Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART XXXVI
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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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. 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.
We have repeated this saying of our own from several days and have not, until the last post, realized the overall reality that it contains as seen against these words of the Buddha and against the words of the Master. 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. Can we see in this the idea behind the Parable of the Rich Fool which we gave a part of in our last post and which we repeat here for clarity: “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16-21). While we may think that these ideas from the Master relate only toward a man’s possessions and wealth, this is not Truly the case as we must remember that this is a parable and this saying, like most all parables, secrets hidden meanings for ALL.
Here we should think of ALL those things that cause a man to be asleep, focused on the world of things; asleep to the promptings of his own Soul and awash in the feeling that this Life in form is ALL that there is. Of those who believe that this is wealth only, we should see that they use this parabolic idea in their effort to be “rich toward God” believing that if they give their ten percent that they are free from the burden of riches as a general theme. The Master tells us about men who do what they believe is required saying in relation to giving and to praying and fasting that: “They have their reward” (Matthew 6:5). Here we should be able to see the man, rich or not, who, for example, has devoted his Life to family and to worldly pursuits of most any nature without reaching out to fulfill his duty and a incarnated Soul which duty is clearly spelled out in the words of the Master. Here we should see ourselves, even as aspirants, who do not accomplish that which is destined, to Love our neighbor which is the essence of keeping His word; here we should see ALL men who hold on to the ways of the world or harbor ill feelings and prejudices against others and this regardless of what it is that they believe that they are doing for the Lord. What is the result for these who sleep? what is the outcome of a Life for the man who is spiritually foolish as the rich man in the parable? Simply what we say in our saying above; such men will realize in the end that he has gone nowhere, accomplished nothing and this of course is from the spiritual perspective and the proof of it is in the question posed by God as in the parable above and the reality of the proverb which says: “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).
Continuing on with the Buddha’s words above, we revisit the idea of the master in the relationship of an island, a guarded island, that is free from the waters of emotion and the illusions of the mind, is free from the illusion and the glamour of the world of men. Here the Buddha tells us that The master makes for himself an island Which the flood cannot overwhelm and this should paint for us a clear picture of the reality of wakefulness, the reality of focus upon the Christ Within and should be our added assurance that when a man is so focused, the ways of the world no longer lure him and he stands as a watcher and no longer as a willing participant. This is ever the goal of the master and the disciple and is the reality behind the Master’s teaching that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon“. The Buddha tells us that to be a master is to be beyond the call of the flesh, the call of mammon, and to be free from it while the Christ tells us that we must choose the one, God, or the other, mammon, because “No servant can serve two masters” (Luke 16:13), that this IS NOT possible. The Christ gives us a reasoned explanation of the way that we should go, that we must focus either on the one, God, or the other, mammon; while the Buddha tells us of the way of the one who is focused upon God, that he cannot be overwhelmed and, in the next thought tells us of the one who is focused upon the world saying The fool is careless.
We learn next that the master overcomes desire which we should understand as ALL of the things of the flesh; this is the nature of the disciple and the master. Today’s Christianity does not allow for this synonymous relationship between desire and the flesh and some maintain that it is wrong to squelch desire and this is because they do not properly understand the idea of “….they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24) as the Apostle Paul tells us. This idea of flesh and the desires of the man in form are rather constant in Paul’s writings; he clearly makes the relationship as we have portrayed it; that living after the flesh IS NOT necessarily evil or bad but it is rather the focus of the Life and consciousness of the man in form upon the things of the world and upon his worldly and carnal desires. The realization that the desires for the things of the world are akin to choosing mammon must eventually be made if a man is to Truly progress. Let us look as some of the apostles words on the desires of the flesh:
- “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). Here Paul tells us of the struggle of the aspirant and perhaps of the disciple as well. The Buddha does not address the difficulty, He merely tells us that the master, the disciple, overcomes desire and that he makes for himself an island Which the flood cannot overwhelm. In the Buddha’s words, these are things that the master accomplishes in his discipleship.
- “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). This is a rather straightforward expression of the reality of serving, of focusing on, either God or mammon. We should remember that there is ever vacillation between these two points for the aspirant.
- “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). If the idea of pleasing God is that we keep His words and if the reality of keeping His words leads us to and IS discipleship then this is A KEY NEW TESTAMENT STATEMENT for us to understand.
