Mark L. Prophet - The Answer Youre Looking For Is Inside Of You: A Common-Sense Guide To Spiritual Growth

THE ANSWER YOURE LOOKING FOR IS INSIDE OF YOU:
A Commonsense Guide to Spiritual Growth
by Mark L. Prophet
Copyright 1997 by Summit Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. For information, write or call Summit University Press, 63 Summit Way, Gardiner, MT 59030-9314 USA. Telephone: 1-800-245-5445 or 406-848-9500.
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-069717
ISBN: 978-0-922729-26-5 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-932890-63-1 (eBook)

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Christ in the Heart of Man

How to Develop the Christ Consciousness

Eternal Christmas in July

Its not often that we find someone who can marry profound spiritual truths to the practicalities of everyday life in a thoroughly understandable and enjoyable way. Mark Prophet had that gift.

His number one rule: the spiritual quest, though challenging, should be fun. And number two: we can often find the answers were looking for in the most unlikely places.

Mark knew that deep down inside, people are trying to find Godwhether they call him the Christ or the Buddha, the Tao or Brahman. His lifelong goal was to help everyone he met realize more of that spiritual essence.

He also believed that there is a spark of the divine within each of us and that we can contact that God within. Even before it was fashionable, Mark was teaching spiritual seekers how to become mystics. The mystic believes that he can gain direct knowledge of God through subjective experience and intimate communion with the All in all.

Mark himself was a mystic. He was also a pioneer in religious thought. Raised in the Christian tradition, he later experimented with the teachings of the Eastern adepts and came to a deep appreciation of the unity of all the worlds religions.

The Hindu yogi, the Taoist sage, the Buddhist monk, the Christian mystiche believed we could learn from them all, and he did. He was as happy meandering through the sublime passages of the Bhagavad Gita as he was reading about the lives of the Christian saints. And he was as comfortable meeting with the Dalai Lama as he was conversing with Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Mark knew that the adepts of the Himalayas had a profound message for him, so he made a pilgrimage to India with sixty devotees to probe the mysteries of each ones unique transcendental union with God. Though Mark h

Because gender-neutral language can be cumbersome and at times confusing, we have often retained Mark Prophets use of the pronouns he and him to refer to God or to the individual and his use of man or mankind to refer to people in general. We have used these terms for readability and consistency, and they are not intended to exclude females or the feminine aspect of the Godhead. For instance, the word Man in the title of chapter one, Christ in the Heart of Man, includes all people.

Spiritual or esoteric terms that may be unfamiliar to some readers have been defined in a brief glossary at the end of the book.

If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

DOGEN

Put not out the Light which hath shone forth in you. As ye see yourselves in water or mirror, so see me in yourselves.

JESUS

CHAPTER ONE

Today our hearts turn towards the Eternal Presence, and we go backward in time into the eternal consciousness and ponder the birth of the creation and the vastness of the creation. In Sanskrit we find the word kala, which means time, and the word desha, which means space. Let us think, then, in terms of time and space as though time and space were a gentle bubble hovering beneath the consciousness of God. In this bubble, in this heart of space where all things exist, there is an extraordinary beautya beauty that oftentimes our words or even our thoughts cannot adequately describe. For a moment we may try to grasp all of this, but it is incomprehensible to us because it extends too far and is too great. However, we do comprehend our relationships. Within our own circle of friends and with those we feel are nearer and dearer to us, our relationships are well established. Yet the Master said, Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring.1 So we should understand that in the consciousness of the Christ there is a spirit of gathering together rather than a tearing apart.

Let us recognize, then, the tremendous depth of Gods love. It is a love that not only is now but always has been and always will be.

If we can escape from the densities of this world, Gods love will enable us to find a freedom that we have never known beforefreedom in consciousness, freedom in our being, dominion over our physical bodies, over our consciousness, over our mind, over our heart and over all things that surround us.

All these things belong to the heart of God, and they are Gods. But they are also ours, because his Son has said, I go to prepare a place for you,... that where I am, there ye may be also.2 And so we begin to develop a sense not only of the love of God but also of the extension of God or the permeation of God throughout the universe.

We have failed to think in terms of what the Ascended Masters have called hallowing space. Space was intended to be hallowed, not desecrated. Space is hallowed when it absorbs the energies of God. As a sponge absorbs water so our consciousness can absorb Gods consciousness, and Gods consciousness can penetrate our consciousness. And in this penetration comes a new awareness of where we are.

We seimitation. Perhaps they are limited by a sense of sin, a sense of smallness or largeness of size, a sense of economic status. We have allowed these things to penetrate our consciousness. And we are concerned with having worldly funif you can call it fun.

Well, lets take a look at a new idea: Is it fun to do the will of God? Thats the question. Is it fun to do the will of God?

Is it possible that the chairman of the board of the universe can have better ideas than the chairman of the board of Ford Motor Company?

Can we ingest the glow of the cosmic sense?

Can we realize what it means?

Can God come down to us and show us our own inherent worth?

Gods love is ours. We belong to that love. And that love is dynamic! That love is not cheap, it is not vulgar. It is magnetic. It draws us unto itself. It reaches out through the whole universe. It is what all of us possess as the germinal spark within us.

Today, unfortunately, we live in a world of sham, a world where people dare to pull other peoples strings. We have seen the world compartmented and splintered and its wholeness shattered. All of this creates degeneration.

Now, we contain the factors of generation and degeneration, whereby people are born and die. And we contain the factor of regeneration, wherein people unite with the power of immortal life.

We find that unregenerate manordinary manis a bit of a disobedient child. He may not know that he is being disobedient. Yet his ignorance of the law is not a valid excuse when he stands before the heavenly magistrate.