From Spiritual Knowledge to Immortality: To Live to Die to Live Another Day

By William Stansmore

This work is an attempt to re-establish the importance of absolute values in a world where such values re becoming increasingly irrelevant, and the necessity of preserving those immutable and self evident truths upon witch was established our nation's framework and foundation. To this end I propose to establish in the field of education a curriculum of the civilizing arts, who's purpose is to clarify and strengthen the original commitments witch underlie and empower the United States Constitution and Declaration of Independance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664180710

William Stansmore

Formal Education: BA Brown University Masters of Divinity (M.Div) Yale Divinity School Ph.D Trinity College, Cambridge University, England Informal Education: Esoteric & Historical Studies, from Rudolph Steiner's work on spiritual science to Stonehenge and Glastonbury, England. All things that give reflections of eternity and immortality.

Book preview

THE CALL OF THE COSMOS

O ut of ignorance, out of longing, out of pain

Out of impatience, frustration and self-disdain

I called upon my God: my life is yours to take

In the image of your Being, O Lord, myself remake

F orge all that I am into one bright sword

Making Thy will and mine one in accord

Focus my flame, channel my power

Thine everlasting from this hour

T hen softer than silence a voice came to me

The Ineffable Light beyond land and sea

It calmed my mind, my heart grew still

And with steadfast purpose my soul did fill

‘I accept the life you have given to Me

By that act of giving you are born again free

It is no longer yours to give to another

For to all the world you have become a brother

I will forge that sword and temper its steel

My thoughts your will think, My feelings feel

My will shall be your will, My purpose clear

To build a world of love, a world without fear’

B rightness, brightness from heaven streaming

The call is rejoice, rejoice in redeeming

And when I gaze with awe upon that heavenly stream

Upon the power to heal, sorrow and pain to redeem

T hen wonder and compassion transform my attitude

And the call of the cosmos is one of gratitude

‘I thank you God, for love and caring

I thank you God for timeless sharing

F or moments of light, for moments of tears

For moments of laughter that flow beyond years

Beauty, love and joy have I known

Richer by far with these have I grown

W hen the Spirit flows through us we embrace the world

God’s love streams forth like a banner unfurled

Like quicksilver coursing through the veins

Light and joy sing forth their celestial refrains

I touch the eternal, I commune with light,

I see each man with God’s inner sight

I read within each questing mind

The yearning for wisdom to define

I reach within and touch each heart

It warms the world and pain departs

I look within to see the glory of each soul

Radiant in its striving from goal to goal

S o much have you given, what can I give?

Teach me, O Lord, what it is to live’

Then softer still the voice replied:

‘Heal My wounds and stand by My Side

T he cruelties of this world transform

Only then to all life may I be reborn

Take unto yourself the Cosmic Light

Be to others a beacon, steady and bright

L et that light shine forth both near and far

Let the earth become brilliant, fixed like a star

For My fate is tied to your fate, to that of all men

Only as mankind paves the way can I come again

F ire the lamps that will tell the story

Let each light the way with paths of glory

O Spirit unconquerable, O world without end

Brotherhood reigns, all life is a friend

T here is no ending, there is no finality

An infinity of infinities, that is reality

Beyond the highest mountain, beyond the farthest sun

My Light and Love stream forth, touching everyone’

ALZHEIMER’S

I would have you remember, my darling

As darkness approaches and memory dims

That image of hope caught up on the words

Of Albert Camus, that you so loved and taught

T hose bright young minds that defined your life:

Great ideas sometimes slip into the world as gently as doves,

That beyond the tumult and the striving

Of lives and nations and fading thoughts

There lies, enshrined in light eternal

An all transforming love

A s you struggle in that battle of polar opposites:

Clarity and confusion

Cognition and incoherence

Intellect and indifference

R emember, my precious one

That you are never alone

But borne up by the soft flutter of wings

In beauty, power and supernal love

——Dedicated to my wife, Linda

THE NATURAL ORDER: THE

BLUEPRINT FOR THE NEW AGE

Diagram

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Peace on Earth, which men of every era have so eagerly yearned for can be firmly established only if the order laid down by God is dutifully observed (Pacem in Terris, April 11, 1963).

