Martin Muller - December 1982

CALISTHENICS DECEMBER 1982

CHRISTMAS -- CHRIST FACTOR – NOT A PRODUCT OF THIS EARTH --IDENTIFY YOURSELF AS SUN –TRANSPARENCY, CLARITY, --DEVELOPMENT OF CONSCIOUSNESS

As you know, Christmas is the time of the birth of Christ. Also, symbolically, it is the time of the birth of Christ consciousness in mankind. I call this the Christ factor, and the Christ factor literally makes mankind children of Christ. We will become acquainted with this factor tonight.

You might know, intellectually at least, or you might sense, that humanity is undergoing a major change -- and not just the change of cycle from the Piscean to the Aquarian age. Although, as you might know, the change of age implies that what was hidden in the Piscean age comes out into the open in the Aquarian age. What was the training of the Christian initiates comes out as everyday training in this new age. Some of it we do right here.

The Christ factor, is now activated in mankind, and one of the changes that it brings along you might not have thought of. According to Steiner, what is called "mankind" is made up of the top third of each previous eternity, or day of creation. You have to expect that this situation is going to repeat itself. You are going to witness some sort of split between those who have worked along the line of the Christ factor and those who haven't or couldn't -- whatever. In a way I could say that the agent of that split is the Christ factor.

I want you to face some important points once again, so that little by little you can become aware in a more mature way.

The way you hear all of the teachings, and I do mean all of them, is personality or geo-centered (geo or earth being the person and sun being spirit). There are tremendous discrepancies. One, for instance, is believing that the Hierarchy, in which you have initiates of all degrees, up to the highest, is here to serve you. Now, if you read the same teachings, you might know that on any level, especially in the so-called "higher" ranks, you have beings that are not from this earth. Did it ever occur to you to wonder what these beings are in their own surroundings? We come to a time when the mind begins to explore further, and you might begin to be interested in what other beings are, and how they work.

What mankind does can be translate symbolically, and then you can know where mankind stands. So, let's take the symbolism a bit further. One of the symptoms we can come up with is the exploration of space. Man went to the moon. It was a first attempt to go beyond earth, with one drawback symbolically; the moon belongs to the earth. In astrological symbolism the moon stands for the earth, so actually they didn't leave earth, they went to a more subtle part of it -- sufficiently far away to realize that the earth is beautiful. Realizing that earth is actually beautiful seen from space was one of the first great experiences of the astronauts. They discovered that there is something to earth that you don't register when you live on it, that is, earth experienced as a being. Some of them were even able to express it. Now that's something new coming out into the open. It means that it's now operative and your concrete mind can deal with the situation. The same minds have now started to send probes even further out, still in the solar system, but beyond the moon. Translated symbolically this means the mind is able to perceive further than earth itself.

You might wonder why there is a renewed interest in so called psychic abilities, spiritual healing, whatever you want to call these things. Science is now becoming interested, and this is the same symbol as probes being sent out into space.

Participant: Many medical schools are now requiring courses in psychic phenomena etc.

Martin: Which is a very good point. This shows that little by little the change becomes official.

It is for you to realize that the times are changing and you have to readjust your minds to the present situation. You cannot continue with the old mind. It's not fit for the existing situation.

So, when we speak of the Christ factor, you have to realize that the Planetary Logos, whose body is the earth, is not a product of the earth. You feel being a product of the earth, but you cannot put the Logos on the top of that same scale. The Logos is different. He is not a product of the earth. He uses the earth. This means it's an entirely different situation, and, if we use space symbolism, He is a being of space. He is not bound to earth itself as a product of the earth. You face a situation that functions in a completely different way.

When the Christ factor is activated, what is activated is not a product of this earth either. It's a huge difference, try to face it. Don't expect the Christ factor to be one more addition to what you already have. We cannot put what the Christ factor is into words. You experienced it last week in the Christmas service. Some of you experienced that something was happening, and some of you experienced that nothing was happening. The Christ factor cannot be grasped by the mind. I come back to the symbolism of space. When man sends a probe out to another planet in the system, he still remains on earth and receives signals. This is perception. When you go there you live it. it's very different. You can live the Christ factor and thus experience it without being able to describe anything, without being able to use your sensory, emotional, or mental perception -- all of these fail. Christ is not from the earth, your perceptions are from the earth -- this is a point that the usual mind fails to recognize. Times do change and you have to retrain your mind.

