In pondering the essential meanings of Sacred Individuals and the High Commission in Tales, I come to my own practical experience of ‘something’ in my work that ‘comes from above’ to direct my efforts toward normalcy and consequent self-perfecting in the form of teachers. Thus I have two categories; one corresponds to preparatory work and the other to ‘real’ work, that is, work after having attained to higher states of consciousness. I dwell here primarily on the former, since it is more easily definable, for me, in an objective sense. The latter comes from all of creation, or the Megalocosmos, as I am able to be open to it. It is possible to learn about both these phenomena from the examples G gives us in Tales, and if we make the necessary efforts, we will gain understanding.

The first of my teachers must be my father (and mother), both according to my experience and the model given by G in Meetings. Of my father, who was a professional engineer, I can say that I find similarities between him and the Great Arch-Engineer of the Universe, His Measurability, Archangel Algamatant, in that my father often was "good enough to explain to us personally . . . in all probability what had happened" to myself and my siblings, the said explanations having more to do with his ‘theories’ of life than actual reality. It is interesting for me to note that my father’s explanations brought about an "individual collision" in my being that consequently led to my seeking to resolve this collision and begin to find some answers to this troubling situation. Thus I can say, with no remorse of conscience, "MAY HE BE PERFECTED UNTO THE HOLY ANKLAD. . . ."

Jumping forward to the beginning of my ‘preparatory work’ proper, that is, my working with a teacher within the greater confines of what we call the Work Teaching, I find that my teacher, although, so to speak, ‘enlightened in exile’ like Mr. Beelzebub, was more like the Sacred Individual called "full-of-hope," Saint Mohammed, in that his teaching was initially a "hearth of hope and reconciliation," but it afterward turned into a hotchpotch, at least in my personal experience, when upon my sending him many students the school became rigid and dogmatic. I can learn much from the ‘split’ into different schools, explained by G, which has led to ‘clashes.’

I would be negligent if I did not describe my own ‘teaching’ as experienced by my students. Although I would aspire to be ‘essence-loving,’ I see plainly that the emphasis of emotional development at the expense of reason has led to many problems, not the least of which is having ordinary life, or other teachers, like Lentrohamsanin, use their reason to overcome the newly developed and vulnerable essence of these students. Thus they are left worse off than they had begun (or perhaps better, depending on your point of view). I should say the not so subtle difference between essence ‘childlikeness’ and (false) personality ‘childishness’ was discovered too late by my person to avoid the above-mentioned casualties, as G calls them, " ‘complete victim[s]’ of contemporary education." This leads to a constant Remorse on the part of my Being, yet I have found no way out of the situation but to move forward as best I can.

All this is well summed up by G’s words: "Never will he understand the sufferings of another who has not experienced them himself though he may have divine Reason and the nature of a genuine Devil." While our ordinary education would lead us to depend on ‘experts,’ there is a clear warning, which we can receive as practical advice, that we are more likely to find practical answers from ‘beings like ourselves’ who have made efforts (being-Partkdolg-duty) than from beings who were, so to speak, (re)born perfect. In order to teach practically ‘from above,’ one has to have personally experienced "the sufferings of another" himself; no amount of theory will suffice. So buyer (and seller) beware!

KSR 10/21/01

Quotes from Tales, pp. 83, 128, 704, 755, 1160, and 1238.