In examining St. Paul, I'm not reading sections on sex. The reason I'm not reading the sections on sex is that we don't know anything about the sexual standards of the Jews at the time. If you meet Jews today, they don't know anything about the sexual standards of the Jews at that time, the non-Jews even less. So how are we going to judge a man when we don't know the society and education he had?

I would have no objection to going into that if that were the purpose of my work, but the purpose is to show you that all truths (and they are truths), which belong to the Hindu philosophy are found in the Bible. I'm not doing this to defend the Bible. I'm doing it to show that all people who have odd experiences at any level of psychedelics or super-psychedelics-- and some people who are reading this have definitely been super-psychedelic, not sub-psychedelic-- are in the Universe, in God's Universe. Because we don't explain it in Western religions, we go to the Oriental religions, but it's there in the Western religion scriptures.

We're going to go to Chapter 10 of the Corinthians very carefully. We may not do the next three in order, or we may, but I want to do this so you'll know something about it.

"For I wish you not be ignorant, brethren. That our fathers were all under the Cloud and all passed through the Sea."

When you start studying that, you find out exactly the basis of all Indian philosophy. Passing through the Sea was the Sea which they call in India the samsara, under the Cloud was under karma. We get out of karma, as he says elsewhere: "Thelaw of the breath of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." This is true, absolutely true, because when you get that Divine Breath you become free. And when you see Light, you see Light, not symbolically, you see it actually.

If we were to take all the passages of all the scriptures and study them from the standpoint of kabala, the real kabala, you'd do this: you'd take the literal meaning, you'd take the parallel meaning, you'd take the figurative or symbolic meaning, and you'd take the meaning that happens when you go through your direct experience. It doesn't mean mystifying, it means clearing up. But we mystify it by our love for complexity. We've got to clear it up.

This is the way the Universe was made. When we don't see clearly, we are under a cloud and the sea is the turmoil. Some people want to run away from it. They want to go up and have retreats in the mountains. They want to just sit down and meditate. I assure you, they will go have retreats and they will sit down and meditate and they will praise themselves that they are leading pure and holy lives. And when they leave this world and go up to the Judgement: "What did you do for your fellow man?" So, they'll have to come back.

When you accept, "Though you pass thru the valley of the shadow of death, there Thou art," you're free. Then you're free to understand that God is everywhere, and in every thing. If you separate Him from the city or the country or from the mountain or the plain, all right, you can do that. God gives you that privilege, but are you helping yourself?

All the basic teachings of all cosmic philosophies are in all religions. Gavin Arthur was saying to me once that he was troubled over so many people taking on Hindu names and saying "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna." If he would stop criticizing St. Paul, he would have a means of stopping them from doing this. You can't run around criticizing everybody and everything. So today we're going to have to choose between St. Paul and Hare Krishna. I accept them both. But most of the 'Hare Krishna people' are limited to the psychedelic level, the psychic level, to the level of emotions, and have not come to spirituality, to freedom.

Paul is pointing out the way to freedom. He said, "We have the mind of Christ." I cannot over-emphasize that. He means not just having the mind of Christ, he means having the heart, having the wisdom, having the compassion, but also having firmness. He didn't give in to anybody. Perhaps he couldn't. Heaven had whacked him once for being positive in the wrong way. So Paul was very careful he didn't get another whack from Heaven. You can read it in certain novels, that when he was thrown in prison by the Romans, it didn't mean a thing to him. It meant absolutely nothing. He met his martyrdom with total indifference.

"And that all were immersed into Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea."

We've got to consider these as states of consciousness. When you're under psychedelics, you're in the cloud and you don't get out of the sea, but begin to realize that other worlds exist.

"And that all ate the same spiritual food."

You do that right here and now. You take it symbolically in communion, but beyond that there is another spiritual food which is made of the way you breathe. I have great difficulty in coming to communion, because if I get in the Divine Breath (and I do), I'm liable to get so high, I have to have them shove the stuff down me. Really, it's an experience.

