MBI - NT 2-20-nature, very often there is a kind of useful suffering that accompanies it. One of the most common forms of tribulation we call in slang, "growing pains" But this kind of suffering, as a person goes thru it, is its own compensation, .This means it's always something that you can bear and don't get discouraged about. It usually doesn't entail physical pain but does entail a feeling of strangeness, effort and sacrifice which if you are conscious while you're doing it, paradoxically, it is even a kind of a pleasure.

There's a sort of a masochism involved in all this of a very healthy .•• type. The other kind of useless suffering is a degererating process against which your whole system rebels. You can only take so nuich of it and then you either "throw in the towel" or you"turn the other cheek". If jou throw in the towel, that will work because then (Tod will take over. If you "turn the other cheek" then you realize you have an option and you make your choices.

Let's realize that Jesus is not saying hate or turn against your family. However, in some cases it's possible that that literal type of a situation might come up. That for the sake of spiritual growth we may have to be set at variance against a personal, a biological, karmically formed tie. We dedide our own priorities, our own sense of value there-. But I much prefer the metaphysical level of this where these various characters represent the component of "his own household" or the then current self-centered personal state of consciousness. We must learn to love spiritual un-foldment more than these. Then we will find, in a certain sense we will have both.

Q. The scripture would tend to support that when the disciples add, "We've given up our wives, children, lands.", Jesus says, "You give up nothing. I'll return to you more when you attain that which you're seeking. And Job was returned his family, his land. The only thing that's being broken there is our relationship to it, how we relate to it.

A. Absolutely. It's where we place our priorities, committments and our love. You see, Jesus is not stating here something unreasonable or grotesque. He is stating something very valuable in this process of building our kingdom of heaven.

Okay, we'll jump now. Interrupting the life and teachings of Jesus is this very spicy little episode which we're not going to go into. This about Salome, Herod and Herodios. Its about Salome's little dance and her rewards for that little dance. I don't particularly like this as a metaphysical Bible interpretation.

Now we come into one of the gigantic, truly memorable metaphysical teachings of Jesus. This is one of the very few things in the life of Jesus which is dealt with in great detail by all four gospels. It is the Feeding of the 5,000. You will notice on P. 86-87 of H.G-. all four gospels give ip the full treatment. Since all four gospels give It the full treatment.its meaning is on both literal and metaphysical levels. There is something there of value in the Synoptic sense as an actual historical event in the life of Jesus. But the fact that it is in John means that it has a purely esoteric, metaphysical meaning also. It is only this latter meaning that I am at all interested in and that I wish to deal with in this class. I don't want anyone talking to me about fishes and pieces of bread.

In the bible, bread always means spiritual substance. The number 5* always refers to man's current $ senses. Fish in the Bible always refers to ideas. If they are fish handled by Jesus Christ then they have to be Divine Ideas. The number 2 in the Bible alwaysr'stands for polarity, duality"! Then we have 5»000 hungry people. $,000 is a symbolic number. Anytime zero's follow a number in the Bible it means whatever that number stands for is now being referred to in a unlimited or unspecified wary. You see, you have IpO days and LLO nights which means you have unlimited balance and sufficiency - a sufficient amount of time.

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Soof^ MBI - NT 2-20-Q, Is this different from "infinite"'.time? A. Yes, its different. This is referring to human beings. So we have 5,000 hungry. 5, the natural or sense man, unlimited and

jnspecified hunger. In other words this represents all the needs, the "responsibilities, the desires and longings of the natural self. You see, its only the natural man who could be hungry. "He who hungers and thirsts after righteousness" is not Christ but is the human side. So all of the natural world or natural life or natural organism hungers that any man has are wanting to be fed. Everyone has his own 5,COO to feed. You've got your set of 5,000 things to take care of in your natural man and in your natural world of every day living, I've got mine, vou might have EG,000 but its still 5,000 on the symbolic plane.

There's only one thing that can take care of all these needs and hungers in the right way. That is your spiritual nature, the Christ. You have to begin this feeding of your 5,000 from where you are with what you've got. You can't wait to get more before doing what has to be done now. Jesus was only concerned with what do we have to work with where we are right now.

