This one comes from 9 Faces of Christ, which is a channeled book, so take it how you will. But I wanted to include this alongside the other post because some of the info is at least entertaining if not informative:
“My Brothers, what I am here to ask you to sanction is unusual. There is no precedent in history and no rule in our Order to guide us. Whatever we do here must be with the permission of the Elders and by the unanimous vote of all. We are making precedent and history. I propose to induct my five-year old son into the Order and place him under the Oath of Secrecy. Then, and then only, I may teach him of the Initiate Truths and the techniques of healing which he has asked of me. But what I hope will come of this action is that the Brotherhood will make a way for a father to teach his own son by lowering the age of entry from twelve to five. Then any member may be father and master to his own son, if he wishes to be.”
“Could any five-year old know enough to enter our Order?” This was said by a grave older man; his tone was not argumentative nor heated but inquisitive.
“Perhaps not.” When Joseph said this - my heart sank! “Surely not, unless he was possessed by the Spirit of God and made wise beyond his physical years.”
“True, Brother Joseph, when the Father works within, all knowledge is the province of man! But how can we determine that this child is advanced enough to enter our Order? Or any child? According to the rules of the Brotherhood, any man beyond the age of twelve may enter and study. But he must know enough to pass the test at the end of the first year.”
“We can test him!”
“But how? We have no entrance test! Only exit tests!”
“Good! Let us test him orally, - he knows not enough of characters and ciphering yet - on any subject within the first year of our studies.”
“Would that be fair to him?” It was Johanan, the Essene, who asked this.
“Perhaps not to him, Johanan, but certainly to the Order. We demand of him more than we would of any ordinary twelve-year old because we wish to be certain of his capacity before we change the rules of the Order for his benefit. Is it not just that the individual give much to the Society?”
“As you will it, Brother.”
But the older man suddenly spoke sharply, “Do you suggest that we test him on the material of the first year? Would we not then be testing him for the level of a thirteen-year old?”
“Yes, but so be it!”
My father said this. He patted my shoulder and left me to stand alone in the center of the Assembly Hall. He walked over and sat upon the spotless floor, placing his back comfortably against the upright post beside which Johanan stood. I felt his eyes upon me and in a moment I saw the silvery-violet flame. It leapt from his brow and seemed to touch me with warmth and love. It took away my trembling and gave me great courage and peace, and a fierce inner determination to succeed.
A short, burly man with small tawny eyes walked toward me at a nod from the elder man. His brown hair was wavy. His face would have been pleasant, but now it was set in a grimace of pleasure. His actions were like one who has just captured a bird and is about to make a meal of it. Later I was to learn that he was Master of The First Year and a wise and just man, though stricter than others. But at the moment he seemed to me to be a hurdle.
“Well, boy! - child, can you tell me this? Where did the Jewish religion come from and how was it founded?”
I looked at him in utter defeat and despair and amazement for I saw in his aura the answer he wanted. But that answer was not the truth, and I knew I knew the truth. The true answer came from some deep well of certainty within me. I also realized that this was not the answer I was supposed to give to pass the test. I looked at my father helplessly and would have run for comfort to his loving arms but the blue-white beam held me to my spot. I felt the tears coursing down my cheeks. They were tears of frustration and also tears of fear. For I could not lie and yet I knew the answer that would get for me the one thing I so greatly desired.
“Well, child,” the old patriarch looked at me kindly and I bolted into his arms. He folded me gently in his arms and said, “It is nothing to fail, child.”
“Oh, Sir, I know the answer he expects. But I also know the truth. If I speak not truth when I see it, I wrong the teachings of my father. If I speak truth I shall not pass the test.”
“By my faith!” he exclaimed, and many shuffling feet stopped as men turned back from leaving the assembly hall. The old patriarch laughed gently and motioned the departing men back. His hand stilled the buzzing in the hall. “Hear, Brothers. Verily this fiery one is caught on the horns of a dilemma as fine as any in our philosophy. Master Habakkuk, with your gracious permission, may I try to get your answer for you? Good! Now, child, go back to the center of the hall and face the Brothers!”
I did as I was commanded by such a gentle voice. “Now, my child, answer the question in two parts. First, give the answer you think Master Habakkuk wants you to give; second, give the answer you think is the truth, as you say.”
