Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XXXIV
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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In our last post we began again with these words from Steve Van Zandt’s song and post them again for our final comments regarding them. Our point is not patriotism but rather the ideas embedded in the understanding of WHY one is a patriot; Steve points out for us that the reason is simply because the country that a man lives in, is brought up in and schooled in, IS ALL THAT HE KNOWS. We expanded this same idea to religion and it can apply to most ALL things that separate as well. We are, as men in form, what we KNOW, and when we come to KNOW the Life of the Soul, the Christ Within, as our True Life, then we ARE THAT LIFE OF THE SOUL IN FORM and this it the reality of KNOWING as we speak of so often.
I am a patriot and I love my county
Because my country is all I know
I want to be with my family people who understand me
I’ve got nowhere else to go
Moving on from here we took a look at the words of the Buddha that fit well with our saying from Steve above. They fit well because of our premise that in understanding the ideas above we can better understand that we, as men in form and as Souls, are ALL the same. This sameness is not intended to declare that we are all the same in physical or psychic appearance or abilities but rather that we are the same in essence, we are ALL Souls incarnating in this world through bodies and personalities built according to the accumulated ability of the Soul and that the level at which we may find ourselves it the same level through which ALL have passed or else have yet to pass. Hence we have the Buddha’s words which are directed at both the man in form and at the man as the Soul and which tell us that we should:
“See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do? He who seeks happiness, By hurting those who seek happiness, Will never find happiness. For your brother is like you. He wants to be happy. Never harm him“5
It is by the recognition that we are the same, Souls incarnating through form, that we can understand the Buddha’s message and in so understanding we must try to recognize that most ALL feelings or separativeness are the result of that vanity that the race is subjected to and the worldly forces of illusion and glamour. This illusion and glamour are the central subject of the next part of our discussion from yesterday which is this, also from the Dhammapada in a section called Wakefulness.
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!5
We ended by leaving with the final line and a reminder that we had covered this idea in several essays and in conjunction with the Master’s words saying: “
“strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14).
The message here is clear and one that we must consider in our efforts to become disciples of the Master and to be accounted worthy of His Kingdom. In the words of the Master we KNOW the way is difficult and few will find and tread the Path; the Buddha tells us the same thing saying, in line with the context of His words, that few will see the reality of Life and few will escape this trap of illusion and glamour which make of some kings with painted chariots that, while beautiful, have no power and no place to go.
We should note that the reality of ALL of this is still covered under our discussion on focus. The idea of all I know is the reality of the man who is focused upon the world of things and this is True regarding nation and religion; we should understand that the practice of religion in the churches of the world is a largely ceremonial and worldly pursuit unless and until it is accomplished as a Soul infused personality and in this we would have the ALL Loving and righteous man attending a church service. This would be the man whose focus is upon the things of God.
In regard to the Buddha’s words reflecting one’s ability to see yourself in others and the realization that your brother is like you, we should understand the in doing so one is seeing the reality of Christ Within, the Soul as he perceives the world around his Life in form. In this reality one can be seen as focused upon the Soul and the Truth as this realization is one that comes from the Christ Within. This idea is similar to the Master’s pronouncement regarding Peter’s realization that he was in the Presence of the Christ; the dialogue goes thus: “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17). We of course understand the reality of the Father as the God Within which we generally speak of as the Christ Within or the Soul and in this we should see the reality of the Old Testament words saying: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (Deuteronomy 6:4) which is repeated for us in the New Testament where we read “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29). We KNOW that in each of these sayings the words go on to teach us of the result of our focus and the objective of this Life in form; the expression of the Love of God through the form Life of a man.
The last of our sayings from the Buddha also contains as a central point this idea of focus; His framing of the Life of man sets choices that must be made and in this is His instruction. He tells us Do not live in the world in illusion and in glamour which he frames in words better understood in His time; this is focus upon the world of things as is the painted chariot for kings and the trap for fools. He tells us to Arise and watch which is to focus and to Follow the way which is the continuance of that focus upon the things of God. Can we see the idea here from the Buddha’s perspective? can we see that we could break this ALL down to just a few words that would say what He is saying and what the Christ is saying and that we are saying here as well:
Do not live in the world…..Follow the way.
The movement of one’s focus onto the things of God is the work of the aspirant and the result of this work is discipleship. Focus upon God is the single requirement of discipleship as ALL else that the Master tells us of this is covered in this word focus. When this idea of focus is properly understood we find that it means attending to His words and attending to the precepts of His teachings and in this idea of attending we should see the words of Vincent regarding the Master’s use of the the words believing on and believing in. While these are seen by many merely as affirmations of belief in the things that happened historically and perhaps even what it is that He says, it must be more. For us this is framed as keeping His words and following Him and Vincent eloquently paints this for us as: to believe in, or on, is more than mere acceptance of a statement. It is so to accept a statement or a person as to rest upon them, to trust them practically; to draw upon and avail one’s self of all that is offered to him in them. Hence to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ is not merely to believe the facts of His historic life or of His saving energy as facts, but to accept Him as Savior, Teacher, Sympathizer, Judge; to rest the soul upon Him for present and future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and example as binding upon the life4. We do rely on these words frequently and the incorporated doctrine aside, this is, especially the end words in bold type, the reality of believing in and believing on and these are the epitome of faith as it is used in doctrine. We have come to understand that faith and believing are KNOWING without a doubt and reliance of that KNOWING and it is here at the fulfillment of this idea that one is a True expression of the Love and the Power of God on Earth.
