HEARING

  "HAVING ears, ye hear not." Again man is brought face to face with the
fact that he is not properly hearing-that he is missing the voice and
hearing only the noise and the sound of things coming together in the outer
world. He can be so mistaken in the sense of hearing that if he were to
close his eyes he could not tell whether a horse was approaching on a paved
street or a couple of coconut shells were being tapped on a board.
If he cannot differentiate between things as simple as these, how can he
possibly rely on the sense of sound as he knows it? The fact that we are
constantly accused of having ears and eyes which we do not use also posits
that something important is being said.
I once watched a Chinaman in a Shanghai native theatre enjoy, and apparently
hear, one of his classics when such a bedlam was going on in the house that
it would seem utterly impossible to hear the person sitting next to you
without intently listening. And yet the Chinaman was relaxed, making no
conscious effort to hear through the din of crying babies, squeaky music,
peanut and sweetmeat vendors. He was at a terrific point of attention,
however, and all his power was pointed in one direction. It was like drawing
the sun's rays through a magnifying glass.
A deaf woman once told me she could always hear anything evil said about her
in her presence. She did not know that if she could hear evil she could hear
everything else by the same method, i.e., attention. She was at the point of
attention when it came to evil. In fact, she admitted that she "knew" she
could always hear anything evil that was being said about her-and so she
did.
 "The still small voice" must be heard from this point of attention to the
Presence and not to the noise on the outside, otherwise you miss the word
which is to be made flesh. "There were many things I could not tell you
because of your unbelief"-many things which Jesus wanted to reveal but the
hearing was so heavy by accepting the noise of the world that it could not
hear the "still small voice" of revelation.
A woman came rushing in one day, frightened almost into insensibility. "A
fortune-teller told me I am going to be killed in four days." She had heard,
as many people have heard, the death-sentence pronounced over
them-"incurable, hopeless, helpless," and thousands of other things that can
only be heard by the hearing of the ear. It is not possible to hear these
things from the standpoint of spirit, for they are founded on the failing
wisdom of man-which is foolishness in the eyes of God.
"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God." If he asks of God within
himself he will have to hear with the hearing ear. He will have to hear past
the noise and confusion of the outside world. The Voice will be eternally
saying "I will," but unless the hearing is at the point of attention it will
hear the clanging noises of human belief.
     It is recorded that the "dead shall hear my voice and live," and this
not only means the physically dead but the mentally dead as well.
    "Not that which goeth in, but that which cometh out, defileth or maketh
a man"----that which you hear determines what will come out.
    "Go unto this people and say, hearing ye shall hear and shall not
understand; and seeing ye shall see and not perceive. For the heart of this
people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes
have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their hearts, and should be converted and I should
heal them."
     It is obvious from many scriptural references that there are two kinds
of hearing-one that causes the heart to wax gross, heavy with
misunderstanding, and the other which hears that which the ears dulled with
false learning and judging from appearances cannot hear. To hear the "still
small voice" of which so much is said the hearing must be of the heart and
not of the ear from the human standpoint.
"My sheep hear my voice" has nothing to do with a shepherd calling on the
hillside. It is the inner hearing just as a wise dog is not misled or
attracted by an imitation of his master's voice, no matter how perfect the
imitation. There is something in the "hearing" that detects the voice of
'the shepherd, and it is just this thing which opens the doors to the spirit
of the words of Life, which are otherwise dead letter.
The eighty-eight notes on a piano do not represent the sum total of sound-it
extends to a point of infinity on both ends. Yet, because the heavy human
hearing does not detect it, he says it does not exist. The universe is
filled with music which remains inaudible to most of us because we are
hearing with the human ear.
The cause of so much failure in the field of Truth has been that most of us
have been trying to hear the still small voice through the human ear, and,
although it thunders down through the ages, the clamour of the human belief
makes such a din with its unreality and false testimony that the "still
small voice is inaudible," or else it is interpreted through such limited,
dulled senses that it is impracticable.
"Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand," showing how the ear can
hear the word and yet not hear it. Hearing with the ear and not
understanding, is hearing through the limited human sense. It is so far
removed from the "God spake" that it cannot understand the "still small
voice."
When you go within and shut your door you shall then know what the true
sense of hearing is, for the "Father who heareth in secret shall reward thee
openly." What is the hearing that the Father doeth? The shouting of the name
of God has proven futile in the time of trouble. Loud speaking does not in
any way attract the ear of the Divine. It only shows a gross lack of
understanding of the Omnipresence of God as here, there, and everywhere, and