To me it's no difference; it's no different from if I got up and sang "Hallelujah." The effect on my consciousness is exactly the same. I'm not saying that you must be that way or should be that way, but you can be that way, and then you'll know a good deal more, even, than what I'm telling you.

"And all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from a spiritual rock which followed them; (but the rock was the Anointed.)" (Meaning Christ here)

"But with the most of them, however, God was not well-pleased; for they were laid prostrate in the desert."

He means the children of Israel. All the events of the Book of Exodus are symbolic, excepting one which we don't accept. If you study geography, you'll see they went round in a circle and they didn't come anywhere near the Red Sea. They went round in a circle, which is also a symbol for samsara. When we start considering the Scriptures carefully and don't read in what isn't there because somebody has told us it was there, we'll find out that a great deal in the Bible is very true on the different levels. Then you'll know more kabala than if you read all the books by popular writers on the kabala. Because it means that which is received, both verbal and non-verbal. The word 'Moses' itself means water-born, rising out of the sea, rising out of the samsara to become the deliverer.

"Now these things were made types for us, in order that we might not be cravers after evil things, even as they craved."

The word "type" comes from the Greek word typos. That means they were symbolic, not literal. So we have to consider this cloud and this sea were symbolic, representing cosmic operations. When you study the story of the deliverance of the children of Israel, and their passage through certain places, you'll find they deal with cosmic symbols, the same cosmic symbols that you study in Indian philosophy. Not different, because there is only one truth.

"Nor become you Image-worshippers, like some of them, as it has been written, 'The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to sport'."

Paul criticized what happened to the Jewish people (which everybody resents) and, yet, if you read the Jewish Prophets, that's exactly what they were doing, criticizing them. Because the Jewish people as such were sent to preserve the literature and certain faculties which are needed for the Prophets. But don't think that they accepted the Prophets. Each one had to go through a pretty tough time and they were practically all rejected during their lifetimes. Some are even now; I mention the Book of Malachi, what are we talking about? Because our peace plan (4) for Palestine includes a lot of material found in the Book of Malachi. We're not making it up out of our egos. St. Paul is presenting this.

"I am speaking as to wise men; judge you what I say. The cup of blessing, for which we bless God-is it not a participation of the blood of the Anointed One?"

I think this is evidence of the historicity of Jesus Christ. Paul hadn't met him. Evidently this institution of the communion was started very early, because the critics say that Paul's scriptures are supposed to be the oldest written ones. I don't know whether this is true or not, and I don't think it's important. I think what's important is what these scriptures mean and what they meant, and what they continue to mean as if Paul were a Prophet in the universal sense, not only for the present time, but for all times.

"Because there is one loaf, we, the many, are one body; for we all partake of the one loaf."

Christ said, "I am the vine and ye are the branches thereof." We are all parts of each other. This is the highest form of Hindu philosophy and Buddhist philosophy I've been taught. We're all parts of each other.

I went to the conference of religions sponsored by THE TEMPLE OF UNDERSTANDING in Geneva this year and there was one man there whose name was Samantha. This comes from the same root as our word 'same' comes from. So, I went up to him and said, "Oh, how do you do, Mr. You and I are the same." And he said, "So you know the meaning of my name." And I said, "If I didn't, I wouldn't come here."

We're really all parts of each other, and it is not enough to believe in a hypothetical brotherhood of man. Some churches that believe tremendously in the 'brotherhood of man' don't practice communion. They believe in the 'brotherhood of man,' but up there. Do you think you're welcome in those churches? You are not. They believe in the 'brotherhood of man.' I can think of a lot of people that believe in 'the brotherhood of man.' I don't know what they mean. I can tell you one kind of brotherhood they mean. My brother did all he could to destroy me. (Don't take this too seriously.) And then when I was out of the way, he tried to destroy his business partner, of whom he had said "1 love him like a brother." So the man said to me later, "I know what he means now when he says, 'I love like a brother'." I tell you, those churches that believe in the 'brotherhood of man' and don't practice communion--you can see what kind of 'brother' they believe in.

I will tell you a characteristic of one of these churches I used to go to. It's a good 'Buddhist' characteristic. Everybody sat as far apart from each other as they possibly could, physically. Why, if we belong to each other and we're all part of each other?