I flinched, for I did not think it was the truth, I knew! I raised my eyes and looked at the group and remembered the courteous address my mother had drilled into me.
“Sir, Men of Learning, Adored Father. In the aura of my Master of The Lion’s Eyes, I see that my answer should be thus: the Jewish religion was founded by God Almighty in his contacts with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jesse, and especially with Moses to whom God is supposed to have given the Ten Commandments, carved in stone by flames on Mount Sinai, forty years after the Israelites came out of Egypt.”
He of the tawny eyes nodded affirmatively. “That is our external religious history, son, and only an Initiate knows the true story.”
“My father has taught me that no religion is higher than Truth, Sir. I now tell you truth, not as I think it is, but as I know it! Verily the Jews have no religion that is truly theirs and they have never had in all history. Throughout the years they have taken bits from the more advanced tribes around them and from the stronger cultures in which they were held captive. From the Chaldeans, Hittites, Uranians, they took freely the story of the creation of the world and man, and so also the story of the Flood. From the Mittani they took their beliefs of heaven, hell, God and the angels. Also, they took the Nordic strain which is in the veins of the descendants of Jesse, for the ruling house of the Jews is not Semitic in origin but Mittannic-Nordic, not that is to say, Jewish but Gentile. The Ten Commandments they have taken by violation of the Truth, boldly from the sects of men of Indus, who knew it not as the law of God but as the virtuous way of good men. The Jewish story of the coming Messiah to be born of the Virgin and over whom a star shall hover at birth, turning night into shining day - all this has been taken from the ancient beliefs of one of the tribes of Media, a faith founded by a Persio-Median, Zoroaster, who lived a hundred centuries ago.”
I finished and looked at my father. His head was comfortably back against the post and his eyes were closed but on his face was a smile, and I know he was pleased with me. Johanan, the Essene, was staring, amazed, yet also pleased. The Patriarch, who was later to be my teacher in the Torah, was nodding in rhythm to my words for they had tumbled out of me in a most compelling rhythm and force.
. . . one of the tests for those who wanted to rise to be Masters, or teachers of the Brotherhood, was based on our saying,
“He who can teach the teachers of others,
May teach the lowest of our Brothers.”
To be allowed to start at the lowest grade of teacher in our compound one was required to subtly, but effectively, teach the High Priest at the Temple at Jerusalem. Before one was allowed to attempt this, he must be able to teach his own Rabbi. What he taught had to be within their own faith and their own belief and was to be done without arousing prejudice or antagonism, and with complete respect for the priest and his belief.
. . . Nor could one ever force ideas upon another even knowing he was right and knowing the other was wrong. For a higher law operated in this relationship which could make the right wrong, and the wrong right.
(At twelve years of age) Fortunately, the High Priest of the Temple Sanhedrin was talking on this morning and, since I was early, I got a seat upon a stone at the flowers. I could hear everything he said to his colleagues and it was not very deep, though he quoted endlessly from the Pentateuch and Talmud. To support his thesis, he said, “To know God is the only purpose of man’s existence.” However, he talked mainly in the general theme: “Unless we know God, how can we serve our fellowman?” And did not cling to the central premise as any Essene would have done. His talk was nothing original but he stated and proved from references that man must give all to God - obey the laws, do good always, turn to the priests for guidance. The priests then had the duty of directing men in the way of the Lord.
When this shallow and presumptive talk was finished, the priests debated at length upon some very fine points of law. Then the High Priest moved out to his seat and prepared to lecture to the general public. Now, after a general lecture it was supposed that anyone could ask any question he might desire. However, one had to be most careful for it was easy to anger the priest! If the priest was offended, he who was guilty, was an outcast from his own people. Thus there could be nothing in the procedure that was original, and unless there was something original, how could I teach the High Priest?
When the priest had moved out, I looked upon the sea of faces of men and women seated on the stones of the court. I saw not one, not one of our people, not a familiar Essene. Even Rabbi Borrenchan, who had been so prominent at my registration and so boastful of my learning, was nowhere to be seen. But my mind was made up and I would not turn back. I listened carefully while the priest talked about men’s duty and small things in daily obedience, the need for attendance at the Tabernacle, and that it was man’s supreme duty to search for God, cling to the good and forego sin. When his loud talk was finished there was a period of simple questions easily answered.
