In 1970, John-Roger invited me to be his guest in Los Angeles and attend the MSIA Conference.  After the Conference, J-R was planning on taking his annual summer car trip for a couple of months.

Before he left, I asked if there was anything I could do for him when I got back to my home in Miami.  He said, “Let me think about it.”  About 20 minutes later he brought in the bottom of an open shoe box filled with cassette tapes.  “I don’t know what’s on any of these.  If you wouldn’t mind, I’d appreciate if you have the time to listen to them and take some notes.”  He sounded as though I was doing him a favor.

Back home in Miami, I began the enjoyable task of listening to the tapes, carefully writing down the synopsis of each.  I was relishing having my own personal seminars, one right after another.  Little did I know what was in store.  And then it happened …

The first words on a new tape were, “If you would know the SECRET of ….”  Suddenly I was on full alert. Secret?  I hadn’t heard J-R use that word.

I was holding my breath.  Without knowing why or how, I knew from my depths this was exceptionally important for me to grasp.  Transfixed, I must have rewound and played it a dozen times before I was grounded enough to write.  And then, word-for-word, I wrote it down.

“If you would know the Secret of right relations with people and things, then Look Only for The Good – that is, The Divine – and Leave All the Rest To God.

For, in truth … whether you see something as good or bad, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly, intelligent or unintelligent … everything is a reflection of your own consciousness about it being made manifest to you.  In Reality, everything is part of a vast, Cosmic Orchestra … and essential to the overall and harmonious playing of The Whole.” (John-Roger)

Sitting in the quiet, I knew this was My Life’s Lesson, although I had no comprehension as to how this was.  At the time, I didn’t grasp that the keys of how to use the Secret lay right there in front of me in the second paragraph.  I just focused on the first statement, which rang like a perfect illuminating bell in levels of my consciousness.

Full of wonder, I called J-R and read him my notes regarding the Secret.  A moment of silence … and then he said, “This is the Secret of Soul Transcendence.”  Thus, was born one of the great MSIA classics to be given to us all.

I didn’t have the presence of mind to ask him for clarification as to how to utilize this secret.  I wondered, “How can everything I see and hear be a reflection of my consciousness?  Wars?  Cruelty?  Sickness? History? Stars? Music? Am I somehow responsible for everything?  How can I be creating this world?  Look only for the good, regardless of what else I see?  Isn’t that denial? Does that mean ignore what’s “negative” or pretend it’s not there?  Leave everything to God that I can’t see as good or Divine?  Is this pretending? This doesn’t make any sense.”  Although it sounded somewhat intriguing, I had no clue as to how to work it. Questions kept coming … although not necessarily the ones to bring the clearest insight and understanding.

Nevertheless, without a doubt, I knew it was my Life’s Lesson.  And although it was a conundrum to me, I held it in my heart as a treasured gift … as in time I slowly lifted in consciousness.

Years passed and more of us received our Soul Initiations.   After countless times hearing us quote only the first statement of the Secret, with little apparent recognition of the keys for how to utilize it, I imagine J-R decided to make how it works even more obvious.  As with so many Divine Truths … there are layers within layers to uncover and go deeper.

Thus, by about 1984, with literally no fanfare, the revised version made its appearance with expanded keys of perception from the Preceptor:

“If you would learn the SECRET of Soul Transcendence, look only for the good – that is, the Divine – in people and things (this includes yourself!) … and leave the rest to God!

We cannot allow anything discourteous to get into our mental attitude toward anything, including ourselves. The instant we do, our relationship goes out of balance.  There is no emotionalism, no sentimentality nor wishful thinking in this.  We simply realize that if we identify anything as either intelligent or unintelligent, good or bad, friendly or unfriendly, cooperative or uncooperative, etc., that is precisely how it will appear … for all we experience is a state of our own consciousness about a given thing being made manifest in our outward experience.

All living things are individual instruments through which Spirit thinks, speaks, acts, and reveals Itself.  We are all interrelated in a common accord, a common purpose, and a common good.  We are members of a vast Cosmic Orchestra in which each living instrument is essential to the complimentary and harmonious playing of the Whole.”
John-Roger

Slowly, slowly … it was being revealed.  Rather, I was slowly allowing myself to look deeper as multi-dimensional keys to the Secret began to come into focus.  I was on my own quest for the Holy Grail.

Letting go of restricted beliefs about myself, who I really am?  Who we all really are?  What Life really is?  Allowing myself to look only for the good, the Divine in myself?  And then simultaneously allowing for my human parts to actually be essential to the Whole, at the same time not eclipsing the Whole in my perception? But that requires my observing my judgments about myself, about Life, as illusions?  Reflections of what I don’t yet know how to love?  Is everything a mirror?  Is owning my divinity in the ordinary … or the ordinary as part of Divinity … allowing me to transcend beyond my habitual limited responses (my chosen karma)?

Could a main key be as simple as ‘attitude?’  As I looked with compassion, I saw compassion.  As I looked with gratitude, I saw majesty.  As I looked with lack, I saw less Light.  As I looked with wonderment, I saw wonder.  As I looked for multiple realities to align, I saw I was the one turning the wheel of perception.  Are we all Divine Beings on a self-made treasure hunt?  Have we chosen to make the game more challenging by taking on a self-imposed veil of forgetfulness?  Does the journey simply hide in plain sight the glories we seek?  Is looking for the Divine being We Are  … and unconditionally loving ourselves completely … a key?  How do we do that?

As J-R told us often, “It takes great courage to see the Face of God.”