Los Tres Grados en el Camino Espiritual
(Bill Skiles)
El Tercer Grado
Let’s continue our talks on the three stages of the spiritual path, with the third degree.
I think by now you are probably aware that I am covering from anywhere from two to thirty years in three or four hours; three or four talks. So you know I have only touched the surface of each one. But there should be enough information in each one of these talks to point to where you are, if you are honest with yourself and to point to some of the books that can help and what you should be looking for; what you should be doing in each degree.
But this is only a broad overview. To get into each one of these degrees in detail would take another six to ten talks each. But what I want to do here, what I hope to accomplish is to put down a road map. This has taken me over 36 years to glean this information; ferret these directions out of all of the books and talks I have come across and put them in one place so you don’t have to do that. And that is my mission in these three talks.
I think also by now you can see how discussing this with others is almost an impossibility. Someone in the first degree that says they are having a problem with their body and want to know what principles should they apply; if they say that to someone in the second degree, the person in the second degree is going to say, “Oh, you need to know about impersonalization and nothingization.” And the person with the problem in the first degree won’t understand what they are talking about.
If they say it to someone in the third degree, either that person will simply smile or they will say, “What body? What body are you talking about?” So you see there is this sort of cross communication where it does not compute. Again, that is why we learn in the second degree to keep this sacred and secret.
Now, listen to this because this is direct from Joel:
In the third degree we have to unlearn everything we have ever learned in the first and second degrees. It’s another major transition and if you are not ready for it, it will not happen to you. And so you must content yourself with staying in the second degree until you are lifted from on high. I can only report what happens in the third degree. I cannot tell you how to get there. The getting there, the preparation if there is any, is everything you do in the second degree; at the tail end of the second degree.
With that in mind, Joel had some specific talks which someone sent to me and I am so blessed to have this. I just love it. It is transcripts from the 1955 Kailua Study Group and in this particular—well, all throughout here, but in this particular talk here, he is trying to pull these students up a little higher. He’s trying to bring them to the tail end of the second degree and the beginning of the third degree.
So listen to what Joel says. But first bear in mind that in the second degree you are knowing all the truth you can remember in order to reach that place of rest in which you can make that contact. Remember?
Now here Joel is going to undo all of that. And this should point out something else to you. If you just order tapes willy-nilly, “I’ll take #18, #123, #459, #852,” you’re going to be hearing talks from all different stages, from each of these degrees. How could you possibly incorporate that? You can’t. You have to come up the way the rest of us did. That is why I am making these talks so you can find where you are, in which degree, and go from there so there are clear cut directions. So you don’t have to go through 35 years to find this stuff out, to pull a little from this talk here, that book there, this person there, that teacher there, this transcript over here. You see?
So getting back to this, he’s trying to help these people come up to the third degree and they have been knowing truth with the mind in order to reach that state of rest.
Now listen to what he says—and don’t order tapes indiscriminately and books indiscriminately any more. For those ready to move into the third degree he says:
That is the thing I would like our students from now on to learn—that all of this letter of truth is the foundation upon which you develop the ability to turn within and say, “Father give. Speak Lord, thy servant heareth.”
Now this developing is from two to twenty two years. You develop this capacity to turn within and say, “Speak Lord, thy servant hearth. Father give.”
Then whether you are helping yourself, or working for yourself or praying for yourself, turn away from all the truth you know.
See, that is a brand new approach which starts at the beginning of the third degree. I am going to read it again because I fumbled through it. Let me read it again so you can see it clearly.
That is the thing I would like our students to know from now on —that all of this letter of truth is the foundation upon which you develop the ability to turn within and say, “Speak Lord, thy servant heareth”
Then whether you are helping yourself or working for someone else, turn away from all the truth you know.
Let that truth you know be only the foundation on which you rest. But rest in it and be receptive, and let the Father within come to you with a fresh, new spontaneous impulse. And then you may get an actual message. You may get a quotation, a Scripture,a metaphysical truth, or you may get the click or release, or you may get a warmth permeating you. Whatever it is that comes, when it comes, trust it. Rely on it.