But without support from my friends I still had to make my attempt. I swallowed hard and asked a calculated but apparently simple question. The High Priest’s first reaction was to laugh and this relieved me for I knew he did not detect my deliberate trap. Thus, spurred with a little courage from a little success, I felt better.
“Sir, what is sin?”
“Oh, my little redhead, such a question! At your age! Has not your mother taught you the meaning of sin?”
He was expansive and good natured and I said, “Sir, she has tried but she fails in consistency. She tells me that doubting the word of a Rabbi is sin. Is it a sin to doubt?”
“Not to doubt, but it is a sin to doubt the servant of God!”
“Oh, Sir, have I indeed sinned just now since I doubted you and your conclusion to your lecture to the priests on the Terrace?”
“That could be a mere disagreement, my son. In what way did you disagree with my conclusion?
“Sir, before your conclusion in your secondary thesis, you said, ‘Man must know God to be able to serve his fellow man.’ I wondered if it were not more important that man should serve his fellowman in humility and kindness in order that he could come to know God. Did I sin in wondering and doubting your word?”
“No, son - well, no!”
“I doubted you and did not sin?”
“No, son, no!”
“Then, doubting even a High Priest is not a sin. Oh please, Sir, tell me what is sin?”
“Well, stealing is a sin.”
The entire crowd was inching forward upon the stones and straining to hear and silencing anyone who dared breathe loudly or scuff a stone. “Oh, Sir, I am sorry that I do not understand. If I take and eat the sacrifice, do I sin?”
“Yes, you certainly do!”
“Would all of my offspring live in sin thereafter?”
“Oh, yes, indeed!”
“Then, do the Jews live in sin, in shadow of such a theft?”
“No!”
“But the ancestor of our race took and ate the sacrifice when he wanted food!”
“Yes, but that is different!”
“Sir, then sometimes stealing is not a sin? There are exceptions? Oh, this is what puzzles me - is there no sin that has no exception?”
The High Priest turned in his chair and looked at me with knotted brows. For a moment I thought he would like to shatter me with a blow.
“Incest is a sin; adultery is a sin.”
“Oh, oh yes, Sir! My mother has said as much, yet is it not true that one of our greatest ancestors lay with his own daughters in both adultery and incest? Yet, we reverence him as the great founder of our race.”
Beads of perspiration began to form on his forehead and his smile was very tight and his lips were set and thin above his long beard. “You have taken special exception in each case, son.”
“Sir, forgive me, but is there no case to which some exception may not be taken?”
“Apparently not, son.”
The crowd roared with laughter at that and I pretended to be embarrassed. “Sir, you joke with me. Would it be impertinent for me to show from your own words spoken out on the Terrace that there is one case, and one case only?”
“From my words?” The sentence was jerked from him in surprise but I took it as an invitation to proceed.
“Oh, oh, you want me to recall them to your mind?”
“Yes, yes, of course!”
“Sir, in the Kallah, that is, in your scientific discussion to the priests you said ‘To know God is the sole purpose of man’s existence.’”
“Yes! But what has that to do with sin?”
“But, Sir, is the statement true?”
“Of course, it is true!”
“Do others agree? Will your other priests agree to this statement that it is true?”
I was hoping by this method to involve them in a discussion - and it worked! Some thirty priests and Doctors of Law came to the hedge and stood looking down upon me. They agreed that knowing God was the purpose of man’s life. I turned back to the High Priest.
“Sir, your thought seems to be accepted as wisdom.” I rose and walked to the puzzled and almost angry priest and stopped at this knees. “I want to thank you for helping me with my puzzles and making me see so clearly. Is not that a sin, and that only, which causes any man to miss in his attempt to make connection with his God?”
I waited until the murmurs of approval died down and the priests had ceased to comment among themselves. “Sir, are there any exceptions to this definition?” I turned toward the other priests. “Good Sirs, have I not re-stated his own conclusions correctly but in my own words? Is there an exception to this definition of sin?” The High Priest looked with some concern at the faces of the other priests but no one spoke, and he relaxed and put his hand upon my shoulders.
“Manachi, I say he has carried your own thinking to a higher lever. What say you?”
