Death Swallowed Up In Victory

[QUOTING]

We would like now to draw your attention to the last part of 1 Corinthians 15:

'I tell you this, brethren: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the Last Trumpet. For the Trumpet will sound, for the perishable must put on the imperishable, and the mortal must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory.' ' O, death, where is thy victory?' 'O, death, where is thy sting?'

You will of course have read this part of the Bible countless times and often heard it quoted. Perhaps you know it by heart, yet we feel we must emphatically draw your attention to it for, in this passage literally the same message as that proclaimed by the Spiritual School is imparted to all who wish to understand. The Spiritual School speaks so vigorously about these same things, because it concerns the Message of The End, the classic message about the end of every dualistic manifestation, when, at a given moment, the radiations of the New Life descend into time to envelop all who can be helped.

'Behold', says Paul, 'I tell you a mystery'. This word does not allude to a secret which must be kept at all costs. No, facts and realities are alluded to here which are secret and veiled for those totally submerged in nature. To them, the mystery will remain totally secret, even if one did everything to explain it to them in all frankness. They would be unable to solve the riddle, thus proving the saying: 'That which remains hidden to the wise and knowledgeable of this world is revealed to the Children of God'.

The mystery is unveiled to those who can understand that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and that the perishable cannot inherit the imperishable. You ought to ask yourself if you understand it. Many people in this world, for instance, -- the greater part of the natural-religious people and those oriented towards the occult -- hold firm to the premise that the relationship between duality and Original Life is to be compared with the low and the high. That one can, from this nature, evolve and initiate oneself to the Original Life while preserving this nature, while maintaining one's consciousness. Not true. This is what Paul means by 'inherit': entering Original Life, 'An inheritance implies that I, as an heir, will receive something at a given moment. And so, too, I am on my way to this inheritance; I am growing, evolving towards it'.

You must, however, understand that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, that the perishable, duality, the nature-of-death cannot inherit the imperishable. Duality cannot pass into or be elevated to The Original.

If you clearly realize this, if you see through the nature of duality and your structural bond to it, if you know of an Immovable Kingdom, then you understand that everything belonging to this nature must be left behind. When, armed with such knowledge you profoundly hope and long for Liberation, knowing that the corruptible cannot inherit the incorruptible, then you, too can say: 'I cannot understand it, but I know the Path pointed out by the Spiritual School is correct and true and I can't go back, I want to go that Path'. When you know yourself to be in that state-of-being, the veil falls from the Mystery and everything becomes totally clear to you.

When an interested person comes in contact with the School, one of the first tasks is to explain to him or her the essence of the two orders of nature: the nature-of-death, in and of which we are; and of the Immovable Kingdom, in and of which we are not. If you comprehend the relationship between those natures and the gaping chasm separating them, then you are ripe to understand the Mystery of Salvation, to which Paul refers to in 1 Cor 15: 'for when you no longer try to evolute away from this world; when you no longer try to come to a solution in this nature, you are admitted by the Power of the Gnosis into a process of Change'. It says: in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the Last Trumpet. That means: at a clearly discernible moment, the Last Trumpet begins to sound.

A properly-tuned trumpet has a wonderful tone with an extraordinary penetrating capacity. When a good trumpeter plays on his own instrument, it can be very moving. The sound of the trumpet is used as a symbol for a remarkable vibration, which will gain power over the world via the Seven Schools. The vibration of this 'trumpet' is taken over by the apostles, prophets and teachers, by those holding these three offices. This vibration is sent forth via the faculties previously discussed for all who are able and wish to perish according to nature. When you no longer expect anything of this world and -- this not from dogma but through knowledge from within -- and you are entirely directed towards The Other Realm, then you will be touched by the vibration of The New Kingdom: then the Trumpet sounds for you. Then this Power enters into the permanent atom (the Spirit-spark atom, the Rose of the Heart), breaks into you and starts a process in your system. All who have been admitted to this process are changed, literally and bodily changed in this world-embracing stream of Power.