As aspirants we KNOW to some small degree; as disciples we KNOW to a yet greater degree and here we can paint a sort of picture of the difference. As aspirants we have accepted and adopted His precepts and example as binding in our lives; were this not True we would not be reading and writing this blog, we would not be seekers who understand the Truth of His words: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Luke 11:9). However, we do not yet KNOW what we should ask for, what to seek for and how it is that one can knock or follow His other directive of “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). While we may have been or not disciples in a previous incarnation we do not KNOW but we do KNOW that we have not accomplished this here in this Lifetime and we strive and we ask and we seek and knock but we are not at all certain of how these things are to be done. We do however follow the prompting of the Souls who lead us, the Christ Within who gives us revelation, the Soul that we find and the God Within who answers our call; this is focus upon the things of God from the viewpoint of the aspirant who has accepted and adopted His precepts and example as binding in our lives but who has not yet been able to express these same through his Life in form. We have not been able to let go of the things of the world and our Life within the world and this comes back to our starting words…..this is ALL WE KNOW.
Until such time when we can let go we are hard working aspirants steadily moving the focus of our Life to be more and more centered upon the things of God. There is a point of accomplishment upon which we become disciples and that is, according to the Master, that point were we can forsake ALL that is in and of the world. Let us look again at His words on discipleship:
- “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.27And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple……So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27, 33).
- “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:33).
- “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples” (John 15:8).
There is no wiggle room in these sayings, this is total commitment and total focus upon the things of God. Above, in the words of the Master and of the Buddha, we see the idea of the difficulty that is inherent in this process and this is not a secret. The Master goes on, in between the sayings above from Luke, to show us by parable the reality of the sacrifice that is involved and we should remember here that the sacrifice is only from the perspective of the form Life and it is therefore illusory. We are giving up that which is essentially meaningless for the Good, the Beautiful and the True; we are giving up the transitory and temporal Life in form for what we call in scripture Eternal Life. The parables go thus:
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace” (Luke 14:28-32).
There is a reality in these examples. In the first can be seen the Life of the aspirant who is moving toward discipleship and by reading the words of the Master is full aware of the cost of that discipleship; he KNOWS clearly that the cost is forsaking ALL of the world in both things and attachments and bearing his own share of the service required and, at the same time realizing that he MUST keep the words of the Master and be fruitful. So the Master is telling us the cost of discipleship and telling us why we must recognize it. In the second the idea is a bit more illusive but the same; the aspirant is desirous of discipleship and he knows the cost and in his own meditative state he plots a course and gathers what he may need. He KNOWS of forsaking and bearing and recognizes that he can do these things and he marshals the courage and the willpower and wrestles control of the Life away from the personality and the body and he succeeds. Were he not aware of the cost and the toll upon the psyche and if does not recognize what strength he may need and the end result of the struggle, he might give in or give up before the campaign is completed. He is either committed to fulfilling ALL or he is not.
In both of these parables the Master is building upon the difficulty that He outlines for us in forsaking ALL and bearing one’s own cross and He warns us to be ready.
Would that we could just walk away from ALL today.
We left off a few weeks ago promising that we would address these idea from a modern perspective and we have not yet done so. How do we live in this complex world today and at the same time do as the Master asks of His disciples. We will try to get back to this in our 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.
As we found ourselves devoting much of this essay to the teachings of the Buddha we will leave with this one as the Quote of the Day, it is about being awake.
Below in the meaning of the word master is the disciple and there is much instruction and understanding in the Buddha’s words that can help us to accomplish the ideas above regarding discipleship as we understand it.
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.
Repeating our comments from a previous post: This is another selection from the Dhammapada, the sayings of the Buddha, from the chapter called Wakefulness. The ideas here are simple for the awakened but for the unawakened they can be very difficult. This is much like the sayings of the Christ, especially the last one that we discussed from John’s Gospel. Wakefulness here can be likened to our idea of focus on the Christ Within, the Soul, the spiritual Life. Sleep is just the opposite and can be likened to focus upon the things of the world. To be awake is to see things as they Truly are and to be asleep is to see things in the illusion and the glamour of the world. Wakefulness makes a man the master of his own Life while sleep makes one the fool. Wakefulness is striving to enter at the strait gate while being asleep is to float aimlessly on the waves of the ways of the world where one may think that he is getting somewhere only to realize in the end that he has gone nowhere, accomplished nothing.
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
