Life and Teaching of the Masters of the Far East
By Baird T. Spalding
Volume V
(Published 1955)
This book is lovingly dedicated to those Great Beings, our Elder Brothers, Who, while having risen on a higher spiral, yet patiently lend Their assistance to the humanity of earth, ever pointing the way to Truth, Freedom, and the Higher Realms of consciousness and Understanding.
EDITOR’S NOTE
Baird T. Spalding played a very important part in introducing to the Western world the knowledge that there are many Masters or Elder Brothers who are assisting and guiding the destinies of mankind and the earth.
The books, LIFE & TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS OF THE FAR EAST, have been used and sold by many lecturers and teachers of Truth during the past thirty years, in order that the knowledge contained therein might be broadcast to all corners of the earth. These channels were used by the Elder Brothers for the specific purpose of educating mankind that it might become aware of and turn its attention to these Great Laws of Life; for, as Jesus said: “The things that I do ye too shall do, and still greater things shall ye do.” [John 14:12]
Publisher’s Note
Both Mr. Spalding and Mr. DeVorss (who knew Mr. Spalding personally) died in the 1950’s. The people who were associated with Mr. Spalding on the tour have also passed on. We are therefore without contact with anyone who has firsthand knowledge of the work, and the books themselves are now the only source of information. To our knowledge, there is no map available of the tour, and we know of no photographs. We have tried at various times to locate additional records, as well as camera information, but without success. We sincerely regret that we have no additional information to offer.
DeVorss & Company
BAIRD T. SPALDING
Wherever there is a flare of general interest in any personality or his achievement, such as has been evinced by the readers of THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF THE MASTERS OF THE FAR EAST, you may be certain there is a flame of spiritual Truth accompanying it.
Few in modern times have created such an interest as Baird T. Spalding, whose name became legend in metaphysical and Truth circles during the first half of the twentieth century. Few sensed the flame of spiritual inspiration sweeping the world as did Mr. Spalding. The nature of the man, the manner in which his message has been presented, and the Message all bear living testimony to the Truth of his words and the honor and sincerity of the man.
The countless numbers of letters received through the years from all over the world bear testimony of the tremendous assistance from the message contained in his books and such letters continue to pour in, years after he passed over to the higher schoolroom.
Baird T. Spalding passed beyond the veil on March 18, 1953, in Tempe, Arizona, at the age of 95. He was active in his mining interests right up to the end.
Douglas K. DeVorss probably knew Mr. Spalding as well as anyone, due to their many years of association, and we quote from his talk given at the Spalding Memorial Service in Tempe, Arizona, on March 22, 1953:
“Mr. Spalding was a very quiet, humble servant of all whom he met. He would never permit me, under any circumstances, in presenting him to audiences, to dwell on the personality or on himself as a man of great accomplishments. Since 1935 I had the unique opportunity to traveling with him to more than 200 cities in North America. And, though I lived with him 24 hours a day in a very close relationship most of those years, yet I must be frank and tell you that I do not believe any one person or group of persons really understood this great soul, for so many different ways, on so many different planes of activity. In making these few personal remarks, I am sure you understand we are doing this in a very humble way, because not only was he our friend but a man who was like a father to many of us.
“There was not a town of any size anywhere in the world, that I know of, where Mr. Spalding couldn’t walk into someone’s home and sit down to dinner. He was always welcome. And during the past twenty-five years he lived very much, as we say, like a bird. He seemed to have reached a point of attainment where material things were not of great concern to him. Although his earnings as an individual, over a period of time, where unknown to me and to all of us, nevertheless, he passed on not as a rich man at all. His material possessions are few. The great heritage which he left is in the unique discoveries which he made regarding the teachings of Jesus. Mr. Spalding never wrote or lectured for financial profit or gain and he was an open channel for any funds that came to him, distributing them immediately. We have no way of knowing the extent of his philanthropic enterprises because no one ever approached him who was in need of any material assistance that he didn’t give them everything he had and, consequently, he was always a very prosperous man. In fact, I know of no one who, in a way, was as rich as Mr. Spalding and many of us envied his unique attainment which he had reached through his very exceptional understanding, and which undoubtedly came to him very early in life.
“It was about 65 years ago that he first made some of these discoveries regarding Jesus and the lives of the Great Masters. He walked and talked with Great Masters in the visible world, even as did the great scientist, Mr. Steinmetz, of whom he was a great admirer. I have seen pictures of Mr. Spalding and Mr. Steinmetz together. Both Steinmetz and Edison predicted that the time would come when it would be possible for us to make recordings of the Sermon on the Mount and in the actual language and voice of Jesus at the time when He gave the Sermon on the Mount.