- “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). Here we can relate these ideas to what we discussed yesterday regarding the the fool, the man that is focused on the things of the world, the flesh. The Buddha says of these that The fool sleeps As if he were already dead and in this we should understand our point from the last post that living in the world and focusing on that Life is as death as perceived by the Soul. From the perspective of the Soul the inattentive form Life, the form Life that is concerned only with the things of self, is of little progressive use.
- “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Romans 13:14). Can we see in this the instruction to do what the Buddha tells us is accomplished by the master; in making no “provision for the flesh” he The master makes for himself an island Which the flood cannot overwhelm and in so doing he overcomes desire.
The text continues here as we left off yesterday saying some of the more personal things that we need to realize insofar as the separation between the disciple and the crowd; we should note here that in the Buddhist culture there are many who forsake ALL as a way of Life and that the mere act of forsaking is not in and of itself the gateway to divinity. The Buddha Himself started in His religious pursuits as a ascetic which is defined for us as: a person who practises great self-denial and austerities and abstains from worldly comforts and pleasures, esp for religious reasons; (in the early Christian Church) a monk.* The same is true for many who are considered monks in most every religion; while the may live the ascetic Life they are not necessarily disciples unless they keep ALL of the requirements as we have ofttimes listed them. These include keeping His words and regardless of what religion one may subscribe to, these words are essentially the same, forsaking ALL, and, bearing one’s own cross in which we should see the ideas as spoken by the Master in the Gospel of John….that we bear much fruit. This idea of fruit sets apart the monk or the ascetic from the servers of the race of Men. We can see this in the Life of the Master, the Life of the Buddha and in the lives of the apostles who are told to actively bring the Kingdom of God to the people to teach the Kingdom and the Truth and to be examples of the reality of a disciple, the reality of a master. The Master leaves us few words of action for the disciple to follow save the example that He Himself set and the commandments on Love, yet we KNOW that in the resolution of Love in the Life of the disciple, service follows for service is the expression of that Love and when one reaches that point in his journey, there is no need for instruction; the service is innate in the Life of the Soul, the Christ Within. This same is True of the teachings of the Buddha; He says little of service and little of Love but at the same time the Life of the True master is replete with these things as they are innate in the Life of the Soul. The Master teaches us discipleship through Love while the Buddha teaches the same through Wisdom. Love makes the disciple and the Power of the Soul makes him Wise and, at the same time, Wisdom makes the disciple and the Power of the Soul brings Love.
Here we should remember the long dissertation by Solomon in the Book of Proverbs where we learn that Wisdom IS with God at the beginning and when we relate this to the words of the Apostle John who tells us that God is Love and that Christ, the Love of God made manifest to men, was with God from the beginning as well, then we can have a clearer picture of ourselves and of God.
“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate. Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me princes rule , and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver.20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures. The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth: While as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep: When he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters should not pass his commandment: when he appointed the foundations of the earth: Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; Rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men. Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways” (Proverbs 8:12-32).
There is an indelible link between Wisdom and Love; these ARE the attributes of the Son of God, of the Soul, and in many respects are in reality ONE but this realization is not yet within our ken. In Proverbs Wisdom is given a high place as it is in the teachings of the Buddha while Love is the essence of the teachings of the Master. Can we see that we need both and that one leads us to the other. The Buddha’s next words which we did not get to are And from the tower of his wisdom He looks down with dispassion Upon the sorrowing crowd. In this we see the relationship between the master and the crowd but only with the insight of a master; he is not looking down as we would speak to day but he is rather is a place where he sees ALL, he sees their sorrow even when they cannot see it themselves. The Buddha goes on to say that From the mountain top He looks down at those Who live close to the ground. Mindful among the mindless, Awake while others dream. Here is the continuation of the thought, looking down from high above the master sees ALL of the issues of men who live focused upon the things of the world. He sees them as mindless and he sees them as they dream.
We will continue with our 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.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit (John 3:3-8)
Today’s Quote of the Day is in regard to the new birth which Nicodemus did not understand and which many today do not understand either. The words of the Master tell us of a total commitment to the Lord as the way to the Kingdom and these verses say that as well. This total commitment is being born again. The differences in language aside, we should try to see the relationship between these ideas of being born again which is the essence of discipleship for it is only in discipleship that one can Truly see the Kingdom. These are much misused ideas because they are seen from the perspective of the man in form and no from the perspective of the Soul living through form.
- 5 The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
- * “ascetic.” Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition.
