Faith, on the other hand, is the experience of the unseen reality of life. Faith is a direct, personal encounter with the nonmaterial side of life, and having faith is a crucial step along the spiritual path and a hard step if we don’t feel a connection to some spiritual ideal. When one has experienced the power of faith, belief and doubt become irrelevant.
Q Please explain by illustration: “Most say they believe, and yet begin at once to explain as to how this means in the mental rather in the material source.”
A As has just been outlined as to how faith, as an attribute that came into being as the Son—in which the faith is magnified as to make those active forces in will, and the growth of the soul. So, as is seen in individuals as would say, “Yes, I believe—but” “but” meaning there is that doubt, that by the comparison of some individual, individuals or circumstances in their experience, when, where, or how, that individuals spoke yet acted in a manner as if that did not exist! Then, creating that doubt for self, applying to self, brings about that as is the opposite of faith, or else partakes of that within the conscious mind that begins with the lessons that must be answered by the attributes of the physical consciousness, that seek for a demonstration through those senses of the body that makes for an awareness to the physical being; yet, as is seen, these are the manners in which the variations to individuals reach those various conditions or circumstances in their experience.
262-15
5. VIRTUE AND UNDERSTANDING
Virtue is hardly a popular term in the today’s world, somehow sounding disconnected from reality. Edgar Cayce tries to redeem it, suggesting that virtue is the integrity we bring to our purpose in life once we’ve found it. Without virtue, we never really grow in our understanding of our purpose.
Once we come to know our spiritual ideal, it’s possible for us to truly have faith, to truly perceive the nonmaterial. But what do we do with the capacity to experience the spiritual world directly? We still must live in the material world, afterall, with its practical demands. With virtue, we are able to hold on to the feelings and insights stimulated by faith; we are able to maintain our integrity of purpose and intention. And with integrity, understanding begins to blossom, an understanding of how the material and nonmaterial are both part of the same whole.
Q Please give us that which we need in understanding and beginning work on our next lesson, on VIRTUE AND UNDERSTANDING.
A In the beginning of the study of this lesson, would be well that each individual of the group, or students of same, review that as has been the preparation for the study of the attributes that are now to be set before such students. In the beginning was that as would apply to the individual’s cooperation with a group, or concerted effort on the part of individuals with one mind, or aim, or purpose. The understanding, or looking into self, and the preparation of self in the light of that of the cooperation. Then as to become active with that as had been gained. Then the basis with which an entity approaches the forces within each individual, that there may come forth those works, that are through the activity OF that force of faith in the material activities of an individual. Then there begins as in this: Adding to thy faith, virtue and understanding. Virtue, in this study, then, is to be as the criterion with which thine faith is to be put into active service; for without that pureness of the virtue of self’s own mental, material and spiritual self, there can come little understanding.
262-18
6. FELLOWSHIP
Having experienced faith, and embraced virtue, now we can establish a personal relationship with the Creator through fellowship. While some think of fellowship in terms of other people, Edgar Cayce uses the term brotherhood instead and reserves fellowship for our relationship to God. Cayce was asked in reading 262-22, “Please explain the difference between fellowship and brotherhood.” His answer: “One to God, the other to man.”
These two experiences are closely tied, of course: Fellowship, the personal relationship to God, allows us to express love to others. And that show of love reminds us of the essential relationship we have with the divine within us.
Q Can brotherhood exist among men without true fellowship?
A Fellowship is first brotherhood, a pattern of—or a shadow of—what fellowship is; for, as has been given, all one sees manifest in a material world is but a reflection or a shadow of the real or the spiritual life. Brotherhood, then, is an expression of the fellowship that exists in the SPIRITUAL life.
262-23
7. PATIENCE
Patience, as we have seen earlier, is crucial to Edgar Cayce’s teachings. He viewed it as one of the fundamental measurements of the experience of life, along with time and space. Patience, in fact, is a measure of our understanding of the purposefulness of what happens to us in time and space.
Patience is an inward quality, however. While we outwardly measure experiences in terms of time (when it happens) and space (what happens and where), patience is more subtle: It means being spiritually attuned, allowing us to experience what Cayce calls a “purposeful life.” We are able to put others first (“preferring the other”), and see the essence of God even in those behaviors that annoy us. No wonder we find Cayce often saying “in patience become ye aware of your souls” (1747-5).
Q In learning the lesson of PATIENCE, please advise how we may overcome the little harassing annoyances that come in our daily lives.
