IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 380

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part CLXI

“For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:44-45).

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt , and where thieves break through and steal : But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt , and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

In the last post we continued with our discussion of the words of the Apostle Paul to the Romans and in the end we remarked on how full of revelation these sayings are insofar as the reality of the nature of Life in form and the hope of deliverance from it. We noted from a short side trip into the words of King Solomon that this idea of vanity has likely froever plagued humanity and that it is nearly three thousand years since the king wrote about it; and, we cautioned again that we should not understand this idea of vanity simply in its modern context. We noted also that just because a man may believe that he knows anything, unless he is looking in or toward the Kingdom, it is likely that he knows nothing or, nothing of any importance to the benefit of the True Life of the man, the Soul. We noted in relation to the ideas from the Book of Ecclesiastes that: this same idea of looking for the things of God here on this Earth is still as true today as it was in Solomon’s time and in the time of the Master and this idea plays a large part in His teachings. The things of God are hidden in the words of the Master and it is in doing His words that we find them.

This reality brings us finally to the two sayings by the Master that have adorned the top of these essays for several days now and which have taken on even deeper meaning than they may have had when we originally posted them. It is these sayings that sent us off in pursuit of the reality of the heart as we looked at definitions and the doctrinal interpretations that have tried to explain it. It became our position that the heart and the consciousness are the same insofar as the man in form is concerned and this can be seen as the perspective of the Master’s teachings. From the very context of the Master’s words, it is clear what he means by heart and that is that the center of the man’s life in form is his heart and that this center, this consciousness, can be focused upon the things of God or upon the things of the world and further that one’s focus can alternate between these two poles in the duality of Life in from and this is especially True for those who are at the threshold of awakening. It is at this threshold that a man begins to realize the realities of Life for the first time, either in a single lifetime of in the course of the Soul’s Life in form beginning at a particular incarnation. There is no easy understanding of this way of Life’s progression but we can say with some confidence that a Soul will eventually be able to see past the illusion and the glamour, the vanity of the world to which he is “made subject“, and that this awakening is a most desired point of transition and one that results in that conversion that the Master speaks of saying that: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear” (Matthew 13:15-16). Can we see here in the Master’s words the plight of vanity, the trappings of illusion and glamour, as they affect the man? Can we see the idea of awakening in the Master’s words “lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart“? And, can we see the idea of the Truly awakened in those to whom He says “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear“. These ARE the states of consciousness for the man in this world; these are his conditions of heart.

From this saying in the Gospel of Matthew the Master goes into His Parable of the Sower and explains to us ALL how these states of consciousness work from the perspective of reality and not necessarily from the perspective of the carnal Life of man in form. We should here see the reality of our word vanity as it relates to this illusion and this glamour which beset us as personalities in the world; this word vanity is not what we find in our modern understanding of the word which centers around self-pride but is rather as it is depicted in Paul’s writings that we spent many days on and in the proper understanding of the Book of Ecclesiastes which we cited yesterday and in this reference now where commentary on it tells us that: in modern usage this word (vanity) has often come to mean “self-pride,” losing its Latinate connotation of emptiness, some translators have abandoned it. Other translations include empty, futile, meaningless, absurd, fleeting, evanescent, or senseless. Some translations use the literal rendering vapor of vapors and so claim to leave the interpretation to the reader. Ultimately, the author of Ecclesiastes comes to this conclusion in the second to last verse of the last chapter: The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone*. Putting this word into the context we have adopted from Vincent’s interpretation of our verse by Paul to the Romans, we should see vanity as he tells us: Here, therefore, the reference is to a perishable and decaying condition, separate from God, and pursuing false ends⁴.

Why is this word so important to us is a question answered by the intent of the Master’s words above where He states for us this dichotomy of the awakened and the unawakened and in our premise that the best way to correct a situation is to become aware of that situation. Therefore when we recognize the illusion and the glamour that beset us, we can perhaps begin to see through them into the reality of Life, the Christ Within, our own Souls.

As we have often said, all of these spiritual ideas are interrelated and these that regard the awakened man and his heart or consciousness are no exception. When we see that it is the consciousness of man that is the reality of his functioning in the three worlds of human expression, the physical, the emotional and the mental, we can begin to understand that it is the source of input that molds a man into what he has become. We should understand here that this is not a forever type of molding and that changing the input, that by changing what enters into conscious awareness and what is entertained then by the man either physically, emotionally or mentally or some combination of these, we can change the man and this works in both ways or, as we should say, many ways. From a spiritual perspective we should see that when the focus of the consciousness is on the Christ Within, or upon the Soul, that this man in on the Path toward that strait gate that the Master teaches us of and, as we say above, this starts at the threshold of awakening which we come to when we can hear the Inner Voice that moves us toward the Good, the beautiful and the True. Millions hear the voice but disregard it believing that it is illusion and not realizing that it is this voice that, if they should heed its calling, can deliver one from the illusion and the glamour, this vanity, to which he is “made subject“. The Buddha teaches us about this idea of being awakened and if we can put His words into the context that we have here established we can understand much; He says:

Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps As if he were already dead, But the master is awake And he lives forever. He watches. He is clear. How happy he is! For he sees that wakefulness is life. How happy he is, Following the path of the awakened. With great perseverance He meditates, seeking Freedom and happiness. So awake, reflect, watch. Work with care and attention. Live in the way And the light will grow in you. By watching and working The master makes for himself an island Which the flood cannot overwhelm. The fool is careless. But the master guards his watching. It is his most precious treasure. He never gives in to desire. He meditates. And in the strength of his resolve He discovers true happiness. He overcomes desire – And from the tower of his wisdom He looks down with dispassion Upon the sorrowing crowd. From the mountain top He looks down at those Who live close to the ground. Mindful among the mindless, Awake while others dream, Swift as the race horse He outstrips the field. By watching Indra became king of the gods. How wonderful it is to watch. How foolish to sleep. The beggar who guards his mind And fears the waywardness of his thoughts Burns through every bond With the fire of his vigilance. The beggar who guards his mind And fears his own confusion Cannot fall. He has found his way to peace⁵.

In the above we should see the idea of master as the awakened one, the man in whom the Light of the Soul is being expressed through form, the disciple and the high aspirant and we should see the idea of the beggar as the seeker, the one who is seeking awakening.

This idea then of being awake can be seen running through the teachings of the Master and of the Buddha although the Master does not use the specific word but rather alludes to it in His teachings calling the asleep those whose “heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed” and the awakened those who “see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart” and this is a point that Jesus makes several times as it is those who can realize that “blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear“. It is also the point to be found in the two sayings at the top of our essay regarding the heart, the consciousness of the man.

This idea of the duality of consciousness is a difficult thing to comprehend and perhaps because we are that same consciousness that is trying to see that same duality which we are likely to ignore or deny. However, this is an important step in the salvation of man, his deliverance if you will, because it is only in recognizing that a thing is True that one can make attempt to overcome it. Let us try to paint this picture again so that we can proceed to see the Master’s words about it and then to understand that it is us ourselves that we must overcome. We will list here some points to ponder as we close today so that we can come back and address each in our next post.

• The Master speaks of good and evil fruit in the first saying above and this is a picture for us of the duality. He is not saying that one man is good and one man is bad and that is the way that it is, He is saying that through the consciousness the ‘ways’ of a man can be seen; these ‘ways’ of the man are the fruit of which the Master speaks and He tells us clearly here that “every tree is known by his own fruit“.
• These ‘ways’ of man are changeable as we can see from the other saying that we use here in regard to a man’s being awake. When a man’s “heart is waxed gross” can be seen as the man’s consciousness is self-centered and concerned about the things of the flesh; he does not hear or does not attend to the calling of the Christ Within or the higher consciousness that is of the Soul. Conversely those who can “understand with their heart” are those who do hear and do attend to the promptings of the higher consciousness of the Soul.
• We can get a greater hint of this in the Master’s teaching on good. When He asks “”Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God” (Mark 10:18), does this not lay for us a clue to the reality of our saying above. The reality can be seen in His words that are saying that good is the privilege of those in whom the Soul is expressing through form and the Soul consciousness is working out in Life.
• The overcoming of this duality of consciousness is then the same as any of the other terms that we have used to show the idea of the Christ Within expressing through the Life in form, it is being a disciple, it is attaining the Kingdom; it is the state of the True KNOWER.
• The consciousness of the man in form is based upon his focus; the nature of his heart is based upon what it is that takes his attention. This is made abundantly clear in the second saying by the Master at the top of the page and in this we should see the idea of treasure as being whatsoever becomes important to the man and as whatsoever takes his attention. The entire plot for the man in form is in the consciousness that prevails as this defines what is in his heart and this is said by the Master in His saying that “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” which is a saying that is not properly understood by man yet till today.
• This duality of consciousness is, as we have said, a difficult thing to understand but when we see the reality of the Master’s teaching within it we should be able to see as well that the correction of the problems of where we spend our time and attention and the correction of the way that we act, or speak as the Master frames it above, can only be found in our awakening and this can come only from above, or rather within, and cannot be found in this world of things or, as the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us, “under the sun“.

“Then I beheld all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because though a man labour to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea further; though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it” (Ecclesiastes 8:17).

We will continue with these thoughts in the next post.

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

We have left this saying for several days now and want to here say that within this reflection is the reality of a True Son of God, a disciple if you will, and it is by accomplishing these things that a men can be seen as disciples and, for those who try to achieve, those who strive, as aspirants.

Evening Reflection

May the Power of the One True God flow through His group of all true servers;

May the Love of the Christ characterize the lives of all who seek to aid in His work;

May I fulfill my part in the one work through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness and right speech

(Evening Reflection)