Essay 20: THE WHITE STONE OF KNOWING

“The choice to know or to suppose is mine and yours.” (Esoteric Philosophy page 77:3)

As the prophecy and promise contained in the Revelation begin to unfold through the testimony of St. John, “signs and wonders” abound. One of particular significance is introduced in Rev. 2:17 with “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” With this powerful promise, we as Initiates are provided with everything required to make our Homeward journey and live by our True Names.

“He who has an ear” are those of us who are no longer attuned to the cacophony of worldly matters, but hear only the Voice of the Master in all things. “What the Spirit says to the churches” is the unmitigated breath of Truth, stripping away dogma, doctrines, beliefs, and ideas that, through the ages, have wrapped around the Immortal Mind Presence, eternally waiting upon our true recognition of It. “The one who conquers” are those that steadfastly “look toward” First Cause and can say with Christ Jesus, “I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Overcoming in the way that Jesus declares exposes in us a receptivity, trust, and acceptance to Substance, “the hidden manna” that is our heritage when reunited with Original Mind. Our individualized Christhood is fully realized and revealed with that symbol of the “white stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” This is our white stone of Knowing, the touchstone by which our Christ brings forth and fulfills the promised Second Coming.

Knowing is unlike other states of consciousness in that it is absolute and exalted in every way. Knowing is beyond belief. Knowing is beyond ideas. Knowing is beyond thought. Knowing is both free and freeing when transmitted. When we relinquish our insistence on thinking, thereby “unearthing” our true consciousness, we become meek and surrendered to the very core of our being. What is exposed is Knowing, the touchstone of all Creation.

Every belief system brings with it dogma and doctrine, a set of exhaustible ideas of what God is and what we are in relationship to It. Beliefs are always a mixture of human ego and Original Mind, destined to run their course and give way to something else that may or may not contain greater Truth and an expanded experience of Reality. Knowing never moves, it is never qualified and there is nothing to explain, justify, or oppose It; It simply IS. Knowing is the certainty, the authenticity and the all-inclusive Ideal that eclipses even what we understand about faith. Knowing allows the “let it be” to be revealed in us, just as it was in Jesus. Knowing is the assayer of Truth in the world.

In the physical world, elements, matter, and substances are tested and certified in a myriad of processes and procedures; their truth and not-truth are established by such methods. In ancient times, the idea of the “touchstone” described this process in stories, lore, and indeed in fact. As below, so it is above, and it is the touchstone of Being that certifies Truth and reveals Reality on earth. When Knowing is active, all else is dissolved and that which is “beyond belief” is brought forth. Jesus brought forth this infallible Knowing countless times and we call those miracles.

The white stone of Knowing restores our native innocence, our Divine Heritage of purity, wisdom, and power, our meekness. As a result, we test and certify all that we see, hear, touch, and experience by this Divine Standard finding that the world, conditions, and circumstances are, at once, of no Reality but perfected by our inner touchstone. “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matt. 5:5)

Upon close examination, we are likely to find that every belief system has its origin in the world. Family, race, culture, society, and other earthly influences forge belief systems of every kind. We can and do personalize certain belief systems, but, at best, we end up with a mixture, a combination of Heaven and earth. Beliefs are doctrinal by nature, and each one has a “shelf-life” in the consciousness of those who seek only a demonstration of Truth. Knowing circumvents all earthly matters, has no connection to time, history, expectations, or conditions. One could say that beliefs show forth as relative truth, where Knowing brings forth from Absolute Truth.

Beliefs are the very seat of our judgements, our opinions, our condemnations, and even our imaginations. Knowing has no such connection or attachment. Emma tells us that “when mind touches the Absolute, it becomes a radiant thing.” (Esoteric Philosophy, Pg. 73:1) Contact with the Absolute is our touchstone, our white stone of Knowing. When this occurs, when we surrender our minds into Immortal Mind, beliefs of every kind dissolve, and we are bound to them no more. The simplicity of Knowing reveals Cause, exposes meekness, and announces the Christ in each one of us. “Thus it is promised that whatsoever once lays itself on the One Rock of fire nigh the touch of thoughts, nigh the touch of the fingers, shall henceforth be undefeatable.” (Esoteric Philosophy, Pg. 73:5)

Only that which is relative can die or be changed. That which is Known cannot change and cannot perish. The “matter mind” in us dissolves and dies so that the Mind that Knows, changeless, timeless, and infallible, is restored through our Sacred Heart to full command. Without mixture or suppositions, the Knowing Mind brings forth as God, as Christ in us. That which dies was never Real; that which Lives is eternal and vibrant. “Therefore, breathe ye people, breath yourselves to death that God may live in you and through you and by you and for you.” (Esoteric Philosophy, Pg. 74:3)

When we see into our Knowing, we become willing to “lay down our lives for our friend.” The life that dies is the life of ideas, concepts, beliefs, and doctrine. The Real Life of Knowing is not a life that we control or rationalize, but simply allow. It is the Life of our friend, the Present and Imminent Christ living through us, as us, in loving command.

As we make our spiritual journey home, Knowing awaits our return, the buried treasure of our consciousness. We begin this journey supposing ignorance, seeing nothing but the world and the hypnosis of matter. As we move along our path, we begin to think, developing and adopting ideas and concepts. Further yet, we embrace belief systems and doctrines. Every step along the path brings a different mixture, an alloy as it were, of Truth and not-Truth. True seekers, those disciples becoming apostles, find their white stone of Knowing, like an intense flame burning away and purifying anything unlike Itself, “un-earthing” our minds so that we finally return to our Home Point, Original Mind.

Like an assayer testing and purifying a precious substance like gold, our white stone of Knowing establishes Itself once more as touchstone and standard for every thought, every act, every word, and every perception that moves through us. Nothing of Substance dies in this process of Knowing. We magnify the Lord because Reality has replaced the relative forever.