It is good to be in this space together, to allow something to happen collectively — brought to focus here at the front of the room, and brought to focus at Sunrise Ranch for you who are wherever you are around the world. And still, what is being brought to focus is something collective. It is happening in our collective awareness. Something is moving. We are opening a window through what we are doing together.
My subject this morning is the Holy Word. I say that without pre-definition of what it might mean, but perhaps, as it does for me, it resonates for you in a certain kind of way.
As best I know, the use of the word Word as we are using it here this morning was first written in the Gospel of John. John says, In the beginning was the Word. The first written rendition we have of this was in Greek, and the word that got translated as Word is the Greek word logos. In the Greek philosophy of the day, the logos was cosmic intelligence, cosmic order, and the cosmic pattern of Creation. In the beginning was the cosmic pattern of Creation.
And as the Gospel goes on to say, that cosmic pattern creates everything. It either does so consciously—for us as human beings taking part consciously in Creation as creators—or, as it is put, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness comprehends it not. In other words, there is unawareness, a lack of what Yogananda spoke of as self-realization.
We have a chance to be self-aware and self-realized. It is interesting that Yogananda chose that term as such a central theme of his work. It is clear that he was not just speaking of the outer sense of self — not the ego sense of self, not the victim sense of self, not the little sense of self. When he speaks of self-awareness, there is an allusion to the one Self: the one Self in all things and within us, uniquely present as us.
Self-awareness, awareness of the Word, and then openness to the Word. The Word is not just something up there to be adored. The Word is a reality to turn to, to open to, and to let in. Is that not so for all of us? Is that not a big deal for you—to turn to the source of life within yourself, the source of wisdom and intelligence and creative power? To turn to it, to open to it, to let it into consciousness, into mind and heart. To let it stir our thoughts and our feelings, so that in our words and deeds we can embody that reality in meaningful ways, with that cosmic intelligence coming down to earth through this human capacity that is apparently designed to do just that. How incredible! We have these capacities that are designed to step down cosmic intelligence and the power of the universe and bring it into the human world on planet Earth, to give it expression with love and beauty as human beings. And we get to do that, each of us. Bruce (Campbell) gets to create fantastic pieces of art. We get to create Sunrise Ranch and all the things in our lives. Is that not what is truly happening, if we are participating in it?
We feel all the urges of Creation — all the stresses and strains, and sometimes we take it personally. But a creator feels such things. It is part of being alive. We are here for this, apparently — this, and more of this coming through.
So there has to be that openness, some way of letting it in, and it is unique to each of us. We each have our chosen activities or practices to do so, which we might sometimes neglect to our peril. We have opportunities to open in a way that is unique to us and to let the genius, the brilliance, the love and power that is unique to us come into us.
Otherwise, we are left with effort. We live a life of effort. I believe in hard work, so I have no problem with that. But hard work without inspiration is desperation. Hard work inspired by the creative urge—that is another thing entirely.
So we develop a practice as human beings to allow that process to transpire in all the ways it is called to happen, in all the ways the life in us apparently wants to create. Just when you think you have it down, there is something else that is there — another field of creativity you had not quite noticed, or that was not yet in focus for you, but now is. What a delight!
Used in this context, the word Word was not originally so much about words. And yet it is relevant to the words that we speak. Not all words are filled with the Word. There is idle chatter. There are vicious words, mean-spirited words, biased words, ignorant words that human beings speak. So not all words are filled with the Word—but ours can be.
What does it take to allow our words to be filled with the Word? Let me give you a few of the things I have learned about that for myself.
Step number one: Be quiet. Stop talking. Stop the idle chatter. Stop the reactive speech. Pause. Be still. Listen. Open. And do not speak until you truly have something to say—until the Word in you expresses through your words.
It is easy to judge oneself over the simplicity of what one might say, rather than all the brilliance of the criticism one has been speaking before. The simplicity of it might be embarrassing. Its apparent insignificance, to yourself or to others, might be embarrassing. And yet, when the Word is speaking through a person, their words carry something. They carry a meaning that is not rooted in the human world in which we live. It is rooted in a transcendent meaning, and it brings that transcendent meaning into the human world, without which the human world is meaningless.
Such words carry wisdom and insight and light coming through a human being. They begin to light up the human world, so that we can see and make some sense of the world we are in. If that transcendent Word is not coming through a person, there is no light, and a person cannot see. There is no basis to make a decision. It is pretty hard to make a decision if you cannot see. And you cannot see your world if it is not lit up by you, and the same is true for me. If we are not lighting up our worlds, we do not know what to do. But if we are illuminating our worlds from the light within us, from the Holy Word expressing through us, we can begin to see. We can begin to have insight into how this world in which we live can give expression to a transcendent reality, and thus have a meaning and a purpose and a substance that the human world of itself does not have and could never have.