“Many other startling discoveries and disclosures, as I like to refer to them, were made by Mr. Spalding during his long life of service and activity in all parts of the world. For instance, I want to go back to the idea of how his books came to be published. I have been told by people who knew Mr. Spalding in Calcutta, India in the early nineties that he decided to write out in longhand some of the accounts of his experiences in India. Some friends asked him to type it and let them have copies, and for many, many years he carried these typewritten accounts (of what later became Volume I) with him. People would read them and pass them among themselves until finally, a very prominent woman in Oakland, California, whose husband was the builder of the Oakland Municipal Railways, asked Mr. Spalding if he would have any objection to her having her printer, the California Press in San Francisco, print a thousand copies of this work in an inexpensive paper binding; she wanted to give every one of her friends a copy of that book. Mr. Spalding gave his consent and soon after this he left for England.
“The books were printed and passed among her friends, as a gift. Within about sixty days, phenomenally, as it seemed, more than 20,000 orders were received for copies of that book! When Mr. Spalding returned from England, of course he was astonished at the interest in his discoveries and experiences, so he permitted her to have the balance of the work published, which became known as Volume II.
“Then there was a period of about ten years that Mr. Spalding did not do any writing. But nearly every night he was a guest or visiting friends and after dinner he would have a little question and answer period and in that way he met a great many people. After his day’s work was done as a research engineer, he would answer the many questions put to him at these little gatherings and the word-of-mouth publicity spread very rapidly. But that work came to a halt during the period when Cecil B. De Mille was making the moving picture, the KING OF KINGS. Mr. Spalding was engage by Mr. De Mille as technical advisor on all the Biblical work in that picture.
“My experience with Mr. Spalding started about twenty-five years ago. I was particularly interested in the books and their distribution throughout the world. At that time there was a great upward surge in New Thought and spiritual reading and studying and many people were very anxious to have Mr. Spalding complete another book. Finally, one of his very closest friends invited him to a country cabin where he could work without interruption and Mr. Spalding completed in longhand what is now known as Volume III. That book was published immediately.
“A rumor started spreading across the country that Mr. Spalding had passed on, so I suggested to Mr. Spalding that, since he was not sailing for India and a trip around the world until October 4, that we go to New York together, stopping at some of the larger cities enroute, and meet the many people who had been reading his books and disprove the false rumors being generated. Mr. Spalding agreed that this would be a good idea if it would be accomplished in about thirty days. So, the latter part of August, 1935, we selected thirty of the larger cities and decided to make that tour in thirty days. I have a reason for telling this because, as many of you know, Mr. Spalding, right up until just a few days ago, had almost unlimited energy in a physical form. He was never fatigued. He could go for maybe two or three weeks with only three or four hours sleep a night.
“He never claimed anything for himself. He never made any claims as to being a great healer or practitioner, seer, psychic, or anything of the sort. And I can assure you he did all of his writings just as you sit down and write a letter to someone. The material was never obtained through automatic writing, clairaudience or clairvoyance, or anything of that sort. It wasn’t necessary because he knew these people whom he wrote about just as he knew these great scientists and religionists., such as Dr. Steinmetz and Dr. Norwood. The latter was the famous clergyman in New York and one of Mr. Spalding’s very close friends.
“I think these facts may be of interest to you, although he probably wouldn’t approve some things we are doing here this afternoon because he realized that the physical form had so very little to do with the real Life of the individual. As you will recall, he said: ‘The Christ is in each one of you,’ and that is the important thing that he wanted everyone to realize. Sometimes when people asked him, ‘How many Masters are there in the United States?’ he would say: ‘There must be at least 150 million Masters in this country.’ That was the vision which he had, that each individual would become aware of his Oneness with God and the Christ and not just worship creeds and dogmas and sects.
“Each one of you, as individuals, if you were standing here in my place, could tell a little different story. No two stories would be alike as to what Mr. Spalding meant to you as an individual, as a brother, but through the writings and his talks, answering your questions, he never put any limitation on time. I have known him to talk all night to a friend to help him over some mental or financial stumbling block. It was almost as if he had some great intuitive power that made him such a great scientist. He had studied in Heidelberg. He had worked in all the great scientific laboratories at one time or another, particularly in geophysical work. He was one of the early pioneers in the atomic work. He was particularly interested in helping the individual to help himself. Strange today, and the most difficult thing for people to understand, is that material possessions seemed to mean so very little to him. Because he realized, as Jesus did, the greatest thing that we can do when we are expressing on the physical plane, here on this earth, is to live the Christ Life and get our attention away from limitations. Of course, that is what we have tried to do this afternoon because we know that Mr. Spalding is with us as always and that we have the continued opportunity of living the Life as he did and in the way which he tried to show us.”
FORWARD:
The following chapters are taken from lectures delivered by Mr. Spalding in Southern California during the last two years of his life.