You see, he is teaching here, we must reach the place finally where we no longer rely on the truth we know. In other words, there is a problem presented to us, we realize instantly that is a mental image, we close our eyes and we don’t know any truth with the mind. Unless it’s a simple one line as in, “God is the only power so I rest.” That’s it. Then we wait, we listen, we’re receptive to an impartation from within. Because it’s not the truth you know with the mind. It’s the truth you receive from God.
So he says, after you feel that release within, that click, that Presence, Don’t think that you have to go out and shove it around or push it around to empower it. You turn from it, if necessary, turn on some music or do something else. Go out and cook a pie.
You see what I mean?
The only truth that is really truth is the spontaneous impulse of God that comes to you from within. All of the rest of it (that you spent all these years to learn) is the foundation upon which you rest.
That is the truth of being and it is a wonderful thing to remind yourself that God is the only substance or the only power. It isn’t going to heal you. Once you have quieted yourself with some of the basic premises then sit and wait and LET truth announce Itself.
Now listen.
Then you will know it’s really truth; you’ll really know it’s the word of God, and you’ll find that it is ‘quick and sharp and powerful.’ And then ultimately, as you continue to work this way, the day will come when you won’t have to sit down and go through any of the routines of remembering truth, the very moment you have a call, your ear will open like this and in will rush whatever truth you need at that moment.
You see that? He’s taking everythingthat you’ve learned in the second degree and the first degree; he’s wiping all of that out now. He’s saying all of that has to be let go of. We’re going to take a new approach in this third degree and that is that none of the truth we know is Truth.
All of the truth that you know with the mind isn’t Truth. Only that spontaneous impulse from God is Truth. So here in the third degree we are unlearning the old way we meditated and learning a new way. And here in 1955, he was taking this class up a step higher from the second degree. And that is not the only thing we have to unknow. This is a major, major transition from the second degree to the third degree. That is why it’s a very serious initiation. We have to unlearn everything we have ever learned, not just some of it.
In the third degree we have learned to go within, become still, simply to enter the Silence. Yes, that is a note I made for myself for this talk. You see, in the other two degrees, the first and the second degree, we became still in order to practice the principles which would meet this problem or demonstrate some good; which would dissolve error and reveal harmony. But here in the third degree we are now entering meditation for no reason whatsoever.
It is really strange but here in the third degree we are learning to rely on absolute nothingness. That is why it is called the Infinite Invisible. Here we let go of every prop that we ever had in place and it can be scary. That is why it’s valuable to have a teacher and some teachings near by that say; yes, yes, you are on the right path.
So here he is telling us to rely on no words and no thoughts because none of that that we learned in those 22 years is truth. The only thing that is truth comes from this Infinite Invisible as a spontaneous impartation from within.
And we learn to meditate for no reason whatsoever, not wanting anything. Just simply to enter the silence. Yes, here in the third degree we enter meditation only to enter the Silence and experience communion.
We are now not so much interested in demonstrating anything. We are interested only in communion with the Infinite Divine Consciousness, with the Father within, with that Infinite Invisible, with the nothingness which is All.
***There are several books that deal specifically with the third degree such as, “Consciousness Is What I Am”, “The Thunder of Silence”, “The Mystical I”, “Leave Your Nets”, and “The Infinite Way” to name a few. Strange how “The Infinite Way” was one of the books dealing with this third degree and yet it was the first book. The reason for that is that Joel was living in the third degree and is living there and beyond, when that book was written; when that book poured through and when the entire Infinite Way was started—that came out of a consciousness in the third degree. So you can see why he doesn’t recommend that as one of the first books you pick up because he recognizes that.
Now, I want you to listen to a couple of things from some of these books we mentioned, so that you may see the difference between what we were doing in the first degree, the second degree and now here in the third degree. We ended the last talk by saying that in the third degree we realized that we have to die completely to a personal sense of self. And do you see how this recommendation, this suggestion by Joel, that we come up higher in our meditation, is dying to a personal sense of self? Sure, because it is dying to a personal sense of truth that you know in order to experience that impersonal Presence.
And do you see how entering meditation for communion and no other reason, is dying to a personal sense of self that would want to get something from meditation? This whole third degree is all about dying to a personal sense of self so that Christ may live Itself.
