Divine Carelessness, Part 1
Question: Isn’t carelessness, or apparent carelessness, always a bad thing? Shouldn’t we always proceed with calculation – knowing we are taking the direction of our best interests? Can carelessness really be divine in some cases?
DK uses this phrase twice in his voluminous writings and gives little explanation of its meaning. Even so, when I first came across it my mind was quite captivated by such a provocative statement and I reflected upon it periodically. As I reflected, I saw much more meaning that he gave out on the subject, but first let us look at what he did write about it.
Quote Number One: “See to it that during the next nine months you preserve an attitude of spiritual indifference or of divine carelessness and emotional detachment.” (Alice Bailey “Discipleship in the New Age,” Vol 1, Page 522)
Here he gives a different twist to the meaning that would appear on the surface. This quote indicates that Divine Carelessness in this context is not being reckless, but carefree. And how should the disciple be carefree?
He needs to be detached from overdue influence of his emotional feelings so he is not weighted down with the cares of the world, his loved ones and his own needs. If he is able to detach himself from these emotional cares, he can be careless in that he is free from cares that hinder his progress.
This is one aspect of divine carelessness.
But it was the second aspect that captured my imagination as hinted at in this second quote:
“Others again are lovely in themselves with a high and sweet vibration but they are weak and full of fear, sorrowful or weighed down with care; they have to be taught the way of strength and of divine carelessness before their service can measure up to demand.” (Alice Bailey, “Discipleship in the New Age,” Vol 1, Page 371)
This quote indicates a more extended meaning. Two hints at this are given. First, he tells us the seeker who needs this quality is he who is “weak and full of fear, sorrowful or weighed down with care.”
Secondly, he tells us that Divine Carelessness is “the way of strength.”
This brings to my mind much more meaning that a carefree attitude, even though that may be part of it. I see the idea that the disciple must sometimes act in a way that the majority will see as careless. The disciple will at times find himself at a crossroads, and if he takes the path least traveled by, he will forge along a path of peril, but if successful will end up reaping the greater reward.
The parable of Decision in the first Immortal book illustrates this principle. One path led to heaven and the other to hell and none of the four knew which was which. In order to proceed the seeker had to be divinely careless for he was previously taught that hell was a place of eternal misery.
Those who proceeded had to take a chance, but it turned out that the real hell was suffered by the two who played it safe and were weighed down by care.
One of the main reasons the disciple must acquire the quality of Divine Carelessness is to overcome the Beast that has so much power in the major religions and nowhere does it have more power than in the Mormon Church.
As most of you know I was quite active in the church in my younger days. I took it very seriously from the ages of 13-33 — a period of twenty years.
Many who have not been captivated by an authoritarian religion have difficulty in grasping the hold it can have and how difficult it is to break free. Let me explain why the obtaining of freedom from the Beast of authority is particularly difficult in the LDS Church.
There are two major reasons for this.
First the church has a number of teachings that are a step further into the light than had by the typical Christian church. A student of metaphysics may see such as kindergarten, but in relation to the other churches they possess several teachings given by Joseph Smith that are seen as true by the seekers. Some of these are:
[1] We not only live after death, but we lived before birth. We are eternal beings.
[2] There is no burning in hell as taught by standard Christianity. Any state of hell is temporary.
[3] There is a continuity of progression in this universe rather than a stagnate heaven where nothing changes.
[4] Babies are innocent and are not born in sin and the innocent will not be punished for that which they do not understand.
[5] Works are necessary for our progression. Just proclaiming a belief in Jesus doesn’t do much to save you.
[6] Revelation did not end with the Bible but is available to people of this age just as much as it was in Bible days.
[7] The God who guides us, the Ancient of Days, was once a mortal human like ourselves and there are millions of such beings in the Universe. We can eventually achieve this god-like state.
The second reason that seekers are captivated is the members of the church are told to pray and receive confirmation of the Book of Mormon and other writings and teachings of the church.
Now the interesting thing is that soul contact through prayer can lead to greater captivity before the truth makes him free. Here is why.
The soul only verifies that which is true for it speaks in the language of principles and pure truth. When the seeker therefore prays about doctrines he has studied, the soul will send verification that certain principles are true. For instance, my own soul verified all the seven doctrines above to me.
Here is what this does to the seeker. Once he receives verification that certain principles are true he just assumes the whole package is true which includes a concept that is taught and stressed more than any other in the church which is this:
The prophet is the supreme authority and will never lead the church astray. The worst sin one can commit is to openly rebel against the prophet and the authorities of the church. If you surrender and obey, all will be well, but once you receive the light and then go against the brethren you are in dangerous territory indeed.