CHAPTER I
From the shadow of the Himalayas to the great vastness of the Gobi Desert; from New York to Central and South America; from San Francisco to the Philippines, Alaska, and Canada, come these experiences, findings and revelations of our research work.
We have been carrying on this work for over forty years, first translating the records which we found in the Gobi, in Tibet, and in India, and this work has developed into an organization of about twenty-six men who are interested in a doing the work.
The scientists are beginning to give us a great deal of credit; in fact, two years ago they believed that, with our new camera and what we call taking pictures of past events, we are going to be able to go back at least one million years, showing the civilization that did exist at that time.
Now that may seem rather remarkable, that we can go back and take absolute pictures of what happened thousands and thousands of years ago. There is a great deal being done along that line. We have the distinction of starting it because of Dr. Steinmetz’ assistance. I worked with Dr. Steinmetz myself and , during that whole time that I was with him, he put forth the expression, “We’ll build a camera that will go into the past and pick up every past event, if you wish it.” He went on and delineated. Not only that, he drew the plans for that camera and we followed through and today we can say definitely that we can go into the past and pick up every past event. Of course, that becomes too cumbersome, but we select past events and , as I said, the scientists are admitting today and fully believing that we will go into the past events to the extent of a million years.
Our initial experience with the first camera was motivated by Dr. Steinmetz. I worked with Dr. Steinmetz for about nine years, and he always maintained that we would eventually go back into past events and could get everything that happened, in fact, show what civilizations did, how they operated, and so on, and that has come to pass.
Our first experience was with George Washington’s inaugural address. That was in New York City at what is now known as Federal Hall. In that picture you can readily discern every one of the dignitaries who were on the platform with him and George Washington is walking back and forth before the group giving his inaugural address. At that time there wasn’t even a still picture taken of the address or that group. Paintings were made bet no actual photographs. Now we have the actual picture, with George Washington’s voice on the sound track. Everyone said for a time that it was a fake because they claimed that we made it up in moving picture form. But it can now be shown with a regular moving picture mechanism.
Then we went from that to the Sermon on the Mount. Now we know that Jesus, the man, was no different than we are. We have a complete history of that family’s life for over 20,000 years, and know that it was a well established family, that He was a man of great influence, a very definite character. He was a man six feet two and, standing in a crowd, you yourself would select Him and say, “There is a man who will accomplish,” and He did accomplish. History is bearing those things out today and we are going back to this drama and getting the absolute words.
We are very much interested in His whole life and we followed it through at great length. Not only that but we have known the man for a number of years and we know today that He never passed though death.
Now Jesus of Nazareth never claimed for himself any more than what the ordinary person was capable of doing. That we know for certain. Not only that, He told us that death was overcome.
The Sermon on the Mount as lived on and on as a spiritual masterpiece. People regard it as such today, more than ever before, and they are beginning to understand it and take it into their lives.
We can show you in photography today that no one brought anything except the little boy with the five loaves and fishes. This isn’t an allegory. If it were, we wouldn’t find the boy there in that picture. Neither would we find the people there. All Jesus said was, “Sit down and prepare for the feast,” and there was an abundance for all.
Then again we have the instance where the disciple said to Jesus: “Master, there is need for bread, yet it is four months to the harvest.” His answer was: “Look upon the fields, they are already white to harvest,” and they are, right in the picture.
With those pictures we have been able to correct many mistakes that have been made. We worked for eight years on the picture, the Sermon on the Mount, before we got the identity of the man, Jesus. We were always looking for man of the description that daVinci had painted.
We had an interesting experience in this connection. Three of us were in the Vatican and we were talking with a very elderly cardinal who asked us how we were getting along with the picture “The Sermon on the Mount.” He was quite interested in what we were doing and told us that we would get a lot of information if we would take his card and go to the Louvre in Paris and ask for a certain man and ask to see daVinci’s letters. This was a new lead for us and we were on our way to Paris immediately. We went directly to the Louvre upon arrival, where every courtesy was shown us. Leonardo daVinci’s letters are all there today and this can be proved.
We have always felt that daVinci’s painting was a portrayal of Jesus as he saw Him. It has been proved today, and we have daVinci’s letters proving this, that he saw the Christ in the face of the model he chose to sit for the portrait. He said the man was young, engaged to be married, and there was a beautiful light in his eyes. DaVinci interpreted it as the Christ and painted the portrait as such. This was during the renaissance period when long hair and the beard were the custom. We have never known Jesus to wear long hair and a beard, and in the robes. Maybe other people have but there it is written out in daVinci’s own hand.
