Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XXX
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
In closing out our discussion on faith and believing, we noted that this faith which is KNOWING and this belief which is one’s reliance on that KNOWING must and do come from the wellspring of Love and Power which is the Soul of man, the Christ Within. We have noted as well in our many essays that the perspective of a man should be that he is a Soul and not that he has a Soul and in this perhaps we can find some help in achieving that realization that will bring that Love and that Power to bear on the form Life of a man. While this change in perspective may not be a necessary thing in one’s early walk on the Path, it will eventually come as a man realizes his own divine nature and we can say here that this change in perspective, this change to believing that one is the Soul and not the form, can do much to focus a Life upon the things of God as the Soul is for a man in form the Source of God.
We should understand that the writings in the New Testament are of a varied sort with much of the words of the Master and of His apostles directed at those who are or who would be disciples and this, by design, is the destiny of ALL. In the panoply of the billions of lives in form at any time, is it possible to imagine that there is no purpose and no destiny? can we think that the spiraling growth is merely the function of more people begetting more people in a haphazard way? can we believe that the progression and advancement of the race of men physically and psychically is happenstance or that the appearance of a ONE like the Christ is not part of some Plan? Can we measure the reports of Life after death as myth or fiction or can we see the reality of miracles in the world as being ALL fabrications and staged events? Can we believe that the ancient thoughts about the nature of God are false or that the volumes written about the same in the world’s scriptures that push the race, by individual culture, forward toward Good are the fabrications of good men only? Can we believe that these Higher Impulses are but another facet of the illusion and the glamour that we speak so much about? OR…..
Can we believe that the march of Life that we are ALL a part of is a continuum that encompasses Life as Spirit and Soul and which moves through phases of experience in this Earth as it progresses toward that ultimate goal, from the perspective of the man in form, of discipleship and being accounted worthy, again from a form Life perspective, of the Kingdom of God? The Apostle Paul answers this question for us albeit in terms that only serve to further confuse the ideas that he seeks to clarify but in the final realization he does tell us: “if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Can we believe that by the very nature of Life in form that we as Souls become divorced from the True realization by the illusion and the glamour that afflicts the human psyche so that a man sees only the form side of Life, a plight which is brought about, at least in part, by the years of infancy and childhood in which the man learns ONLY of the things of the world?
Can we see the ultimate reality in the words of Paul that we have been studying now for some time as they relate to this existence that we have in form and our eventual freedom from this existence which agrees in theme if not in particular with what we say about the goal and the objective of man. The apostle tells us “For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:19-22).
There are likely men who believe ALL of these things that we ponder today in our essay but the overriding fact is that Life does move on and that most men do not take the attitude of “let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die” but rather have a forward looking perspective while KNOWING the reality of the saying which presumably comes from the Wisdom of Solomon saying: “As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labour, which he may carry away in his hand” (Ecclesiastes 5:15). There is here in the race of men a dichotomy of thought; while KNOWING that one can take naught with him beyond this Life in form, he continues to struggle through his days to accumulate and amass above what is required for his pleasure, his comfort and his security. This is not True of all insofar as many do not have the wherewithal to gather possessions and wealth but this does not deter a man from thinking on these things and desiring them above all else. We have oft said that the idea of being rich is relative to a man’s place in Life, relative to the persons in his community and to those things that define his Life and this is True of all types of riches. This is why and how the Master’s words fit all men regardless of their stature in the world of men and He applies most all of His teaching to the focus of the Life of the man in form and tells us in so many ways that it is this focus that defines the man and that dictates his progress.
The epitome of the Master’s defining of the focus of a man is found in His dissertation to the Jews regarding the idea of their attention to the man made doctrines while ignoring the precepts of their own laws under the Ten Commandments. It is commonly thought that this refers only to the ideas in the text but if we look hard we can find how these words of Master can be made applicable to the very focus of a man in form. Jesus words go thus:
“Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Who so curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye” (Mark 7:1-13).