The interesting thing about this dangerous territory is this. One of the attractive things about the Mormon theology is that it goes easy on unbelievers and standard sinners. Instead of burning in an eternal hell they are told that eternal punishment is not really eternal, but eternal is one of the names of God so any punishment set up by God is eternal, but the time it will last is limited. Basically, the teaching is that when one learns his lesson the punishment will end and the person will go on with his progression. Then too, the punishment is not to burn in fire but a lot of it comes from dwelling with other unsavory characters in the afterlife.
The good part of this doctrine is that it appeals to reason and mind. After all, why would a loving parent like God throw any of his children into burning painful fire for eternity? That does not make any sense to any thinking person who is a parent himself.
Now what is interesting is that Mormon doctrine goes relatively easy on all sinners except one class. These are those who sin against the Holy Ghost. The seriousness of such a sin has extra credibility because it is mentioned by Jesus in the Bible:
“Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” (Matthew 12:31 & 32)
Now the Mormons define this sin against the Holy Ghost as going against a confirmation of truth one has received from the Spirit as, for instance, happened to Judas when he betrayed Jesus even though he knew he was the Christ.
“And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
“And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?
“And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.
“Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.” Matthew 26:21-25
Note that this sin was so great that it is better to not be born than to deny the Holy Spirit.
Now here is where it gets interesting. The one seeming example of a sin against the Holy Ghost is when Judas rebels against the divine representative of God on the earth. Even so, it is thought in the church that the worst sin one can commit is to go against the words of the Mormon prophet, the assumed current divine representative on the earth. Many in the church thus see those who are excommunicated for nonconformance as being the modern-day Judases that will experience a similar punishment.
Exactly what is that punishment? The Mormon scriptures give additional details and they are pretty scary.
“That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him; Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands, except those sons of perdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed him. Wherefore, he saves all except them–they shall go away into everlasting punishment, which is endless punishment, which is eternal punishment, to reign with the devil and his angels in eternity, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched, which is their torment—
“And the end thereof, neither the place thereof, nor their torment, no man knows; Neither was it revealed, neither is, neither will be revealed unto man, except to them who are made partakers thereof; Nevertheless, I, the Lord, show it by vision unto many, but straightway shut it up again;
“Wherefore, the end, the width, the height, the depth, and the misery thereof, they understand not, neither any man except those who are ordained unto this condemnation.” Doctrine and Covenants (D&C) 76:42-48
And who are the ones who will suffer this condemnation so great that it cannot be put into words? It is assumed it will be those who are excommunicated for not endorsing all the teachings and directions of the authorities of the church.
Consequently, when the standard Mormon gets a little curious and begins to give some clues that he is unorthodox in his thinking other members will often make statements to him like the following:
“You are entering into dangerous territory, brother. Just follow the prophet and forget about these other thoughts.”
“Stay away from the mysteries. If God wants us to know any of them he will reveal them through the prophet. If you get something and teach it that runs contrary to the teachings of the church you are in great danger my friend.”
“Stay with the simple things like faith, baptism and repentance. If you delve into more than this you may find yourself in rebellion against God.”
“Just follow the prophet and you will be safe. He will never lead you astray.”
When I was in the church, I was amazed at how many times I was told not to “delve.” “Delve” was a major swear word in the church. Nothing was seen as being more sinful than to delve into any deep meaning behind most anything.
It is interesting that this attitude runs completely contrary to many Mormon scriptures. Here is just one of them from the Book of Mormon:
“For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.” 1 Nephi 10:19
The bottom line is that regular members give full preference to the advice of the authorities over the injunctions in their scriptures and are terrified to even entertain the thought that their minds may be in rebellion against the church and the prophet. They think that if they get any revelation at all it will only be to confirm something already agreed upon by the prophet. If they get anything at odds with the church then it probably came from the devil in an attempt to make them cross the lines toward the unpardonable sin.
Consequently, the seekers in the LDS church are in a very difficult situation. If they seek revelation through the spirit and start receiving anything that is not recognized by the authorities as being true, most become frightened that they may be in great danger if they entertain such thoughts.
But here is what really scares the beJesus out of them. If they meet someone like me and I teach them a few things, and if anything I say that seems unorthodox makes any sense to them they become concerned that they may be heading toward the unpardonable sin and totally shut down and never want to see me again.
Other brave souls will entertain a few unorthodox teachings with the idea that as long as they stay in the church and support the prophet all will be well. These people lead a somewhat dual life. They do some exploring, but keep their deep doctrines to themselves and project within the church the image of an orthodox member.
