Part 2 - AMORC

y Samuel Avital, FRCThe guest residing in eachof us is a part of the greatCosmic Soul.e have all experienced thewonderful warmth of being a guestin someone’s home. Equally, we knowthe deep satisfaction of having been ahost or hostess offering our hospitalityto another person. There is a genuine give andtake when a visitor is welcomed into the home,an exchange replete with great meaning andsignificance in all cultures down through theages.Consider for a moment your own house, withyou as a guest residing within. The house providesyou with shelter and warmth and a place from whichto operate. In return, you maintain it, keeping it cleanand orderly. You, the guest, are actively contributingto the life of the host. In fact, you are the very lifewithin that house.What about your own body, the “Temple ofthe Soul?” Is it not also a house, a dwelling placefor a very important guest? The house that sheltersus, made of stone, brick or wood, is obviously notconscious or aware of our presence within its walls.But we are endowed with the gift of consciousnessand self-awareness on both the mundane andspiritual levels, and should be aware of the guestresiding within us.We may sense the presence of a “still smallvoice” (inner quiet), in Hebrew kol dernama dakasometimes referred to as the Inner Self or the MasterWithin. We may even have begun to develop arelationship with this presence. But are we using theconsciousness we have been given to truly know theInner Guest?In Hebrew, the word for guest is ore’ach, whichalso means “visitor, path, the way, the traveller onthe path.” In Aramaic, the word is oushpiz means“visitor” or the “holy or honoured guest.”Honoured GuestThe idea of the honoured guest has been carriedwith us since ancient times as part of our humanheritage. In the Hebrew tradition there is a saying,“He who has fed a stranger may have fed an angel.”We see an example of this in the Bible, whenthree guests appear to Abraham and receive fromhim unquestioning service and assistance. Abrahamlearns from these “messengers” that he and his wifewill have a son, even though they are both old andSarah had been barren for many years. The story ofAbraham symbolises the high stature of the guestas a divine messenger. Surely every guest brings a“message” and should be received with the samereverence that Abraham had for his visitors.Let us now consider the less obvious meaningsof the Hebrew and Aramaic words for “guest,” suchas “the path,” “the way,” “the traveller on the path.”In the bible, Jesus is quoted as saying, “I am the Wayand the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). We know thatJesus and many other great teachers like Moses,Buddha and the prophet Mohammed lived theirlives as examples, pointing the way for others tofollow. They were also wanderers themselves and24The Rosicrucian Beacon -- June 2008