Excerpt from Chapter Twenty One
ASCENDING THE LADDER OF REALITIVE TRUTH

So we can study what the reality is and what the illusions are by comparison. And this study reveals that there can be no illusion unless there is a reality behind it. In our study we move from the illusion and enter the reality behind the illusion. Even when we pass over after the death of our material body we still will gain knowledge by comparison. And this is the method used by the “Invisible Helpers”, the light workers, in the Psycho-Noetical planes of existence to assist those who get caught in their shell-hells and can’t escape. In these higher worlds, they can help people see things better and create in them a desire to come out of their self-imposed hell. To do this, an invisible helper can safely enter the shell-hell of a person in the Psycho-NoeticalWorlds, temporarily take them out of it and show them a much better condition. The Invisible Helper cannot make that person choose the better way, but he can show them a better way. Then it is up to the person to choose.

Nothing can prevent a person from leaving their conditional hell if they have the un-conflicted desire and firm decision to come out of it. However, in the multilayered Psycho-Noetical Worlds of gradated light, one person’s hell can be another person’s paradise and what is a paradise to one person is a hell to another. As we ascend the ladder of relative truth, it is helpful to notice that our approach to the light of truth has four obvious phases.

SEEING THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

The first phase begins with seeking to see the light of truth. We are encouraged to, “Seek” and we are promised that if we do seek,“…we will find.” We are all free to seek and find the truth of anything, such as: The truth of why we suffer; the truth of who we are and what we are, where we have come from, where we are going and our purpose in this life. These are important questions not just for the Researchers of Truth but also for any sincere seeker from any spiritual system or religion. In seeking the truth about the constantly changing phenomena of life all around us we will one day find the truth concerning the changeless Eternal Life that lies behind all the these temporary forms of life.

During this first phase of seeking, the light of truth seems as something outside of us. And at times we can rightly say: “I see the light.” At first we see the light of truth as something external to be searched for in books, teachers and life experiences. So we begin devouring spiritual writings, attending spiritual workshops or maybe we embark on the “guru hunt” to find a master to help us in our quest. These things can help show us the way and illuminate our spiritual path. But our movement along this path and up the ladder of relative truth can only be made by us. Finding a true and selfless master is a great, great benefit but they will not walk your path for you. You must make this effort yourselves to reach the light of truth.

IN THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

When we make the effort to find a greater measure of truth we are transformed by it. When this happens we can rightly say: “I am in the light of truth.” Now we feel the light of truth is shining on us; we bask in it, savoring its harmony and beauty. When we find such a clear stream of truth it is natural to want to follow it to its source, to know greater and greater measures of this truth. “Know the truth and the truth will set you free.” This gentle persuasion urges us to experience the truth for ourselves. It does not suggest that we blindly follow what others say the truth is. It advises us to make our own effort to know truth directly.

Finding truth and comprehending it intellectually is one thing, but to really know the truth means to understand it experientially beyond ordinary, limited thinking. To penetrate deep into truth, to grasp real meaning, requires: Introspection, Observation and Meditation. These are the prime tools of the Researcher of Truth, which leads deeper and deeper into the light of truth.

THE LIGHT OF TRUTH WITHIN

As we continue onward we will eventually experience a new perspective on the issue. The light of truth we first sought outside of ourselves is now revealed inside. In this third phase, we see and know this radiant light of truth as something within us. This light of truth is not coming from the personality but from something much, much higher. It arises from that Divine part of us which is virtually incomprehensible to our personality. It comes from within and our personality is illumined by this magnificent light. And we begin to experience increasing measures of the liberating truth that resides within us all. Then we can rightly say: “The light of truth is within me.”

I AM THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

Up to this point our experiences of the light of truth have been necessarily dualistic. In each of the previous phases, our approach to truth has had a subject and object orientation. We are the subject, and truth has been the object of our search. This is a dualistic condition. However, Absolute Truth is not dual. When we begin to experience the higher states of Truth, we soon realize that the seeker is actually what is being sought. And that the light of truth sought for is, was, and will always be the seeker’s Divine Nature. But with virtually all our attention focused through our five senses on the outer world and not the inner, we miss this fundamental fact.

In scaling the ladder of relative truth concerning our self-awareness where should we start? We start with what we know for sure and that is that we are living in a material body. No one doubts this, and so our body is our starting point, which is like one end of a line that extends all the way back to our origin as an Eternal Spirit Being. We begin our life in a male or female material body with a name. Our name is not us; our name is just given tous by the notion of our parents. Continuing our investigation to trace this line of our Selfhood back to its source we see that this first part of the line represents our personality and is multicolored. But the colors are not the same in all personalities, because no two personalities are the exactly the same. So the coloring of this part of the line represents the quality of our personality, our character. In other words, this line is colored by the quality of the thoughts, desires, words and actions we express.

But unfortunately, within all these colors there exists a confused mixture of shades, which have been created by our conflicting thoughts, desires, feelings and interests. And yet at the core of this line of many colors there is that steady, pure and luminous ray of the Spirit-Soul. And it is all the mixture of colors and shades created by our emotions, feelings, thoughts and interests that cover this perfect ray of the Spirit-Soul Self. This bright ray absorbs whatever good is present in the shell of our multicolored thoughts and emotions. This means that the Inner Self, our Permanent Personality, distills, absorbs and flawlessly records our endless variety of experiences in time, space and place. Our Permanent Personality is that part of the Spirit-Soul Self that projects the ray into the Worlds of Existence to be incarnated. It is the personality’s acceptance of different qualities of thoughts and emotions that causes the continual change within our temporary personality.

For example, we can imagine that we put a thin glove on our hand and then a bigger glove over the first one and move our fingers we will see the fingers of the outer glove move. The outer glove represents our mortal material body, the inner finer glove represents our temporary personality and the hand inside both gloves is the immortal Soul Self. When we move the fingers of our hand we can clearly see the fingers of the outer glove move. But we are not able to see the fingers of the hand move, which is what is actually causing the fingers of the glove to move. And we cannot see the inner glove move either.

So when we see the phenomena of movement in the gloves we know it is our hand that is making this movement. The gloves cannot move without the hand in them. If we take off both gloves from our hand they become completely lifeless. Put our hand back in the gloves and they take on the warmth and movement of the hand again. In a similar way when we see movement/life in our material body and movement/life in our personality we are seeing results of our eternal nature, which is Life. In other words, without the Inner Self within our personality and body, they would be as lifeless as the gloves without the hand in them.

The Inner Self is the ultimate reality and not our personality or body. Life and movement are not coming from our material body or our personality self-awareness. Life is the immortal Soul-Self. And when you are able to find that steady fixed point in you that is receiving and distilling the experiences of your temporary personality self, you will have found the Inner Self.