I'm more interested in curing the pains of those who are in the audience than winning a philosophical debate with them. If they have a pain, if they have a difficulty, we should give it consideration. That is the main philosophy. I lived in Karachi where I saw 600,000 starving people in one place. Six Hundred Thousand starving people in one place full of opulence. Can you imagine that? Not 600,000 people in one place starving because there was a famine, but in the midst of opulence. I went mad. I've been mad ever since. It's very different when everybody is starving and there's no food around, but here there was plenty of food in the hands of a very few. Well, these people weren't Christians. The worst Christians I've known wouldn't have done that. Well, they had to change, and they did change, and the men that changed things never got much credit. No, we don't work that way. But never mind them.

"Look at Israel, according to the flesh; are not those who eat the sacrifices partakers with the altar? Why then do I affirm this? Because what is sacrificed to an image is anything, or because an image is anything? No; but because what they sacrifice they sacrifice to Demons and not to God."

That type of sacrifice is what the Hindus would call the asura state of consciousness. It is not done with any sense of feeling of divinity. It is done with a sense of, "Oh, this relieves me from my sins," and you have a good time doing it. So instead of repentance, you have a ritual in which you eat. Isn't that a wonderful way to repent? So, Jesus before that, went up and attacked the Temple. He predicted it would be destroyed and it was destroyed. And no disrespectable, let alone respectable, Jew ever wants to restore it again on the basis that it functioned at that time. They realized that the priestcraft, and things like it was wrong, historically and otherwise. They had to start their religion all over again without those institutions which Paul so much condemned, and I think rightly so.

You, too, make a game out of repentance when you make a feast out of it, and go out and buy a lot of things. I don't know which has been the worst, but in my opinion it's like taking a lot of sacrifices which you could pay for, and thinking if you gave it to something you called "God" in a ritual, you were free-or jumping into a river (certain rivers, of course) and coming out thinking you're cleansed from all your sins. You're not cleansed, of course, because a sin is something deeper than on the physical plane. It doesn't take you out of that Sea, that samsara. You're still in it. You're subject to pain, decay, birth, and death-endless rounds, unless you find a means to rise above it. That's what St. Paul was trying to teach. So in Chapter 11, he says:

"Become imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ."

Now, this is a difficult thing. We like to judge from a small amount of evidence. What is the first difference Paul had from Christ? You're going to be ashamed when I tell you. He lived longer. Jesus didn't live, Paul lived. Many people wonder what would have happened to Jesus Christ if he hadn't died as a young man or was removed. Paul lived. If Jesus Christ had lived, perhaps he would have lived as Paul did and would have been popped off the same way by the political powers. But Paul lived. Remember that. He lived.

"And, brethren, I praise you, because you have remembered all my instructions and retain the observances as I delivered them to you. But I wish you to know, that the Anointed is head of every man; and the head of woman, the man; and the head of the Anointed, God."

A friend of mine criticized Paul for the way he put woman in the church. This comes at a time also when, though my friend criticizes Paul, he also criticizes the women's liberation movement. I don't know how he can do this. The women's liberation movement has no sense of the spiritual place of women. Generally, in public institutions, the male functions above, because women's place is not in the public institutions but in the silence.

Jesus was the son of a woman who was the temple oracle, she was the daughter of a woman who was a temple oracle. They had visions and they were trained in that vision. But they didn't go out and speak. They were consulted. They had wisdom from that point of view, which in Hebrew is called Bina. If they functioned in Bina, they would reach the highest functions of their purposes. No matter what we say, occultly, women generally represent moon, and men the sun. The highest spiritually developed person I know is a woman, despite everything I say. Because Grace is beyond this.

I could tickle Father up and say, "Oh, Father's a great man. He's got this marvelous virtue, and this virtue and that virtue. And he wouldn't have any of them if it weren't for Mother. You know, Mother stood by him when the whole world was against him (and I don't mean symbolically), when he was down at the bottom." And she says, "Well, what does it matter? What does it matter." She did what St. Paul thinks a woman should do. In that way she was able to give him just what has enabled him to be your teacher and to help the world. I want other people to realize that.