makes of Him an enlarged auditory nerve at best.
The Father hearing in secret, sensing, understanding, grasping that which is
to be "established" on the earth-your earth, when you have gone within and
shut the door. When you have shut the door of every human argument and every
bit of human reasoning, and laid off the sandals of human understanding, and
spoken to the Father with the same joyous abandon and freedom that you might
speak to your human father-when you have done this the "Father who heareth
in secret shall reward thee openly."
It does not say perhaps or maybe-it is definite and it is provable: "Shall
reward thee openly." No matter what you were, did, or thought prior to the
moment you went within
and shut the door and spoke to the Father secretly.
   "Leave all and follow Me" means just that. You leave all---- all evil,
fear, lack, limitation, and human reasoning just as you leave all your ideas
about success and possessions and everything else that you have listed on
the side of assets. You leave all, everything, and by leaving all you find
all.
    It is glorious to contemplate that when the Father within says, "Leave
all and follow Me," He is asking that you leave the bondage to everything
and follow the Me. When I say "bondage," I mean just that. If a thing is
binding you, if you cannot leave the bondage in it, you are still bound to
it no matter whether you put it out of your immediate life or not.
   Many persons are controlled by things that they do not possess and which
they feel they have put from their lives. To have an unsated longing for
something that you have given up, and to imagine that because you have
thrust it from you you are free from the bondage of that thing, is to
mistake entirely the command, "Leave all and follow Me"-then you will find
that you have left nothing except the bondage of it.
"The love of money is the root of all evil." It is the love (bondage to it)
of money, and not money, that is the root of evil. Money in itself is not
more evil than food, clothing or anything else, but the bondage to it,
whether it be much or little, is evil, and causes you to do all sorts of
things either to get or hold it. A miser holding to the symbol while he
starves is at the same point of expression as a beggar who is ready to
commit any sort of crime to possess it.
All extremes are evil-too much food will result in the same thing that too
little will, and so on. Being bound to things and the love of them puts the
limitation on them. Coming out into the Presence with the new-born sense of
hearing, the way lies perfectly before you. The guiding influence is as a
voice from behind thee which says, "This is the way; walk thou in it."
"This" is the way. There is that same note of definite direction,
uncompromising instruction, contained in it, for, the Government being upon
his shoulder, the instruction that is to come through the sense of hearing
must be obeyed absolutely, and the human opinion must be put aside in order
that the way may continue in peace.
If you salute any man you pass on the highway of life you are going against
the instructions, "Salute no man you pass on the highway." It is not an
invitation to become unfriendly and unlivable-the saluting you are warned
against is the exchange of opinions and beliefs and the "hearing" of some
material information which changes your going on. Many a person would have
been able to accomplish that thing set before him if he had not saluted some
man on the way to his expression and heard something that spoiled his
opportunity.
An actress accustomed to giving a more than brilliant performance was one
night told that a famous critic was in the audience, and had come with the
express purpose of finding some flaw in her work. In the parlance of the
street, she "went to pieces"-gave the worst performance of her career-and
after the show she was taken home in a state of hysteria. She was informed
that it had all been a mistake, and that the said critic had not been
present that evening but the one before and had found nothing but praise for
her work. What caused her to give such a terrible performance? Anything?
Well, you answer it, and then you will see why we are to "salute no man as
we pass along the way"-and more so is this true in regard to the revelations
of the Christ teaching.
If you have not arrived at a point where you are past the state of arguing,
you have not actually heard the word, and will be busy comparing different
systems to find out which one contains God. No system contains God, yet they
may all be contained in Him. The coal of fire placed on your lips shall also
be placed on your ears.
"Salute no man you pass on the highway of life." He may be more interested
in the personality of Jesus than in the Jesus-Christ. "Where does he live?
Is he married? Any children-any money?" These are the eternal questions of
the "man" you are warned against. He is eternally going out to see a person
and not a principle, and he carries all filthiness that has accrued from the
human hearing and the human "looking" at a person instead of "hearing a
principle."
  "I will hear what God will speak." What a glorious resolution, and how
hopeless it is to hear through the human understanding with its laws and
limitations. But then, "I will hear what God will speak," and if you are to
do that it means that "your" speaking will have to cease and your human
reasoning and understanding will have to give place to the new inspiration
of the Almighty. You are sure to hear something that will delight you, for
it will carry with it the possibility of establishing it on the earth.
When you begin to "make yourself as God"-which is what Jesus did, and could
not escape doing if he worked from the premise, "In the beginning God"-then
you shall begin to "feel" your way with the new senses, then shall you