This encyclical of Pope John XXIII is unique, for it is addressed not only to all members of the Catholic Church, but the whole world and to all men of goodwill. It is timely because it speaks of order in a world whose problems are essentially those of disorder. Unfortunately, the nature of that order and the purpose of its revelation have not been given to us in this encyclical.

It is our contention that there does exist a Natural Order, an order which has historically been referred to as a natural one. And that there will truly never be peace in the world until humankind is made aware of, understands, and ultimately conforms to that order. In the light of experience, two conclusions may be observed:

a. History attests to the sensitivity of men to the existence of this order.

b. That sensitivity has been intelligently nullified.

It is our intention to present the nature of the Natural Order to indicate why our sensitivity to that order has been nullified, and to demonstrate the means by which that order may become universally known. Therefore:

It is the purpose of this work .

1. to reveal the nature of the Natural Order, to describe its structure, and to indicate the forces, forms, and functions with which it is endowed.

2. to demonstrate that the self-evident truths enumerated in our nation’s Declaration of Independence are the clearest representation of that order, and that the Constitution of the United States provides the means and practices by which that order may be attained.

3. to indicate why our sensitivity to the Natural Order has been nullified.

4. to understand why we, as a people, find ourselves in the state we are today and how we were diverted from the path upon which our Founding Fathers set this nation.

5. to introduce into the world of education a curriculum of the civilizing arts, by means of which the Natural Order may be known, our sensitivity to that order regained, and our nation once again set upon the path it was destined to pursue.

6. To establish once again America’s greatness in the eyes of the free world and demonstrate, by its example, those moral virtues and spiritual principles that form the basis of freedom and global destiny.

To this end, we will first present the diagram of the Natural Order and ask you to consider this diagram to be the body of the structure. We will explore the nature of this body and the various elements of which it is composed. This is important, for within this structure, we will attempt to fit human thoughts, feelings, and actions. This involves far more than just acknowledging the labels we have put on the diagram. It involves even more than our putting together a curriculum of the civilizing arts. It involves the actual participation of each person to empower the diagram in a way that will be described.

This brings us to the heart of the Natural Order, its forms, functions, and forces that will make this structure not just a pictorial representation but also a living entity. It is here that we ask each observer to become an active part in this process by immersing their thoughts, feelings, and will into the very heart of the structure, thereby internalizing those forms, functions, and forces, and empowering them to act within each individual.

This is a process that involves considerable work, but the results of such an effort can be infinitely rewarding. For in no better way can an intuitive understanding of the Natural Order be made known. For the Natural Order represents a reality wherein every perfection is incorruptibly contained. It is timeless and eternal, representing that ideal state toward which humankind should ultimately strive to attain. The diagram of the Natural Order indicates that if the world of nature is an expression of God, then this shows the relation of man to that world as its reciprocal. It is like looking into a mirror, and this explains the phrase from the Bible to the effect that man was made in the image of God.

The state of nature, represented by the cube, is one of fixity and invariance. It automatically conforms to the Natural Order because it is not free to do otherwise.

The state of man, the individual, and of humankind as a whole, is represented by the octahedron. It is flexible, with the possibility of endless variations. It is subject to no external compulsion to conform to the Natural Order. Thus, man is the only earthly creature we know to possess free will.

Man is at the center of the structure. The forces of justice and equity allow man to grow. They push into the center, giving him the freedom to create. They encourage man to extend outward in his search for truth and the creation of a better state. They expand his being and his attainment of wealth and wisdom in their broadest contexts.

As man nurtures justice and equity in the hearts of all men, so will the wealth and wisdom of the world be magnified. As the disciplines of arts, sciences, philosophy, and religion are probed, so will the integrated nature of truth become more fully revealed.

This searching for integrated truth is the responsibility of each individual. It is mankind’s further responsibility and fundamental purpose to work with other dedicated individuals in the creation of a state, a body politic, out of his own free will in conformity with the Natural Order.

Education is the means to understanding and implementing the Natural Order. A curriculum of the civilizing arts can give new life, new purpose and direction to the field of education. The purpose of the curriculum is to provide unification and integration of all the factors and interrelationships to be found in education, industry, the marketplace, and government. Such a curriculum can relate all fields of knowledge in a common bond of understanding. The following diagrams should prove helpful:

The Civilizing Arts: Ownership, stewardship, scholarship, statesmanship (pp. 9–12)

The Components of the Diagram of the Natural Order

Planes: Rights (vertical), duties (vertical), energy (horizontal), (p. 8)

The planes constitute realms or areas. They are squares, indicating physical confinement, but capable of expansion and contraction depending on the extent to which they conform to the Natural Order.