All that they had at that moment before these 5,000 hungry people was 5 loaves and 2 fishes. So, starting with that and being what He is, that initial potentila of supply could be utilized into all the needful supply or fulfillment which is all sufficiency in all things. But it didn't even end there.

Only the Gospel of John (Luke suggests it) tells, "When they were filled He said to the disciples, "Gather up the broken pieces which remain over so that nothing be lost." Nothing is ever lost in Spirit. "So they gathered them up and filled 12 baskets with the broken pieces from the 5 loaves which remained &vWr~'ixrt^r~t^iem that had eaten", *—• —— 5

Now here, we want to see what this initial supply is. The initial supply symbolizes that which you always have available to you which your -" spiritual awareness from the Christ-mind can start handling and cause it to become your prosperity,' This is your all-sufficiency in all things or that which will rightly meet and handle the earthly or natural re-sponsibility you may have. But it will even do more than this. It will also give you an enrichment of consciousness — the 12 Powers — added substance, the left over pieces of bread in the baskets.

Now what are these symbols of this initial supply. Start with the bread which means spiritual substance. We have 5, meaning the 5 senses. We have spiritual awareness handling this. First Jesus (Spiritual Awareness) looks up to heaven. This means spiritual awareness always recognizes the true source. Secondly, He gives thanks and blesses these *"" things. Spiritual awareness handling that which is oh hand means that wei***5 must learn first of all to handle our senses with spiritual awareness. We must become aware that our senses are really spiritual in origin, character and purpose instead of material and sensual. We have to begin to let our spiritual awareness handle or manipulate our expression of our 5 senses by realizing their spiritual origin, character, and purpose.

This is so different from some of the teachings that say we must deny the 5 senses or reject the 5 loaves of bread because it's not enough. Instead you take the 5 loaves or 5 senses and begin handling them with your spiritual awareness. Begin realizing and affirming that they all have a spiritual origin, character and purpose. This is one of the essential steps in developing this Jesus Christ-type of prosperity consciousness.

Things aren't really things for their own sake. All things are symbols to serve the purposes of Christ. We have to also let our spiritual aware-less handle the 2 fishes - the 2 great or Divine Ideas of polarity, of duality or YES and NO, affirmation and denial. We must begin expressing these ideas with spiritual awareness rather than emotional reaction.

MBI - NT 2-20-Tf you could look back on your life and see a film, an akashic film,

of every time you've said "yes" or "no" to someone or something you'd be anpalled at the number of times that "yes" saying and "no" saying constituted just emotional reactions. Once we allow our spiritual nature to take over the breaking or the expressing of our 2 fish - Yea,Yea; Nay,

Nay, all our yes saying and no saying will be directed and motivated by spiritual awareness and we will be prospered.

If you could take a tynical prosperous businessman and examine his talents and skills which got him to that point of success, you would find almost in every case this man had skill in knowing when and how to say YJjYj and NO. Now this works even on the most materi al1* wu-)—IdViiaral plane." ThinlTTcTrTYo^ meWtnglnTl this is when you're having this done on the spiritual nlane of expression. von are letting your sniritual awareness have the complete control of the breading of these 2 fish - these 2 great polarity ideas — YRS and NO. This is the skillful and the spiritually motivated right use of denial and affirmation. It also requires functioning in earthly life, on the natural plane with spiritual awareness of your

5 senses. We must come to realize that our use of the 5 senses is really always a spiritual matter. Then all of your sense expressions are under the direction of your spiritual awareness. We then say "yes" when needful, no when needful, breaking off the fish through spiritual awareness the result will be the bringing forth of what is the ideal prosperity conscious-ness. By this, I mean a consciousness which doesn't run around cooking up the latest gimmicks and techniques to get, get, geti The me, me, me syndrome. That's kindergarten prosperity and is rather dangerous. But with the spiritualized prosperity consciousness you will be a permanently, walking consciousness which always is able to realize all sufficiency for all things feeding the f? senses.

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