Two years later the artist decided to paint a picture of Judas, the betrayer. He searched for nearly two years, looking for one he felt was despicable enough to portray the betrayer. Finally, one morning he was walking through the apache quarter in Paris and here, in a little niche, all disheveled and in rags and down and out, was the man! He walked up to him and said: “I have painted the portrait of the Christ, now I am looking for a man who will pose for me for the portrait of Judas, the betrayer.” The man looked up and said: “Sir, I posed for the Christ for you.” It was exactly the same man! DaVinci goes right on to describe in his letters how, had that man never betrayed the Christ, he never would have found him in the niche in the apache quarter in Paris. He even goes so far as to say that when we use the word “can’t” we deny the Christ within.
Today we can prove that every negative word that you use, you betray the Christ within yourself. Now daVinci went right on to say that he never thought of portraying the countenance of Jesus, the Christ, but he did see the Christ in that face.
Leonardo daVinci was a most remarkable man. He wrote many scientific articles that are very fine, yet they have never been published. You can only read them by going into a glass cage with three men watching you while you read them. They are very valuable. He was a very exceptional man and he spoke of the Christ within all the time. He explains how wonderful it is to represent the Christ, to see the Christ in every face. When he was painting the Vatican and the cardinals found him asleep on the scaffold and they called his attention to it, he said, “While I am asleep I am doing more work than while I am awake.” While sleeping he saw everything right before him that he would paint and in the exact colors he would bring out, and he would get up and put them down. He said, “Everything that I see is an exact resemblance and the vibrations of that which I put on the walls are the vibrations that I pick up, and I can manifest those and bring them forth with perfect ease after I see them in my sleep.”
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Q. How do you select the events of the past?
A. They are all in a certain band of frequency. Everything that you say, your voice and words, goes right into a band of vibratory frequency and it goes on and on.
Q. What is the best path to pursue to obtain Illumination?
A. The path is right within. Search ever deeper within yourself. Know that this great Light belongs to you. That is all that is necessary.
Q. Were you born in India?
A. Yes, I was born in India and my father was born there too. I attended preparatory school and later Calcutta University. Dr. Vose and his wife at that time had been there for 68 years.
Q. Did Jesus and the disciples and other Bible characters really live in the flesh as we know it?
A. Oh, yes. We have a number of their lives through the camera of past events.
Q. What did Jesus look like when you saw him?
A. He is a man six feet two. If He were in this group tonight you would recognize Him for what He is, a man of the greatest attainment, just as He looked upon everybody, with the power to attain everything, and He did, and He always has. He is living today just the same as He always did. We photographed Him exactly the same as we might photograph you. We have pictures of Him walking arm-in-arm with Luther Burbank, with Dr. Norwood, and a number of others.
Q. Are all of these great problems that afflict the minds of men completely overcome when we live the life of the Masters?
A. Yes. Jesus’ firm statement was that the Truth makes you free.
Q. How does man get rid of the idea of man not being God?
A. By refusing to accept the negative statement. The statement: “I Am God, “ frees you from the negative statement that you are not God. It is better to state the Truth than the untruth.
Q. If you make the statement, “I Am God,” and are unable to accept your unity, is it not a matter of blind faith?
A. If you make it wholly on blind faith you have made a separation and will fall short of the goal. It is far better to say, “I can,” and then go right on to “I Am.” If you accept the “I can’t” attitude you have accepted a separation from God.
Q. If man is God and God is Spirit, where did the material body originate?
A. As a hypnotic influence in the mind of man. It has no basis in fact. Man brought the material into existence. The mortal body is an hypnotic body and when man wakes from that state it will be to him as a nightmare. He wakes to dream no more.
CHAPTER II
Friends, we are going to take up here what has been shown and proved in over sixty years of research work. We have the scientific proof today that every function, every thing in this whole universe is Divine. Name that Divinity what you will, the greatest name is the word “God.” Why? We can show you today that that the word vibrates at the rate of one hundred and eighty-six billion beats a second and we know people capable of intoning that word. But the beauty of it is, the moment that you realize that vibration, you are that vibration every time.
Now it is established in every form. It isn’t just your form or the form of anybody else; it is established in everything and, were it not for that divinity, we are proving today that we couldn’t take a photograph. There wouldn’t be a form in this room that we could photograph today if it were not for that divinity.
Now we have absolute proof of that. Then why say that I am not divine? You just leave the “not” out of that and see what difference it will make. I Am divine! And there’s the truth about yourself. The untruth is—I am not divine. The truth is, I Am divine. Complete the saying and carry right through—”God I Am.”
We make those statements for the reason that we know today. You have been told that, yes, but what someone else tells you, you may take with a grain of salt or you may say, “Well, perhaps that person doesn’t know,” but today we know through experiment in photography and high magnification and we can take any person and ask him to sit before this camera under high magnification and it will show that divinity every time.
Our bodies started from the one cell and the multiplication of that cell built this body. And we can show, through high magnification today, that that light never ceases. It is transmitted f...
wiedza