I don't want a lot of phrases that your obedience to mothers is going to take you to God and all the rest of it. I don't care about phrases, but I am interested in actualities. So, we better be careful here. Someone might even ask who is the one behind Paul? Paul lived in another age. We have evolved a little since then. There's a new type of soul coming.

"For as the woman is from the man, so also the man is by the woman; but all things are from God."

When I hear discussions like the liberation of women, or the third world war, and so on, I look at them and say, "To me, I believe that all things are from God." Even the terrible things going on now. They wouldn't happen unless God permitted them.

Only I knew what was going to happen in World War II before it started. But that didn't stop me from being impatient and frightened. But I knew in the end what was going to come. And it came right. I could have blueprinted it, and in fact I did, in my poetry, which some of you read. It came at the darkest time and was rejected by everybody. And it came out exactly as it was predicted, although I'm no famous seer.

God does not leave this world without guidance. We like to say, "The people without vision perisheth," but when somebody comes along who has vision, he perisheth. After a while we find out that God always informs us.

The last time I took this matter up, it was with regard to affairs in the Near East. I sat down with a friend and discussed just exactly what was going to happen, and it happened that way. It wasn't even interesting to us because we knew exactly what was going to happen down to details, but neither one of us seemed to be much interested in the politics of it. We want to restore the Holy Land as a Holy Land, and I think this is coming. I think it's coming, despite all the leaders. The youth of the world are going to bring this about.

We must remember that communion is the most important thing here. People come to me and discuss "communes," because many communes are looking for spiritual leadership. If communes practiced communion, it would be wonderful. And if people who think they are orthodox stopped criticizing communes, that would be wonderful, too, because communion means communes.

I'm neither for nor against individual ownership or collective ownership, or family ownership or corporate ownership or co-operative ownership. I'm not an economist and I'm not a sociologist. I notice God has created all kinds of metals and that's the way He created the world. He's created all kinds of plants, and that's the way He created the world. He's created all kinds of animals; that's the way He's created the world. And He's given man potentialities for endless freedoms. When we begin to do that, instead of criticizing, we find out what we are.

Now we come to the crux of the whole series with Chapter 12. I'm going to quote only one sentence:

"And concerning spiritual persons, brethren, I wish you not to be ignorant."

In ancient times they had the greater mysteries and the lesser mysteries. Everybody was allowed to go through the lesser mysteries, was given moral instruction and learned about immortality. But this was not necessarily passing through a transmutation. They weren't necessarily born again. In the spiritual life, they passed through the transmutation and were born again. What we call spirituality represents the greater mysteries.

Of course Manley Hall can give us tremendous symbolic things, but that is not human experience. They're symbols. We are to go through human experience to understand spirituality. You're not taught about anything but this state of function. "The waking state is the superior state." Then you take up some 'grass' or chemical and experience something. Then you realize that there's more than what you learned in school, more than this one state of function. It gives you a sense of freedom; it gives you a sense of something wonderful. In the lesser mysteries, you got this feeling of immortality and the sense of something wonderful. But it was still an emotion.

When you're born again into the spiritual life, you have transcendency, you're born anew. You have a revivication, a revitalization. I met an old friend the other day after many years and what was different between the two of us? He's grown old and I haven't, because he stayed in the lesser mysteries. When you get to the greater mysteries and go through the spirituality, as Paul said, "I die daily." Revived.

I won't say in my life I die daily, but I've gone through these cycles of rebirths. They were real, absolutely real from any point of view. This body died. Three times, four times. It died, and acts like it was reborn and I'm here. Don't think this is original. If you read "The Prince of India" by Lew Wallace you'll see the same theme. Lew Wallace is famous for having given us "Ben Hur." "Prince of India" is far greater in many respects. It gives us what I call the truth, that is, the possible revitalization of the human body. When Paul said "I die daily," it wasn't symbolic: he had a revitalization. When we talk about the spirit, and we can read about the spirit both in the scriptures and anywhere else, this is the way life is. Although when we become either materialistic or egotistic, we can't study it, we can't understand it, because we're trying to describe everything in our terms instead of universal terms.