Obviously, something that is not from this earth, symbolically speaking, is lived as a livance first, and only in the last resort comes down on the earth. The fact that Christ incarnated means that the Christ factor can play all the way down and into the personality, but 2,000 years is very recent, so the person is going to be aware of it only in the last resort. However, you are more than a person. The problem is that you try to reach for the "more" with your brain, or you identify it with an image in your brain. Atman (the real you) reflects himself in chita (mind substance) and makes an image of Atman. The mind then takes the image as being the real thing. Now if by some chance you drop your usual mind and use a more mature one there are many implications. One of them is that you no longer identify with your instrumentality. Currently, all of what you live is along the line of instrumentality. You always have a shape, be it physical, emotional, or mental. Atman does not.

With the Christ factor there is going to be a change. The Christ factor is not an instrument, and I have to predict that because we are going to work with that Christ factor all the time now, there will be identity crises in the groups. Symbolically speaking you will begin to be able to identify yourself as sun rather than earth. When the sun aspect becomes strong enough you will begin to sense something deeply wrong in you. You will feel dissatisfaction. You may become disgusted with yourself. You may despair that you will ever make any headway. You may feel that nothing works etc. All this being an inverse reflection of the other condition coming down. If this occurs remember that the sun does not express in terms of earth, it works differently.

In my experience of human beings on earth, they take the hardest possible way, for sport. So they go into confusion, despair, some might even revolt. They have to go through all this to finally realize that what is nagging them is the so-called "higher" condition they have looked for all along -- and when it comes they don't recognize it. In St. John it is said that when the Word came among His own they did not recognize Him. When you come down into your person, don't expect to be recognized by that person. They, the functions of the person, will not recognize you.

You can allow yourself to go into despair because it's very interesting, or because you are trying to attract the attention of other beings, or simply because you like it. You could just as well approach from another angle and feel finally coming home. But this implies that the person recognize what is coming, most people don't.

Participant: It's confusing because I remember through the years you have said that we'll always feel more like ourselves when the other condition comes down. But then I put my attention on my personality and go "ugh!"

Martin: What is " yourself ?"

Participant: That's the confusion.

Martin: Right. To be oneself in society is to be a better ego, but everyone knows that the ego is an artificial picture of your real self created for the purpose of centering the lower functions. Once you have mastered them sufficiently the ego goes.

To respond to your statement, you begin to realize that what you call "self" is not what you thought. You will realize that whatever you think you are, what you live is always greater, more complex, richer -- always. It's time for you to realize that you function with more than the three modes of awaring (sensory, emotional, mental ). There always is more than that and you have to learn to be consistent with it.

I am going to play a piece of music for you to help remind you of that unsatisfactory situation we have now with how the teachings are heard and followed. We are going to play a piece of music and in that music we are going to play, symbolically, along the line of the Hierarchy. It's something you know. It belongs to the earth, but don't fool yourself, what will be played is great, not small. The Hierarchy that you understand and the Hierarchy as a reality are two very different propositions, but still I will play according to the usual direction, that is, what people call achievement: reaching a high degree of initiation, reaching mastery.

Look at how you feel now, at what you show now, how you relate to the whole group, possibly more than the group. I always have to tell you this because people are so earth centered that they forget about the planets and the sun. The whole system, sun, planets, and earth symbolically constitute yourself .

So I want you to be as aware as possible of the first condition, how it shows in the room, how it feels inside, around, and so on. You will also notice that in it there is a known factor, even if you cannot describe it. Mankind has worked with it for a long time. It's in everyone's genes, so it's bound to give you the ,feeling of something known. But don't try to grab anything. Your mind and feelings abstract what they can from what is lived and I call this grabbing too. Be satisfied to live and then look around and see what happens. For those who weren't aware of anything at the Christmas session I would say: simply look around, don't try to define, simply live. You will be obliged to see that after a session like that you are different. You feel different, and little by little it will become more conscious. But it has to be lived first, until the consciousness adjusts. Get used to living in the first place, not in the last place. Stop thinking that you first have to understand in order to live. You have to live first, otherwise how can you stand under, you wouldn't know where it is.

