until it fills all space in the human thinking and brings with it the manifestation of this thought. The vacuum created by the belief in lack with the five thousand was as real to Jesus as it was to any of the men. He recognized their law of hunger and lack---and fatigue---He said something to the effect that they had been three days without bread---etc.---etc.---but notice what happened. "Then lifted He His eyes to Heaven and gave thanks." We see Him, right before their eyes blending with the ONE and giving thanks for the Presence---and instantly there was the inrush of Substance that filled the vacuum of human thinking. In a little while the belief in hunger was gone---and a surplus left of twelve hampers of scraps! I mention these twelve hampers because they should have been sizeable---and where did they come from? Ever think about all the things that are sandwiched in between the lines of the Bible for those who have "eyes"? The manifestation of twelve hampers to hold so much bread would be a man-sized job in itself, and quite as wonderful as the production of bread and fishes!

The wonder of it all was to happen the next morning when they came to Him again for bread, and He said to them: "You seek Me for the Bread, but you cannot find Me---did you not see the MIRACLE"----in other words, did you not "get on" to the working of the law of Christ Jesus and would therefore be able to do the same thing yourself ? And this surprised question was addressed not only to his disciples and especially close followers, but also to the simple man in the street---indicating that all could have done the same thing if they had so much as glimpsed the LAW. Isn't it wonderful how simple it all was to Jesus, and isn't it revealing to you to note the surprise He always expressed that the man in the street did not follow His example, after being shown the way. Well, it is enough to make your heart burn within you to know that we are now approaching the wonderful Revelation of Jesus Christ---even though it has been two thousand years. The point of attack with Jesus seemed to be, "None of these things (appearances) move Me"---not any of them---that was His first reaction. He simply was not affected by appearances. He did not demonstrate over them---He did not recognize them. He moved into the next dimension of Life where the things of the lesser dimension had no power or reality---and invited you to do the same thing, saying that it was all possible to a child.

Yes, it is necessary to go over and over the wonder of it all, and to note from time to time that you were Created-(not born) a little lower than the angels, and given dominion over everything on, over and under the earth, skies, and waters. That's the fact of your case---and the sooner you hark back to that place of Power, the sooner you will find many of the "inventions and creations" of mankind fading into the nothingness of yesterday. The sooner you make your assumption of your Oneness with God, as something more than an affirmation of truth, you will change the face of many things. Remembering all the while that you were given dominion over everything and that means EVERYTHING. What say? Do you begin to understand how it is that the little symbol of money, which today is and tomorrow is not, cannot control you nor regulate your life, nor stop your life from its functioning, as long as you are "hid with Christ (your consciousness) in God." "He openeth His Hand and satisfieth the desires of every living thing." Do you hear?