So yes, we are here to bring the Holy Word through our words. The Holy Word, when expressed through words, carries something else. It carries what we could call a vibration — an energy, a power, a feeling. It is not just logic and intelligence. It carries creative power. Every conversation we have, every time we speak, is an opportunity to be self-aware, to be open to the Holy Word and allow it to speak through us, and to bring the vibration of that to other people.
That is the point here on a Sunday morning. If that were not happening, I do not know what we would be doing here. But it is not just on a Sunday morning. Every word we speak, in whatever situation — no matter how casual or informal — gives us that opportunity.
We have probably all met people who are carrying that vibe dependably. We may be having a conversation that is interesting, informative, and intelligent, but it can also be a conversation at a vibrational level between two self-aware people. There is something being said that is not only the information, but carries messages from the stars. Subtly said, and back of it all, is this: You know, I love you. I care about you. You are important to me. It is significant that we are here together, that we are doing something together, that we are generating something together. We are allowing the Holy Word to be present among us. How wonderful!
I want to speak about deliberateness and will in the context of speaking the Holy Word. If human will and human deliberateness are all there is, then we are trying to say the right words for the desired results. You can go to communication classes to learn such things. It quickly turns into manipulation. Human effort and human will alone do not bring the Holy Word. It does not bring the one-pointed power that Keahi (Ewa) was speaking of earlier. It takes something more than that: divine will and divine deliberation.
The Holy Word has purpose, intention and will available to come through a person so that it may be powerful and effective in the world. And here is where human will and deliberation come in. It does not really make sense that divine will and divine deliberateness would come through a person who is fuzzy in thinking, unaware, unfocused, and without sustained attention. It does not work that way. Here is what human will is for. Human will is an instrument of divine will. How about we put those two things together?
Some of us are willful people—but what if we took all that willfulness and surrendered it to the divine, and allowed divine will to work through our will in the world? And what if all of that imbued the words that we speak? I am focusing on words here, but the same is true of all our forms of expression and action.
I was thinking about sacred scripture, often attributed to God as God’s word. But somebody said it, or wrote it, and somebody translated it. Yes, it is God’s will — if it is true. The Holy Word comes from the Creator. But in expression, it came through a human being to whom it was important to express the Holy Word in the human world — words that are resonant with a higher truth, a higher reality, so that someone could read them without even quite knowing what they are reading and feel that higher reality. And I do not care what denomination or faith the sacred scripture is from. It is not about that. It is about where it is coming from — from the Invisible — and the accuracy with which it gives that expression.
I was thinking of the Twenty-Fourth Psalm in the Book of Psalms, thought of as a Psalm of David. Having been, in some sense, named after him, that is a nice thought. But when we read it, it is not all full of the nation of Israel, for whom he was perhaps the most significant king. It is not really about his times per se. When we read it, we get a feeling of something that is not only ancient, but ancient-ancient — from a time and a place that we know not. And yet the words, coming down through the millennia, carry a feeling of the Holy Word, even after they have been translated — first from Hebrew into Greek, and then at some point into English. And yet the Holy Word is still there.
The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
If you can get past the word Lord from medieval society, we can appreciate what is being said: the earth belongs to the Creator. It is all of the Creator. And the world we live in, and those who dwell in it — all the people we know—belong to the Creator. Two simple lines. The author said something that has come down through the ages to remind humanity of its origin, to remind humanity where it is. He might as well have asked, “Do you know where you are?”
And do you think there was a will activated through the author? Was this casual doodling that somehow got recorded, a spare moment in which he wrote down a few things? No — the words are filled with will and intention. Let the world hear this. May the world read these words and remember. May these words be carried down through the millennia. May they change human hearts and minds. May they bring awakening and awareness. That is my little fantasy about whoever the author was, and how those words, and many others, got written. There was will involved.
And how about for us, individually and collectively? How about our will relative to our words? Is there the same deliberation, the same conscious awareness, the same kind of will with respect to the words that we speak and the words that we write? Maybe they will not be carried down in sacred scripture for millennia. But they can be as a shot heard around the world, a vibration heard around the world, to anyone who would listen. They could carry spiritual penetration—and with that spiritual penetration, a change in the world, or in another person. They could be invested with all the power we are opening to, all the power of the Holy Word expressed in our words, that someone else could hear or read or listen to.
We have that power within us. It takes opening to it, and then the engagement of our will — which is there for a reason. Some of us might criticize ourselves for being willful or stubborn. But all that stubbornness and willfulness is there for a good reason. We have a capacity of will because what created us has a will that is supreme, far larger than our own. And so, when our will yields to that greater will, that greater will is working through us and speaking through our words.
That is the opportunity for all people. And it is the opportunity for those of us gathered here this morning — who came however we came, for however long we have been associating, for whatever reason we think we came. We have a unique opportunity in this regard, individually and collectively. Because as this is happening for us individually, it is happening for us collectively. Your word is my word. There is a collective word that we speak — the power, the authority of Creation.
It is so good to be here this morning. And I think it is important to remember this: may all our words be holy, because they are expressing what is holy, which is the origin of life itself.