So, let's play the first proposition.

(Music)

As you can see, you are greater than you were before, and you cannot minimize it. There is more purpose in you. More presence. More presence has more weight. I also want you to recognize that nearly instinctively you are looking for something like this. You're reaching up for this. And the "this" includes a lot more than the persons. In this condition you can begin to realize that we are not alone in the room, which you usually forget in your ordinary condition.

_ You will notice that in this condition, if we speak of Hierarchy it has a reality somewhere. It's not just a picture. So live that condition fully, don't try to analyze it. Simply allow yourself to live as clearly and fully as possible, without distorting it with preconceived ideas, desires, or whatever. The Christ factor will bring something different, and the difference is mainly in what you live. Those who are visually sensitive will see a difference also. The relation of all of you in the room will be different too. But you cannot analyze it with your mind. You can live it. So be content living it and realizing the difference. This will be repeated until your instrumentality begins to be adjusted to it.

Now we are going to play exactly the same piece again, this time with the Christ factor.

(Music)

For those who can see, there is an obvious difference. You will notice that in what you live there is one aspect that is a lot lighter around and through everyone. If you tune into the lightness you will see that the bodies give the feeling of some sort of transparency, and the same with the field.

The purpose of this evening is to make what I call the "Christ factor" more obvious, clearer to the awareness. This being so, this factor underlies the whole session anyway. So when we play the aspect called "Hierarchy" we have to establish a kind of screen, hiding the underlying. Now, some people go into the underlying anyway. I mean the screen doesn't work. It might work consciously but it might not work super-consciously.

Still, practically speaking, you have to observe that before the music you had a certain quality pretty much scattered throughout. With the music it took a certain shape that was more homogeneous and consistent, with a certain strength to it. So the music brought something along. But because you haven't yet mastered the situation some fading is obvious. Now you come to an in-between stage where you can again feel the underlying current. But when we play the music again, according to the underlying current, that underlying current will come forward a lot stronger. This is what usually happens.

You will also notice that some of the clarity we spoke of is still there. This started last week with the Christmas session. This is a lesson for those who said they didn't experience anything. It happens anyway. It might not express or have become dynamic, but some change is there, I can see it. It's up to you to make it active.

Do you have other questions about what we just experienced, or possibly a comment ?

Participant: The Christ consciousness or the Christ factor that is being demonstrated, is that born of some higher condition, or is it a condition that exists of its own already?

Martin: To be candid, things are born from the Christ factor not the reverse. The Christ factor is here in the first place not in the last. It might be last only for consciousness. Follow symbolically the development of consciousness, or your ability to handle things in this life, from babyhood. First you couldn't walk, then you learned to walk, you learned to speak, and so on. You went to school, you learned more and more. Then you grew up and matured, seeing things differently all the time. You became more and more mature, or you could also say more and more encompassing, until finally you possibly encompassed the Christ factor. Now, this is a perspective in time and space. The Christ factor can be lived with time and space and also with no time and no space. You as a being work in time and space but you are not time and space. So the awareness that you finally "reach" the Christ factor simply comes out of the way your mind is trained, that is, observing appearances.

I told you the example of the child who learns to walk, learns to speak, learns to grasp whatever they teach at school and then you say he is mature. Possibly. But there are those who do not fully agree with this because they realize that the child is fully adult even in the womb and able to acknowledge things you wouldn't dream of. It's simply that the instrumentality is incapable of communicating and it is only the instrumentality, the physical aspect, that is growing. It does not mean that the being is not an adult from the beginning. This is still very often forgotten. Now, you deal with yourself in the same way. Because the mind grows and becomes more mature you feel that you are growing, but you miss the adult behind. Atman is fully adult -- to a degree you don't even dream of. So don't be mixed up with the apparent aspects of your instrumentality, mainly here the physical body, there is more to it -- the you using that body.

We are going to play a piece of music again. This time in three different ways. First you will play it. We won't help, meaning we won't give the note. You do your best. watch your position and that of the group. Never be satisfied observing yourself. You learn much to slowly that way. Look around as well. Recognize what is going on in yourself and in the room. Very often the room will give you clues to what you don't have or don't think of in yourself.