And so in “Consciousness Is What I Am”, that is what he starts to cover. He says:
We should ask ourselves: “How do I ‘die’? What did Paul mean by ‘dying daily’? Is there such a process as ‘dying daily’? Is there such a process as being reborn of the Spirit? If there is, let me get busy with it right now. Let me see if I can find out how to ‘die.’ Let me see if I can find out how to be reborn and stop quoting passages.”
You see, he is trying to lift us above what? A personal sense of the mind, a personal sense of truth.
There is a way to “die daily.”
It isn’t easy for you and it isn’t easy for me; it isn’t easy for anyone. We can all think of some of the problems that face us and see how “I” is involved in every problem, an “I” so limited in power and wisdom that it cannot solve or heal it. Now let us consider what would happen to the problem if the only I involved were God, and in our meditation ask ourselves: “Would there be such a problem if there were not a ‘me’? Would there be such a condition if ‘I’ were out of the way? Would I be in such a dilemma if the entire thing were up to God?”
In that way we will gradually come to see that there is no problem except what concerns the sense of I as a person. If we take away that personal sense of “I” and let I be God, then what happens to the problem?
And so here in the third degree it is all about lifting us up above the mind, above a personal sense of self. The third degree is for those who are ready to ascend up over the human mind. It is a very deep experience. It cannot be—well, if you are a person in the first degree and you stumble into a book store and you pick up “Beyond Words and Thoughts”, and you start reading about truth unveiled, where he talks about ascending up over the mind, it is not going to make any sense. You’re not going to be able to do that. You’re just not going to be able to do it. It takes preparation, from two to twenty two years. Please don’t take this lightly. I am very serious about this.
Here in the third degree you are going to undo everything you have done—everything—over the last twenty two years or however long it has taken you to come to the end of the second degree. And so he is teaching us how to ascend up over a personal sense of self which is what dying is all about.
Now, here in “The Thunder of Silence” he says,
To heal, it is necessary to transcend thought.
There it is again. How to come up over that human mind, which is the only place where hypnotism appears.
To heal, it is necessary to transcend thought. Even though a meditation begins as contemplation of truth, it must, before the healing is accomplished, rise into the higher realm of silent awareness.
Do you hear this, those of you that are ready? Do you hear this? We must leave that place where we are knowing truth with the mind. We must set that aside, all of it.
Yes it is legitimate to say “This is a nothingness. Let me close my eyes. Now God you speak.” That’s legitimate. But that is all; that is enough. Oh yes, you can use other words. You can say something like, “This is hypnotism. God is the substance of all. Speak Lord.” It doesn’t matter, just a sentence or two.
The point is that you are practicing coming up over that mind, the mind which knows the truth, in order that you may have this beautiful experience that he calls ‘silent awareness.’ Oh, that is beautiful. Gosh, that is just lovely. Because that is what it is, a silent awareness. Over all these twenty two years, you have been pouring truth and truth statements into the mind; and scripture and realizations and you’ve been pouring and pouring them in there, now the mind becomes a different kind of faculty because in the third degree, it becomes an avenue of awareness.
You see how, way back in the first degree, if you have been reading along one of these books and you read the mind is an avenue of awareness, you wouldn’t understand that. No way could you grasp that. It is not until you get to the third degree that you understand, through the experience of coming up over that mind, what it is like to be so still that you are in a state of silent awareness.
So, to continue:
At the beginning of a healing meditation a passage of truth, such as, “Henceforth know we no man after the flesh,” may come into our thought. But after looking at that, thought begins to slow down as we ponder the meaning of knowing no man after the flesh; good flesh or bad flesh; henceforth know we no man after good flesh or bad flesh; henceforth know we no man as sick or well, rich or poor; henceforth know we only God appearing as individual spiritual man.
Here it is again. Listen to me. This is all tied together. The belief in good and evil, the only place it exists is in the mind and so knowing truth with that same mind is not going to fix it. No, when you ascend up over that mind, you have just come out of the belief in good and evil. Now you have a silent awareness of God appearing as individual spiritual man or spiritual identity. This is an actual experience that happens to you here in the third degree. That is why here, you become aware of what man is.