A As was given of Him, as ye seek, know there is that Comforter present that will speak for thee under EVERY condition; for, as He gave, “I will not leave thee comfortless. Be NOT afraid.” Be MAD, but sin not! In thine UNDERSTANDING gain the presence of Him ever as thy companion, in every act, in every word; for every thought must be accounted for, and in grace—His grace is sufficient—will there be that constant, prayerful attitude for a purposeful life; forgetting self, preferring another above self. Lose self in Him. THESE will answer. Not as an outward, but an INWARD growth—that makes for the beauty of the soul that has patience SHINING through.
Q When we reach the development of ceasing to see faults in those we contact, is it then we can say we have patience?
A When we see rather Him that we worship even in the faults of others, THEN we are at the BEGINNING of patience.
262-24
8. THE OPEN DOOR
Edgar Cayce’s explanation of the universal Christ Consciousness and his description of the life of Jesus are among the most essential of his teachings. The next chapter, “Esoteric Christianity,” explores the various elements of his Christology. “A Search for God,” however, focuses on one element in particular: the image of Christ as the open door. The seeker must use free will to open that door, to choose life over death, and to allow Christ Consciousness to come in.
Consider the door. It allows passage through a wall without destroying it. The wall protects us, but we need to pass through it to get in and out. If we apply the door to human nature, we see that there is a wall between the finite and the infinite. The average individual could not stand the elimination of that wall because the infinite could be overwhelming, and in one lacking sufficient wisdom, could be employed selfishly and destructively. The door allows us to selectively experience the infinite without being swallowed up by it.
Then turn to the 30th of Deuteronomy and ye will read “Today there is set before thee good and evil, life and death, choose thou.” The will, then, in self is the gift of thy Maker, thy Creator; that ye might understand and approach Him, putting thy trust, thy hope in His hands. For thy brother, even Jesus who became the Christ—by making intercession, by offering Himself as the sacrifice that made possible man’s approach to God through Him—has promised, “I stand at the door of thy heart, of thy consciousness. If ye open, I will enter, if ye will listen to that still small voice within.” For thy body is the temple of the living God, and there He has promised to meet thee. There ye may find the answer. Ye have the ability. Will you listen? 3506-1
9. IN HIS PRESENCE
In “A Search for God
,” we might expect the awareness of God’s presence to enter as soon as we “open the door.” Edgar Cayce suggests that we don’t feel the divine presence as often as we might simply because we “keep it as a thing apart”—that is, we objectify God as a superhuman being who is separate from us rather than beingness that resides within us and all around us.
So how can we be more open? While the answer will differ from person to person, a good starting point is to release some of our worries. A worrying mind is a barrier; it slams that open door shut. Instead, we must nurture joy and gladness in life, even in the face of adversity.
Q Please expand on how we may come into the realization of His presence.
A As we have given above, the greater fault from the realization is that it—His presence—is kept as a thing apart. HE wills that all should come to the knowledge of His presence abiding with all. We come to this knowledge and consciousness by doing those things that are conducive to bringing into every atom of our being that which gives the attributes OF His presence in the earth; and in DOING this do we come to know His presence.
Q Please expand on how we may prepare ourselves that we may abide in His presence.
A This would refer rather to the individual experience; for in the preparations of self there are varied consciousnesses, and what to one might be necessary to another would be secondary . . . As we may experience by that abiding presence, what are the fruits of same? WORRIES pass away, joys take their place . . . Then, when ye abide in His presence, though there may come the trials of every kind, though the tears may flow from the breaking up of the carnal forces within self, the spirit is made glad . . . 262-33
10. THE CROSS AND THE CROWN
Of these twelve lessons in the series, this is the one that people have the most difficulty understanding and applying. Perhaps it’s so tough because, like any system of spiritual transformation, it requires that we surrender our own view of the world. We must surrender our fears and our own plans for getting what we think we want.
To describe this letting go, Edgar Cayce uses the biblical imagery of the cross, although the same principle can be found in ancient wisdom from many traditions. The crown is the new consciousness that emerges when we let go.
So, each in their respective lives, their own experiences, find their cross overcoming the world, overcoming those things, those conditions, those experiences, that would not only enable them to meet the issues of life but to become heirs with Him of the Crown of Glory.
What, then, is this Crown of Glory? Does this bespeak only of those things, those conditions, that have to do with the spiritual life? Did the overcoming give the authority? Did the overcoming make this Son of man the Lord, the Glory, the Crown of Life?
So He, as the pattern for each, makes the way clear, the way open that each soul—as it meets the crosses, endures the temptations and overcomes them—may become an heir, JOINT heir with Him to the Crown of Glory; with power temporal, power mental, power spiritual to become the Sons and Daughters of God, as many as are called—and all that fulfil that purpose for which they, as individuals, are called—and carry on in that manner, overcoming, meeting, bearing within themselves. Not in sorrow, not in wailing, but in the JOY of the Lord.