Therefore, we've got to see the spiritual world, which is tremendous, explained differently. I'm going to repeat this until we see the importance of it: Love, the importance of heart, and the importance of Compassion and Mercy. That is part of all real occult and mystical training. Otherwise, you are just a magician.

If you study science, you go to the laboratory and you repeat an experiment and get the same result someone else has. That's considered normal. The same thing is true in spiritual life. If you go through something, and you have the same experience as somebody else, that's normal. It's wonderful, but it's normal. Paul has said, "Be followers of me as I am a follower of Jesus Christ." So he was hoping you would have the same kinds of transcendent experience.

I got a letter from Eureka about 'transcendental meditation.' I'm told they're going to have 1,400 people there and they're going to build the shambala or the shangrila. That it's going on everywhere. Everybody has it, whether it's shambala or shangrila. Everywhere. And they have got a lot of people. I was down in New Mexico and a great spiritual teacher came there and 10,000 people were going to come down there. Only he used the Mao Tse Tung system of statistics. The number of people present is the number of people predicted, not the actual number of people who show up. The people aren't important. The publication of statistics, that's what's important. Of course, it didn't happen that way at all.

If you really go into Indian philosophy, the one great thing you will learn is what is called Prajna, or cosmic intuition. When you have that, you can see and feel clearly. People can lie to you or not. It doesn't mean a thing, because you will know by a process independent of words. "We have the mind of Christ." They can't fool you, but they can fool themselves.

This State is now filled with all kinds of shangrilas, and some of them may exist. But they all ignore the existence of the others. Let them have their game, because meditation, concentration, and all those Yoga practices without Love and without Compassion will fail. This is going to be the next lesson.

This is the beginning of what St. Paul said about spiritual things: Christianity has substituted the ego for spiritual attainment. That's why we have to go in another direction. The scriptures are the same. Even the prayer books are the same. But the emphasis is no longer on the self. "I'm going to be saved; I'm going to have a nice plot in the next world, when I die. Cause I said so, or because somebody promised it to me." You begin to wonder what it is about. But that's not necessary, because it is among us. I hope you will agree with me that part of our work is to bring the Kingdom of God on earth: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Q.-What is the basis of your poetry?

A.-It came through me, not by me. It's a very different thing. You know in ancient poetry Homer begins, "Sing, goddess, the wrath of Achilles.... "He lets the goddess sing through him. Ancient poetry was done that way, letting the gods speak through you, not you writing poetry. And my poetry's that way. I've felt the Divine in it not necessarily in the perfect form or level. There's all kinds of levels or superman, say. As I told you, we have the psychic levels and the spiritual levels, and quite a few before you come to the Divine level. And the Divine level is pretty rare, but not impossible at all. I have said Christ appeared to me. I can't prove it to you, but everything he ever said to me that I recorded came true. And everything's been dated in many cases. In other cases it wasn't. But all my diaries before 1949 were destroyed.

But he doesn't come around to me every day or anything of the kind. It's a rarity and it's taken very seriously. But whatever has been given to me by Him, and He has given to me, is coming true, despite all the opposition of all the people in the world. It doesn't mean a thing. Because He came to me with a message of peace for the Holy Land. And if I get killed, I won't even care because I will have done what He wanted me to do. And it's coming fine now. Big people are always opposed to it; little people are always interested in it. But I said, the man who is in charge of the peace negotiations (Gunnar Jarring) thought it was the best plan he ever heard. I didn't tell him it came from Jesus Christ.

4. Anyone interested in further information in relation to the peace plan should write to Hallelujah! The Three Rings, 589 Guerrero, San Francisco, California, 94110. The mystical basis of Murshid's vision is presented in a three-poem trilogy which presents the inner teachings of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The first poem is entitled "The Day of the Lord Cometh," a phrase from the Book of Malachi. The second poem is called "What Christ? What Peace?", and the third poem, his masterpiece, is entitled "Saladin."