The High Priest, Rubin Manachi, patted my head and said with great tolerance, “I say that he is indeed a bright young man! I would talk to him further but it is time for morning sacrifice . . . Find from whence he came. Locate his Rabbi that we may learn if this wisdom is of God or devil.”
To this point the Jaguar Priest spoke, and I recall his words: “Such a ritual is in evidence in the practices of the Caribe. For thousands of years our priests practiced the sacred ceremony with full knowledge of its zymology. We prepare the sacred food, the sacred wafer which is the symbol of the body of our God. We prepare the sacred drink, the sacred wine of life, which is the symbol of the blood of our God. We also prepare the sacred incense, the perfume which is the symbol of the spirit of our God. We eat, drink, and inhale the body, blood and spirit of our God. By this act we - by the use of mind - turn ourselves into the very essence of our God. Thus we make ourselves God-men on earth.”
“But many priests have taken to the practice of making the sacred food and hiding it in a casket upon the patache, the low altar of the Caribes. Such false priests then claim the sacred food becomes the body of the God only if the priest blesses the food and passes into it some of the sacred power given to them alone. They also claim that the sacred drink becomes the blood of God only if they bless it and pass into it some of the sacred power given to the priest alone. Thus they stand between man and God. They assume false powers that no man can have, for in things of God all men were created equal. But the common man is in awe of ritual, and stands down from his birthright. Thus the priest becomes the block; he makes man ever less divine than man was created. For it is an initiate and holy truth that each man must be his own priest and make his own contact direct from his God-self to God.”
As a side note, Conversations with God, Book 1, from Neale Donald Walsh, backs up the above take that the Ten Commandments were not “the law of God” but “the virtuous way of good men” by stating:
“The Word of God was not a commandment but a covenant. These, then, are the…
TEN COMMITMENTS
You shall know that you have taken the path to God, and you shall know that you have found god, for there will be these signs, these indications, these changes in you:
1. You shall love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul. And there shall be no other God set before Me. No longer will you worship human love, or success, money, or power, nor any symbol thereof. You will set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown them.
And, you shall know you have taken the path to God because:
2. You shall not use the name of God in vain. Nor will you call upon Me for frivolous things. You will understand the power of words, and of thoughts, and you would not think of invoking the name of God in an unGodly manner. You shall not use My name in vain because you cannot. For My name - the Great “I Am” - is never used in vain (that is, without result), nor can it ever be. And when you have found God, you shall know this.
And, I shall give you these other signs as well:
3. You shall remember to keep a day for Me, and you shall call it holy. This, so that you do not long stay in your illusion, but cause yourself to remember who and what you are. And then shall you soon call every day the Sabbath, and every moment holy.
4. You shall honor your mother and your father - and you will know you are the Son of God when you honor your Father/Mother God in all that you say or do or think. And even as you so honor the Mother/Father God, and your father and mother on Earth (for they have given you life), so, too, will you honor everyone.
5. You know you have found God when you observe that you will not murder (that is, willfully kill, without cause). For while you will understand that you cannot end another’s life in any event (all life is eternal), you will not choose to terminate any particular incarnation, nor change any life energy from one form to another, without the most sacred justification. Your new reverence for life will cause you to honor all life forms - including plants, trees and animals - and to impact them only when it is for the highest good.
And these other signs will I send you also, that you may know you are on the path:
6. You will not defile the purity of love with dishonesty or deceit, for this is adulterous. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not commit this adultery.
7. You will not take a thing that is not your own, nor cheat, nor connive, nor harm another to have any thing, for this would be to steal. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not steal.
Nor shall you . . .
8. Say a thing that is not true, and thus bear false witness.
Nor shall you . . .
9. Covet your neighbor’s spouse, for why would you want your neighbor’s spouse when you know all other’s are you spouse?
10. Covet your neighbor’s goods, for why would you want your neighbor’s goods when you know that all goods can be yours, and all your goods belong to the world?
You will know that you have found the path to God when you see these signs. For I promise that no one who truly seeks God shall any longer do these things. It would be impossible to continue such behaviors.
These are your freedoms, not your restrictions. These are my commitments, not my commandments. For God does not order about what God has created - God merely tells God’s children: this is how you will know that you are coming home.”
Thanks, again, Francis. This one, too, touches and moves me.
Bless you, more.