Then, the first of the signs that may be given—to as many as have met the cross, as have endured, is given that which enables them—in whatsoever state they find themselves in meeting their crosses—to do so in the JOY of the Lord. Happiness and joy go hand in hand. 262-36
11. THE LORD THY GOD IS ONE
One of the qualities emphasized throughout “A Search for God” is the interconnectedness of life. The emphasis in this lesson is on how we look at our material lives and how we try to live practically, applying the inner lessons that have been absorbed.
The challenge is making all the aspects of our lives work in harmony. Our job, our marriage, our friends, our health may pull us in different directions, and the competition for our time and energy may leave us feeling that our integrity and consistency are lacking. On other occasions, the difficulty is in reconciling our inner values with the demands of making it in the outer world of business and human relationships.
Edgar Cayce teaches us in the series, and in individual readings such as this one for a thirty-five-year-old lawyer, that God is the source of everything we experience. In that light, it really is possible to integrate all the various elements of our lives; in fact, it is even our birthright, as Cayce often said.
Q Am I mentally lazy, and can you suggest how I can best arouse my mental energy to help me live a full life, both as far as my marriage and my business are concerned?
A We would concern self principally now with the BUSINESS; for when the life has adjusted itself the marriage relations, the business relations, the material relations and the spiritual relations are of ONE measure, and should be the same experience in the life of all. When life is made into such a manner that the life is one, all thoughts are one. So, it has been given how to make the business relationships not only interesting but worth while, helpful, remunerative; and builded upon that principle, that policy, will make those relationships in every walk of life as not idealistic things but REALITY; for life IS real, life IS earnest! The grave is not the goal; for life is ONE! It is in Him! Lose not thy birthright in Him for secular things. 912-1
12. LOVE
Love is the capstone of this first set of twelve lessons of “A Search for God.” It is the product of all the inner work done in the first eleven lessons. Love is not just about having personal relationships, however. It is an entire way of life. Edgar Cayce waxed poetic in the following passage in painting a picture of the loving life.
EC: Yes, we have the group as gathered here, as a group and as individuals—and their work in preparation of the lesson Love.
Each may find in this that which is being sought by each, in the study of the lesson and that which each seeks to manifest in the lesson. As each goes forth to make manifest, each may find that sought.
The first, in that expressed in a baby’s smile; in the hope, the light, the seeking, the manifestation of that which is love undefiled.
The next may see it in the rose, as it seeks—with that it has to do with—to make manifest that beauty in expression that may GLORIFY its Maker.
The next may find it in friendship, in that which speaks without thought of self, that which makes for the expressions of love GLORIFIED through the friendliness that comes with friendship.
The next may find it in that as reasons for the beauty of a song, in the harmony that shows forth in the expression of the soul within; whether in instruments or the soul raised in praise to the Giver of light.
The next may find it in the expressions of the duty that may be the lot of one that, without thought of self, shows forth in the acts of life that first thought of the duty from a material standpoint, yet the LOVE made manifest from wholly showing forth His life, His love, till He come again!
The next may find it in the manner of speech under the varied circumstances that arise in the experience of all, through that association which comes in the daily walks of life, and in the encouragement that may be given through the kind word spoken; the giving of the cup of water to anyone seeking, to those that thirst. This may show to such a one the love that is manifest in “God is love.”
The next may find it in whatever the hands find to do, that done well, in all phases of one’s experience, that lends self in the daily walks of life, doing the best with that which presents itself, in the glorying of the expressions, “As ye do it unto the least of these, my little ones, ye do it unto me.”
The next will find it in the glory that comes in the satisfaction of a contented heart, in knowing that each day has brought an opportunity that has been taken advantage of by self in showing the kindness here, going out of the way in self’s own life to make the lot of a neighbor more joyous, brighter, in the activities of the daily life.
The next may find it in looking forward to t
hose days that may come, for the filling of those places that may be made or given in the lives spent in the service of Him who may call that thy face be that which may bring the knowledge of thine life, thine heart, spent in His service day by day. 262-45
SUMMARY of Edgar Cayce on the Development of the Soul
Soul development involves maturing into a certain way of being in life: present, patient, helpful, loving. It has nothing to do with one’s level of psychic ability or one’s place in the world. Instead, it’s learning how to put aside one’s personality and willfulness and instead awaken to one’s individuality and willingness to serve God. Edgar Cayce’s “A Search for God” focused on developing character and spiritual consciousness. Success depends on our willingness to actually practice the teachings. Soul growth is possible only through application.
The Essential Edgar Cayce Page 20