Truly he was the bread, for he was the life. The body lives only at the expense of the Father; for, as soon as the Father withdraws the spirit (which is the life of man), he is dead, and there is no life in him. But, if he accepts the teachings of the Divine Law, he will eat of "the bread of life" that is, he will use his mind to awaken to activity the divine spark within himself; and, when this has been brought to consciousness, then is he the Son of God, and has found eternal life. This bread is therefore come from heaven; for it is come from the Father, and the Father dwells within the temple, and the temple is heaven.

42. And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

The Jews could only see the body. Jesus did not speak of the body, but of the Illuminated Soul within the divine spark which he had brought to consciousness while under the training of the Masters in the East.

43. Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.

44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

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Jesus did not refer to himself personally, but to the divine spark, or potential divinity, which is within every man. No man can come to the Christ, nor know the Christ, unless he first frees himself from the flesh, and brings forth to conscious individualization the Divine Being which is sent from the Father.

45. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned, of the Father, cometh unto

me.

No man can teach another further than to give him the Law. If man accepts the Law and lives according to it,

then will the Christ within him awaken; and, as it awakens, so will he receive instructions from the Voice of the indwelling Christ, and instructions from the Father through the Soul. We are not to come to Jesus, the flesh of man, but to him who is the Christ of our own beings, and who dwells within us within the temple of the living God.

46. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father.

Man of flesh can never see the Father; but that part of our being which comes from God-the Soul when it is awakened-can see the Father. For the Soul is born of the Light; and the Father dwells in the Light, which is "the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

47. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

48. I am that bread of life.

The Christ is the bread of life; for, if man seeks for him and finds him, then does he partake of the bread of life, and become Immortal.

49. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.

The Jews obeyed only physical laws, the laws of generation. They had not found the Christ, nor had they become conscious of him. They were in darkness, and darkness is death.

50. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.

Only he shall have immortality who accepts the teachings of the Divine Law and lives in harmony with them, and makes deliberate effort to find the Christ, and does find him. Those who do not obey the Law and who do not find the Christ, shall be "dead unto damnation." This is the decree. The divine fiat has been cast, and neither God nor man can change it.

All men have equal privileges. All men have the opportunity. If they do not accept it, then, at the transition called death, the spirit returns to Him that gave it; the body returns to earth; and the soul, which has not become individualized, returns to the divine storehouse, to be taken up by some one who will bring it to Conscious Individuality.

LESSON TWENTY-THREE

He who has brought the Soul to Conscious Individuality has become a Christ.

St. John 6:51-71.

51. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

The divine spark, which came from the Father, and which may become the Christ, dwells in every man. But, in order that it may become a Conscious Soul, it is necessary for it to have food whereby to grow.

It can receive food only from the body. As the mind becomes awakened to the needs of the immortal nature, man will begin to change his thoughts and his desires. Instead of thoughts and desires of the flesh and gratification of the flesh, he will think of the Inner Being, the true man. In proportion as he does this, will he change, or transmute, the flesh. As transmutation takes place, the body (which is the personality) is changed into the Soul, or the Individuality. Thus, did Jesus plainly and clearly teach that man must use the flesh and the fleshly nature to nourish the divine spark, in order that it may become a Conscious Individuality. In other words, man must feed the flesh and the fleshly nature to the divine spark that it may become the Conscious Soul. The lower must be transmuted into the

higher; the natural into the soulual; the human into the divine; the mortal into the immortal.

All the teachings of the East where Jesus had been taught, were in symbolism, that they might easily be understood by those who were prepared to understand and might be veiled from those who were not ready to understand. When one holds the key to symbolism, the teachings of Jesus are easily comprehended. Understanding of symbolism is not the result of reasoning and analysis, so much as the result of growth and experience in the Christ character. We understand spiritual truth in proportion as we have become spiritual in our natures. We comprehend the Divine Law in proportion as we obey and live the Divine Law. True knowledge is the natural, and the inevitable, result of becoming. We understand truths pertaining to the Soul only in proportion to our own degree of Soul growth.

52. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?

They did not understand that Jesus was teaching truth through the use of symbolism; that he did not mean to give his own body to them, but that they would have to use their own bodies and carnal tendencies in the process of transmutation, or change, of the transitory personality into the permanent, individuality. They must feed the body to the divine spark, as it were, that it might become a living Soul. Mortality must be fed to immortality. The lower must give its life to the higher. The undesirable must die that the desirable may have "newness of life." "And, that a rose may breathe its breath, something must die." Undesirable tendencies of character must be sacrificed-must give their life-in order that the desirable may become established in one's nature.

This is a Cosmic Law, ruling throughout the universe: life on a higher plane is due to the giving of life on a lower. This principle in the transmutation of character is beautifully illustrated in the transmutation of metals. Here is a

piece of rock; within it are tiny pieces of gold, just as there is a tiny spark of the divine nature in each human life. The ore, which corresponds to the body, is fed to the flames. Through being fed to powerful flames, the earth or crude material is burned away, leaving only the sparks of gold which have become as one large nugget.

In similar manner, the crude material of the lower self is transmuted into the pure gold of a Christly character.

53. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink of his blood, ye have no life in you.

Unless the body, through a process of change, is fed to the divine spark, there is no immortality. The life in the body of man is not his own. It belongs to the Father. But, if man will use this life to change the body (which is the Son of man) into qualities of Illumined Soul (which is the Son of God), then does he become a Conscious Individuality. The Conscious Individuality, the Soul, is his own, because he himself created it, through his thoughts, his desires, and his acts, and through effort—oft repeated and long continued effort to accomplish soul illumination.

54. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.

This is clearly explained by the foregoing explanations. But the fact should be emphasized that such interpretation as this cannot be understood by mere intellectual comprehension. Knowledge that comprehends such principles is not an intellectual acquirement, but is the result of spiritual, or soulual, growth.

55. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.

The flesh is the life of the Soul; therefore, it is well said that it is meat. Without the flesh and the blood (for they are but the body and the vitality, or the life therein), the soul could not manifest; but, when the divine spark dwells