understand how the deaf shall hear. "Then shall the deaf hear"-----at the
instant of recognition of the Divine capacity of hearing the limitations of
the human ear fall away and man hears, and hears things that the human ear
is incapable of ever
knowing.
"Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard . . . the things that are
prepared." They are already prepared for you when you can hear with the
hearing that so completely transcends the human limitations that it breaks
through the gates of Heaven and comes to the throne of the Presence.
The changing sense of hearing and sight can only be attributable to the
human limitations, since it is impossible to conceive of God with impaired
vision or hearing, and the changeless Power is not subject to degrees of
sound or distances. The reason hearing and sight change in the human sense
is because they are limited to the human organism and can be easily
deceived.
Shaking a sheet of steel on the stage produces an impression of thunder-and
this on the sunniest June day-and so it goes. "Having ears, ye hear not." As
long as your hearing is stopped down to the physical instrument of hearing
it is bound to be limited and faulty.
   "Then shall the dead hear the voice of God and live" gives us some sense
of hearing and its power. The true hearing pierces every belief of the human
kind, even death, and so Lazarus heard-not with the human ear, but with the
spiritual hearing, and picked up his body and brought it forth. The
establishing of himself again on earth took place because of this hearing.
"Then shall the dead hear the voice of God and live" shoots through the
walls of human belief and brings out the establishment of the thing on
earth. When you begin to hear the "God spake" you shall begin to experience
also the "establishing of the thing" or the "and it was done" state which
instantly follows the hearing of the "God spake." You cannot hear the "God
spake" with the limited human senses, and God cannot hear the name, "Lord,
Lord," that is called to Him because it is merely a sound and has no power
to "establish" itself.
"My sheep hear my voice"-and this My of the Father must come from the within
that is cleansed of human reasoning, opinions, and beliefs. "He that is of
God hearest God." And when you hear God you are hearing the directing and
governing Power of the universe, and surely then you are to experience the
sure and certain joy which comes from the knowledge that "all things work
together for good"-not perhaps, but actually work together.
   The overturning power of the Voice which speaks to the hearing ear keeps
setting aside one limitation after another, one human belief after another,
and causes the Lazarus to be established on the earth-though, if Jesus had
"listened" to either Martha or Mary of the human sense testimony, he would
never have spoken the word and caused the agreement in Lazarus to take
place. Everything was against it-even Mary and Martha said, "If you had been
here, our brother would not have died." And when Jesus refused the opinion
that Lazarus was dead, they still insisted that he was wrong and began to
give all sorts of evidence to substantiate their human finding, hoping that
Jesus would accept it as real and then perform a miracle.
But Jesus would have none of it-he would not "hear it" because he was
hearing with the inner power, and when he heard the word of Life Eternal he
called it to Lazarus, and, the agreement being made, he was "established on
the earth" again.
The invitation to "hear" is open to all-there is no monopoly of it. It is
not given to those who have studied a certain system or followed a certain
teacher or leader. It is given to any man who will throw off the cloak of
human bondage sufficiently to be clad in the all-encircling Presence of God
in His fullness. The promise stands: "If any man hear my words." That is all
you have to do: to "hear" with the understanding of the inner hearing. Not
nearly so difficult if you do not preface this hearing with the belief that
unless you have made elaborate preparations you cannot "hear" God. How about
the child who is given the Kingdom of Heaven?
Eventually, through the extension of the senses into the infinite reaches of
God, through losing the limited personal sense of life and finding it in the
Universal, does man come to the place of understanding, the place of
"hearing" the statement:
"Behold I stand at the door, and knock. If any man hear My voice and open
the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with Me." The first
step in the becoming one with the Christ voice is to hear it. Many have
tried to do this through the human sense of hearing, and have opened the
door and nothing has entered.

"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I
also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne."

The beauty and love of Jesus, even at the last moment telling us of the
human state that he also came through and making himself one with us showing
that what was possible for him is possible for us, is the magnificent
heritage that has to be accepted joyously.
 If you are to arrive at the stage which the human mind calls mastership,
and come to that place where you are "set down with my Father in His
throne," it will have to be accomplished through the use of the extended
senses as revealed to us through the teaching of Jesus. The only overcoming
that actually takes place is the overcoming of the limitations of the human
senses which judge from appearances and give forth the imperfect results
thereby, their findings being imperfect, as well as their premises.
Finally, beloved, hear this:

"He that hath ears, let him hear what the Scriptures say unto the churches."

The voice and echo are one. Like prayer and answer.

 

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