This same idea is put forth in Matthew’s Gospel in a shorter and less descriptive style and we have chosen this one from Mark because it is more inclusive of the “many other things there be” that can be considered as additional examples of this behavior of the Jews in that day. We often use the middle part of this saying where the Master repeats the words of the Prophet Esaias and this is the important part of this whole diatribe by the Master as it plots this same behavior forward in time so that we can clearly see it. However, in this particular segment most only regard the individual actions and offences of the washing and the ideas of Corban and do not see the relationship of this to the actual focus of a mans Life. These men were focused upon the commandments of men and this is admitted as such in the question of the Master’s following the traditions; they were ardent as Pharisee’s and scribes, teachers of the people, in their following of these traditions which the Master later qualifies for us as meaningless. Their focus is on these things of the world and here we should see a point that we may not have made in the past which is that even the apparently religious things that a man does are things of the world when they are the result of the commandments of men. Here, many are deceived by thinking that they are doing good as in washing hands and vessels, while they are doing naught but carrying out the rather meaningless rituals of men. This is not to say that it is not prudent to keep clean and wash those things that we use to eat but it is meaningless from a spiritual perspective which is what had happened with the Jews and what happens with man today in many areas of Life where he may think he is doing a thing for God but is in reality just following along in the religious traditions of men. The Master is here telling ALL that if they are not following the precepts of the Lord that they are rejecting them and if they cleverly devise ways around them that they are changing them and “Making the word of God of none effect“.
This can be seen happening across today’s societies and cultures where the RIGHT thing is substituted by that which is convenient or easy and just looking about at the habits and the thoughts of men as they regard the commandments of the Lord, we shall find that we are most ALL guilty to some degree and here we find the words of the Apostle James poignant as he says: “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:8-11). It is interesting to note that James begins this part of his Epistle citing the “royal law” and he gives us adultery and killing as his examples of offending in one point. We should see in his words that the men are “convinced of the law as transgressors” are those who defy the “royal law” and this point is sorely missed by the world today as it has been over the last 2000 years while we quibble about what defines adultery and about what is Truly meant in killing.
We frequently speak of the idea of focus and this is a word that is not used in the New Testament but is at the same time a word that ties together many of True instructions of the Master. For us it should carry the force of the attention that one pays to the things of Life and the reality of what a man’s treasure is. On these ideas we have spent many essays and will continue this same as we go forward because within these, focus, attention, and treasure can be found the True keys to ‘salvation’. This idea then that we use of focus is a rather simple term that is not wrapped up in the confusion of doctrine and it is True in virtually ALL aspects of Life in form. When applied to the Master’s teachings and to God it becomes a way par excellence to achieve one’s spiritual goals and when applied to the things of the world it is the way, with equal force, to attain the things of the world. Wheresoever a man spends his attention defines those things that are important to him and the very things that are made or accomplished by this attention and focus are the treasure of his heart.
From our perspective there are overriding messages in the words of the Master and His apostles and this idea of the treasure of one’s heart is one of these teachings of immense proportion in a man’s journey to the Path and of great importance in his walk upon the Path. The Path is another word that is not found in the New Testament, we can say that it is a more modern approach but this would be untrue as the idea of the Path is founded in the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom and in many esoteric and occult texts. It is spoken of by the Buddha and in other of the worlds religious texts and is spoken of by the Master in His reference to the strait gate where He tells us: “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14). Then, if we are intent on entering at the strait gate, the narrow way, then it is the treasure of our heart that is our guide, it is our focus and those things in Life that we attend to.
It is all too common to portray these words of the Master in a way that ‘religion’ satisfies the demands of the strait and narrow path and that it is an irreligious way of Life that takes one to the broad way. But this is not the teaching of the Master; His teaching is that we attend to the things of God and there are those who may be considered irreligious that are more focused upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True than are those who may be considered as religious and it is here that we must remember that this matter of personal spiritual achievement is very much a personal matter and what the thoughts of any other person may be about such achievement matter not. Many would think that these essays are sacrilegious or heresy and perhaps even blasphemy but this should not and does not matter to us at all. We take our comfort in the flow of Love and Power from our own Souls knowing that within this outpouring is the anointing that the Apostle John speaks of saying: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abidein him” (1 John 2:27).
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.
Do not live in the world, In distraction and false dreams. Outside the dharma. Arise and watch. Follow the way joyfully through this world and beyond. Follow the way of virtue. Follow the way joyfully Through this world and on beyond! For consider the world – A bubble, a mirage. See the world as it is, And death shall overlook you. Come, consider the world, A painted chariot for kings, A trap for fools. But he who sees goes free. As the moon slips from behind a cloud And shines, So the master comes out from behind his ignorance And shines. The world is in darkness. How few have eyes to see! How few the birds who escape the net and fly to heaven!
This Quote of the Day is from the Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha, and exemplifies from His perspective the same basic message that we have been seeing from the Christ. Follow the way of the Soul, focus upon the Real and not on the illusion and thereby attain the Kingdom. If we read and reread this we should be able to see the thread of reality in forsaking ALL for the Kingdom.
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