'How and in which respect?' you might ask. You have just heard it in Paul's words: The corruptible, the mortal, the finite, that which belongs to this nature-of-death, will put on the incorruptible. The corruptible cannot inherit the incorruptible but can put it on, that is to say, it is confronted with it, with clearly recognizable consequences, for all corruption in our microcosm must be attacked and destroyed, must totally vanish.

Many, as Paul says, will die, will lose the body by ordinary death during this process. But, free of all nature, they will pass to that vacuum to which we refer as the Vacuum of Shamballa. They will be free; those who have entered this process will be kept free of the entire reflection-sphere.

Should incidental death, the ordinary death of nature, come upon us in this situation, i.e., after having been admitted to the Process of Change, it will make no difference. The so-called 'dead' there, as Paul says, will be raised and the so-called 'living' here will be changed. In this raising from the top down and this change from the bottom up, the two groups will grow towards one another. And at a given moment all separation will disappear; the veils will be torn apart and we shall stand in one freedom and one brotherhood. Then the following words will become reality:

'Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is thy sting?'

Whoever stands in this process can jubilantly cry: 'Death no longer frightens me!'. When we stand in these manifold soundings of the Trumpet; when we can hear something of that miraculous concert, what does death matter to us? Are you afraid of death in that state-of-being? Is it not nonsense still to be afraid of it?

We do not console one another, as do the natural-religious masses in their delusion: 'Soon we shall meet again in heaven'. No, we say to one another: 'We shall meet in the New Field of Life!' From corruption, from the Grey Mists of Night, we arise renewed into the Light of Morning. This is our certainty.

For this reason we have discussed the faculties of the New Human Being. This is why we have called your attention to these faculties so that you may know that the time has come, that the Trumpet has sounded and you will say: 'I hear its sound!' And you will experience this positive certainty in your heart, the certainty of Knowing.

Therefore: 'Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the works of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain'. The raising of the dead and the Great Metamorphosis have commenced. The veils will soon rip apart and, with all the others, with all those liberated we shall be together in the New Field of Life. Brothers and sisters, the night will soon be over!

From "Death Swallowed Up In Victory" - The Coming New Man - Jan van Rijckenborgh

[END QUOTING]

The fore-going presents the truth regarding "the resurrection" presented in the holy language, stripped of all mystification and veils.

There are two groups of people who are working towards Transfiguration: the 'living' and the 'dead'.  Those who have awakened their Divine Spark during life and started upon The Path but have passed on (the 'dead'), continue that process after physical death, in the divine etheric realm called the Vacuum of Shamballa. Those of us now in the physical (the 'living') who have awakened the Divine Spark and are walking The Path in self-surrender, humility and service-to-others will undergo the Great Transformation when The Last Trumpet sounds during the Tribulations that are just over the horizon.

We are presently unable to view the etheric realm while conscious. During sleep, we get a confused glimpse of the lower etheric regions. The two regions are separated by what is called 'a veil'. However, the etheric realm and our physical realm are currently approaching one another. A fusion, of sorts, is about to take place. At a given moment in time, the physical and the etheric realms will merge. Those of us who are here in the physical will be able to see and touch those who have passed over to the etheric realms. We who are walking The Path will be re-united with all those who have walked it before us, an untold multitude.

If one begins walking the Path, in sincerity and humility, but is overtaken by the ordinary physical death before The Great Work can be completed, that one's work will not have been in vain. Beyond the veil, what man calls 'the other side', a region composed of divine ethers has been set aside for just such people. The Vacuum of Shamballa acts as a specially-prepared 'way-station', or 'safe-haven', that will allow the candidate to preserve the growth already made during physical life, and, mercifully, will enable the candidate to continue his or her progress towards Transfiguration while out of the dense physical body.

Do not say that you cannot be a part of what is about to happen, of what is happening. You can! And you will, if you but make the choice to forsake the pull of the natural world -- which is dying -- and set your focus upon the New World that is being Born and the coming New Human Race of which you are invited to join.

~ g
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