The second time we will play according to the image of the Hierarchy, or it would be more correct to say according to what you achieve.

The third time we will play with the Christ factor. I want you to observe, at the end of each way of playing, how you live yourself , as identity, because you will notice three different identities. It's very important . I want you to observe another point too, this is, your relation to space, and not just in this room. Your sense of freedom in space will be different each time. That sense is linked with the sense of identity. Whatever space is doesn't need to be physical space, but it pertains to a kind of freedom you have.

So, first alone, then according to what you achieve, and the third time with the Christ factor. I repeat, watch the change of identity, but don't watch the change continuously as the music is going on. Watch it before the music and just after, at the end of the music ,to have some contrast.

(Music)

Do you have comments or questions?

Participant: Martin, the change is very obvious between the first and last piece but what concerns me is why we do not seem able to do it, even with the intent or the deep desire?

Martin: Did anyone observe that with both the first and second one you were reaching up? With the third one it was the reverse?

Participant: What I experienced more than just reaching up was a projection. A projecting out with the first and second one, but most evident in the first. It was a real nice projection.

Martin: And how was it in the second one?

Participant: An even nicer one.

Martin: The third one?

Participant: No, the third one was different. I don't know what it was.

Martin: It's an interesting point, because you show just a beginning of awareness that with the first two you can make projections , but they don't work with the third. The livance of the third one makes the projection show as a discrepancy, because technically it works the other way around. Projection is possible only by the mind, emotions and feelings. When you become aware, let us say, in a more mature, more serious, less personal way, then the projection disappears. But you still have a kind of soaring up ,which is the old trend, because the person remembers something that is symbolically above.

With the first piece. You are the above, symbolically speaking. But not just that, because with the second one you can be the above also. You have to learn to make the difference. You know, we have initiates in the groups, they simply don't know it. They haven't yet connected. Suppose they connect. They are here to bring something. So you have the reversal of the movement. Instead of soaring up you come down and out, symbolically speaking. The Christ factor brings still something new, even into that, and this is what you have to discover little by little.

I want to give a word of encouragement. The first one you did yourself. You've never done that well by yourself before. Did you notice it? It had a very nice quality. Among other things you are already infected by the Christ factor. You showed some of it in what you did. So obviously something is happening.

Participant: In the first one, did you really do nothing?

Martin: I looked around.

Participant: I experienced, in the beginning, a certain maintenance of what lived in the room, and the longer the music went on, the way I experienced it was like being dragged down, pulled down. It got heavier and heavier. I was wondering if that was just the condition we play with, or if you did something in that to display something.

Martin: No, I didn't do a thing. No more than usual. So actually the better quality you showed was your "achievement" -- disregarding, of course, what is going on in the room. But the "what is going on" is not from me or you, it is "what is going on". So, if you are sensitive to it, you come out with a better quality, but you cannot look at it personally. What I did was just look at you, and kind of appreciate that you didn't kill everything.

Now you didn't speak about the change of identity. Did you feel a change? Or the other proposition ,did you observe a change in freedom?

Participant: The space in which things were playing was very, very different. In the beginning and after the middle of the first time it was like a different substance was being played with or worked with, and then there was a complete change during the last one.

Martin: Do you mean that in the first two the feeling of space had substance in it, but not with the third one?

This is a way to put it actually. You might have noticed that the first two were more solid, more substantial, and that substantiality cannot be used in the third one. Did you also notice in the third one that you did not reach up? Reaching is gone. You're in the position where the situation is that, you live that, you are that.

Participant: I could offer an experience. In the first two, to speak of center of gravity meant something, with the the third I am at a loss to express center of gravity.

Martin: First of all, I have to remind you that, contrary to what the mind thinks, identity is a variable, infinitely variable. When you feel "me", "me" is felt as a kind of fixed point. It is not. You have to train your mind to acknowledge that the identity changes every time you change position. When you live in the fullness of freedom you have with the Christ factor, you cannot be a limited person. The limited person is incidental in that fullness, instead of being the thing, and this implies, symbolically, a change in identity. You begin to realize that the ego image you have with the usual consciousness does not apply in this condition, or something is deeply wrong in the usual consciousness. It's not that what is perceived has no value, but the limitation imposed does not exist in reality.