Monthly Archives: September 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART XLII

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

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 our last post we looked again that the idea that the divinity of the Christ and the divinity of the man, the True man as the Soul, are essentially the same, Sons of God. The basic difference is in the reality of this on this Earth; the Master was born into a Life of divinity here in form while we, as men in form, must work toward that divinity and this requires that the man focus his Life on the Christ Within and on the things of God. This is the same focus that brings a man to the reality of True discipleship and makes him accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. We should not take this too lightly as the Christ is likely the highest pinnacle of divine achievement having far surpassed the ideas of accounted worthy and discipleship and is at a point that we can only imagine that which the Apostle Paul calls the fullness of the Godhead and which we see as a state of ultimate KNOWING. This is that same KNOWING that allows a man to “say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove” (Matthew 17:20) and which likely allows for even greater divine presence. The column on the  left below is our view of God as a Trinity of Aspects; this is God, the Father, He IS Life, Existence; He IS the ONE Boundless Immutable Principle; one Absolute Reality which, antecedes all manifested conditioned Being. It is beyond the range and reach of any human thought or expression**.

In the right hand column there is man; not the man in form but the man who IS created “in the image of God“; this is the spiritual man and a Trinity just as is God the creator. This is the Truth behind the words “God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27) and, as we discussed in the last post, it is inconceivable to see this in any other way unless we suppose that God is a man. And we KNOW that God IS NOT a man because the Master tells us so saying “God is a Spirit“. We should note here as well the the Master falls into this right hand column as well and, as we see above, He expresses these potencies through form. Now we do not really understand and cannot Truly comprehend the meaning of Spirit; we can suggest and we can imagine but we cannot KNOW except at that time when we are ALIVE, AWAKE and living the Life of the disciple or as the Buddha teaches, the Life of a master. Jesus tells us in His whole statement that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth”  (John 4:24) and here we should see the reality of worship as being close to God and that the way to do this is in Spirit, and in Truth. This tells us that it IS NOT the carnal man that can get close to God but the SPIRITUAL MAN, the Soul expressing through the personality and the form. We should note here also that there is confusion regarding this word that is translated as worship and in this context we should note that Vine’s tells us that the worship of God is nowhere defined in Scripture⁶ and we should carefully consider the reality of the understanding that we have of this word. In ALL that we do KNOW about God, especially in the New Testament, we should be able to see that there is no need for the True man expressing through form to worship as we understand this and for those that are not yet expressing their divine nature though form, there are likely more useful ways to ‘worship’ him that the common understanding. The lexicon tells us that proskuneo, which is translated as worship, means to kiss the hand to (towards) one, in token of reverence; among the Orientals, esp. the Persians, to fall upon the knees and touch the ground with the forehead as an expression of profound reverence; in the NT by kneeling or prostration to do homage (to one) or make obeisance, whether in order to express respect or to make supplication; used of homage shown to men and beings of superior rank, to the Jewish high priests, to God, to Christ, to heavenly beings, to demons². Strong’s is a bit simpler saying that proskuneo means to worship, pay homage, show reverence; to kneel down³.

Our point here is that the notion of worship as spoken of above is a doctrinal approach that is likely based upon a Hebrew word that was translated similar and which may have had a more important role in the Life of the Jews whose ability to approach God was a matter of the law and the Hebrew word translated as worship is, according to Vine’s, the act of prostrating oneself or to bow down⁶. The ideas of worship are self defined in the churches today and worship varies by denomination and sect; for some it is in music and song, others in prayer and yet others in reverence to the things of God in the church but, regardless of what the form, worship is not rightly understood by most. Apart from doctrine, there is no requirement of the Master regarding worship as we see it above and there is certainly no place where the Master demands or even requests that we should worship Him in this same context. The Master asks us only that we should keep His words and that we should Love, and it is our premise and our understanding that this is the reality of worship. In a word, we should see this idea of worship  as SERVICE. There is another Greek word, latreuo, that is translated in the King James Version as worship but which is translated in other versions as serve and here we should take a lesson. In the encounter between the Jesus and Satan in the wilderness (In the Words of Jesus part 415 has much of our discussion on this) both of these Greek words are used: “And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Luke 4:8). Here we have proskuneo translated as worship and latreuo translated as serve and both of these words can mean the same thing in this context which would cause it to read “Thou shalt serve the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve“. If we restate our saying  above in this same way we have “God is a Spirit: and they that serve him must serve him in spirit and in truth“. The entire segment then between the Samaritan woman at the well and the Master would then tell us:

• “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers served in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to serve. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, serve the Father. Ye serve ye know not what: we know what we serve: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true servers shall serve the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to serve him. God is a Spirit: and they that serve him must serve him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:19-24).
• Looking at this in relation to the words of Jehovah as spoken through Moses we find: “And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain” (Exodus 3:12). We also read: “Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name” (Deuteronomy 6:13) among many other sayings that give us the same message.

Can we see the way that this idea of serving works out in words and in the reality of the teachings of the Master? How do we serve God? From the perspective of the Old Testament, ALL that the Jews were to do was to serve Him and, like the use of the word worship, this word is not well defined either except for the priests and the general understanding that the people would keep the commandments. In the Gospels we find the word latreuo translated as serve in the saying that we reference above and in the the Master’s words on God and mammon where we read “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). While there is no real definition offered here we KNOW the reality of this is that we focus on one or the other, we attend to one or the other and this is serving one or the other. Seeing this idea of serving as we paint it above, let us look at the original with the words translated as worship:

• “The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth“

We should understand here that our issue is not with the word worship being used as the translation but it is with the meaning and the understanding that this word conveys as opposed to what we should believe is True, serving.

We did get a bit sidetracked by the ideas presented by the Master in John’s Gospel. It is important that we understand that to serve is the way, par excellence, to attain the Path and the Kingdom and that this idea of service plays a large part in the teachings of the Master. As the ‘voice’ of God tells us, the Master is the servant of the Lord; we read: “behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased : I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles” (Matthew 12:18). We are also told of the depth of this understanding of serving; the Master tells us “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” (Matthew 12:27) which is repeated for us by Mark saying “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all” (Mark 10:44). We can see, if we look right, the crossover idea of worship and serving in the reality of service in these words from the Master to His disciples: “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am , there shall also my servant be : if any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12:26).

We close for today on this note; there is little profit in worship if worship means that we bow or we sing or we praise God. True worship is in serving God and we should ever remember that the Master tells us this on serving God:

“Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying , Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink ? When saw wethee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:34-40)

Ponder on this.

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.

This Quote of the Day has now been with us for many days and in this we should be able to see and to understand the two levels of understanding from the perspective of the man in form; the one who sees only those things that are presented physically and the other who is “born of the Spirit” and sees Truth.

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.

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ² New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³ Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁵ The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
• ⁶ Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
• ** A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A Bailey © 1951 by Lucis Trust