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The Imitation of Christ: Difference between revisions
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[[Serapis Bey]], the great disciplinarian, teaches this principle to the candidates at [[Ascension Temple|Luxor]] in this wise: | [[Serapis Bey]], the great disciplinarian, teaches this principle to the candidates at [[Ascension Temple|Luxor]] in this wise: | ||
<blockquote>Just as an actor may speak the lines of a play and enter into the identity of a living or an historical figure without ever becoming that individual, so mankind in the outer court of the temple may do homage in honest imitation of Christ-radiant men of past and present ages. | <blockquote> | ||
Just as an actor may speak the lines of a play and enter into the identity of a living or an historical figure without ever becoming that individual, so mankind in the outer court of the temple may do homage in honest imitation of Christ-radiant men of past and present ages. | |||
But imitation (unless the imitator becomes the one imitated) is no substitute for the actual vesting of the God-reality of the elect upon the radiant “Light-form” that is man’s blessed gift of opportunity. Descending from the heart of his own Divine Presence, this Light-form is intended to be the magnificent design for his entire world; and so it becomes when the outer consciousness sustains the perfection of God’s energy by vesting it with the impressions of Reality.<ref>Serapis Bey, “The Eternal Brotherhood,” in ''Keepers of the Flame Lesson 13'', p. 5.</ref> | |||
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It is expected that candidates for the ascension will not only imitate the Christ but that they will also become the Christ by putting on the Light-form, the magnificent design of their identity, and by consciously qualifying it with God’s pure thoughts about man—“the impressions of Reality.” | It is expected that candidates for the ascension will not only imitate the Christ but that they will also become the Christ by putting on the Light-form, the magnificent design of their identity, and by consciously qualifying it with God’s pure thoughts about man—“the impressions of Reality.” | ||