Vertices: Of which there are three: wealth, equity, wisdom, justice.

The state, in which these are reflected.

The church, or truth, from which the disciplines are derived. These represent the aggregates resulting from the use of man’s energies for the exercise of their rights and the performance of their duties.

Edges: Of which there are twelve. They represent the energies and activities in which men find it necessary to indulge in order to meet their needs to produce wealth, equity, wisdom, and justice.

Diagonals: Of which there are three. They find their sources in man, who is to be found at the center of the structure. They represent the six directions that men follow as the result of the impact of their energies from the disciplines they are subject to and on the institutions they develop as a response to the needs that dominate their lives.

Surfaces: Of which there are eight. Four are directed by man toward the church and truth in pursuit of the following disciplines: the arts, sciences, philosophy, and religion. Four are directed by man, as a result of the disciplines, toward the state in the form of industry, the marketplace, education, and government. The surfaces represent areas of order and the balance.

Truth: Represents the subjective effort of the individual, the end result of adhering to the disciplines: the attainment of truth.

The State: The objective result, the total value of wealth, equity, wisdom, and justice working together in harmony.

Wealth: The means to production, the outcome of the experience of man’s right to earn.

Equity: The outcome of the performance of man’s duty to ensure the fairness of wages and prices in the marketplace.

Wisdom: The outcome of the exercise of man’s right to learn.

Justice: The outcome of the administration of those values to which men are consistently called upon to respond.

It is fundamental in the development of the state that the disciplines be adhered to in order to:

1. Justify the possession of rights, 2. Properly discharge duties, and 3. Direct energies in the interest of pursuing and making manifest the Natural Order.

The Heart of the Natural Order

We have seen the structure of the Natural Order to be a mental construct, a guide to integrating knowledge through the mind. The heart of the Natural Order is the spirit, which makes it a living force flowing from the heart of the Creator to all that live. Its validity will be attested to by those who can relate to it at their deepest levels of thought, feeling, and will.

This is the key, a proper understanding of the power of integrated thought, feeling, and will. For it is these very attributes of man that allow him to relate directly to the life force of the Natural Order as expressed through its forms, functions, and forces.

Our thoughts bring forms into being. Our feelings relate to the functions that these forms create. Our will activates the forces that energize the structure. This is how an understanding of the Natural Order is brought into being. It cannot be looked at through the intellect alone. It must be inspired through feelings and activities by the will. For those who meditate upon this structure correctly and allow its forces to flow into all aspects of their being, there will be a consistent understanding of the correctness portrayed in this structure of the Natural Order.

Those who allow these forces of intellect, feeling, and will to work most strongly in their inner being will see beyond this pictorial representation. They will activate within themselves the forms, functions, and forces of the Natural Order, and will be able to extend it to any particular field of interest. Interrelationships will be made clear, and the desire to put them to practical application will be strengthened. Above all, there will be uniformity to which all men can relate and upon which they can build.

Plato was well aware of the nature of forms. Perhaps we can extend that awareness to include functions and forces. It does not seem too much to ask in the period of time that has elapsed between his life and ours. We have had numerous societies to experiment with over the past two thousand years. To this end, we will explore ways in which these states of feeling and will can activate the functions and forces that make up our daily lives.

But first I would like to examine a subject with which we are all familiar, a subject that will make these interrelationships of thinking, feeling, and willing—as well as forms, functions, and forces—much clearer. This is the subject of good and evil. It lies at the heart of all our problem.

Good and Evil

We have stated that this idealized representation of the Natural Order reflected the state of man before the Fall, and that our Founding Fathers were intuitively aware of this. The course of history was made up of men and women who were determined to prove themselves not the reciprocal of their Creator but the duplicate thereof. Thus, the divine right of kings and all that went along with that kind of thinking came into being. The problem was how to set up a government and still protect the people from the very government they brought into being.

In the course of this work, we will attempt to demonstrate that the self-evident truths enumerated in our country’s Declaration of Independence were a clear representation of the Natural Order, and that the Constitution of the United States provided the means and practices by which that order could have been attained and preserved.

In the course of doing this, we hope to come to some understanding as to why we, as