A third category is those who become disenchanted with the authorities, but not authority itself. These become convinced that the true authority from God does not reside with the orthodox Mormon prophet, but some other prophet who heads some splinter group. This leaning on authority gives some courage to break off, but often to no gain, for they exchange one Beast of authority for another. And the new power of the Beast is usually worse than the first.
A fourth category is those who receive definite truths through the soul and are willing to stand up for them for truth’s sake, even if it means being excommunicated. The number of these individuals are few for these are they who have found the “way of strength” mentioned by DK. These are they who have discovered Divine Carelessness.
Now this fourth category is found in all authoritative churches and systems, but in this case, I am speaking from the Mormon perspective since I have gone through this system and the authoritative hold is so intense.
Most who are excommunicated from the church have tried to keep their thoughts secret and were just caught and forced out. Only a few take a risk that is almost sure to get them in trouble. These are they who are divinely careless and who will obtain the greatest spiritual reward, for they acted on true courage.
Why is it that that few fit into this last category? I know the answer from personal experience. After I was excommunicated, I made many attempts to enlighten my Mormon friends and many found what I taught to be of great interest. But then when it came down to taking any action that would reveal their thoughts to the authorities they said something like this to me:
“If you are right and there is reincarnation and we receive many chances to progress then I am not in grave danger to stay in the church. If I am mistaken, I will be born again and eventually make corrections. On the other hand, if the authorities of the church are right and I embrace your teachings I may become a son of perdition and suffer endless torment with the devil and his angels.
“If there is even one chance in a thousand that the church is right in this then it is too risky to take the chance of receiving such a terrible judgment from God.”
These people are like Nicodemus who came to Christ “at night” when the authorities could not detect him. He was afraid the authorities would discover his interest and then exclude him from the kingdom of God. He was afraid to be divinely careless and never received a fullness of the spiritual light.
Here is my story in a nutshell pieced together from the archives:
I made the mistake of “searching the scriptures” and discovered some interesting things therein which are not a part of standard doctrine. One of the rather innocent things I discovered at the time is that there is progression from kingdom to kingdom in the spirit realms, not just within the kingdoms as the church teaches.
I wrote a short paper on it, but had a problem in that I had no one to share it with. Then my nephew visited for a time and I told him some of my thoughts and shared my writings with him. He became convinced and was very enthused about it. I told him to be very careful about whom he showed it to or he could get in trouble with the authorities, but he didn’t seem worried about it.
He went to his home ward and began teaching the doctrine in Priesthood class and showed the writing to his Elder’s Quorum President. He felt the doctrine was harmless and no one would object. Shortly thereafter he was ushered into the bishop’s office and within a few days a full blown trial was scheduled with the high council. When he learned that the only witnesses that he could have were members in good standing he thought of me.
He called and asked me to defend him at his trial.
I told him that if I did, I would probably be excommunicated too and may lose my wife and kids.
He said: “You got me into this, now you must help get me out.”
I sighed and told him I would be there.
I went to his trial with my friend Wayne who was an inactive member, but still an Elder. They were not going to let us in to testify, but using every coercion at our disposal we elbowed our way in and gave our testimonies on his behalf, but of course it fell on deaf ears.
Shortly afterwards, the transcript was sent to headquarters.
As I was waiting for a response from Salt Lake I wrote these words: “At this moment I am still a recognized good stalwart member of the Church. I just got back a few minutes ago from doing my home teaching. My family and I attend all the meetings every week. We have always tried to do whatever was required of us. However, my wife does not support me in this my thinking. She thinks the devil has deceived me. I risk the possibility of losing her and my beautiful children which thing causes my heart to sink as much as anything in this world can affect me, but the Lord has testified to me that the things that I write are true and my knowledge is as the perfect day, even though as a man I am one of the weak things of the world. I suppose the day is not far distant that I shall be called up for trial before my friends who shall be aghast to find out what I have written, but I am prepared and the spirit shall be with me and hearts will be touched.”
Shortly after this a trial was ordered for me. When they discovered through interrogation that I believed several things that were not part of regular church doctrine the council composed of lifelong friends excommunicated me.
The interesting thing is that they had to violate their own rules to throw us out for we, both my nephew and I, were obeying all the rules of the church.
I did not have to expose myself and defend my Nephew, but I embraced divine carelessness, took the risk of divine retribution and moved forward.
To be continued.
Go forward with courage, hope and joy, plus understanding, my brother. Train those who work with you with painstaking care, for much depends upon them. Remember always that you do not work alone. DK, Discipleship in the New Age, Vol 1, Pg 173
May 12, 2007
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