IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 491

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART LXXXIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live , ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:13-26).

We leave again our sayings from the Gospel of John although we will not get to them today. We should note here however that there is a synergy between these words and the ideas that follow insofar as the normal perception of the Master’s words is concerned. Here above we are asking and this asking is normally thought of as the request for things that benefit the Earthly Life of a man or a group. These requests are of course the result of desire and while the common understanding may be that this is what the Master means, our deeper reading shows that He is not at all speaking of things of this Earth. As we will discuss when we do get back to these verses, the Master can be seen here referring to our asking for the activity of the Christ Within in daily Life which is, in our understanding, the reality of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. Any other assumption as to the meaning of asking in His name is misplaced though this is the teaching of much Christian doctrine which results in one’s asking for things and including in such requests the words ‘in the name of Jesus‘.

The verses that we are here studying are themselves misunderstood because of the rather consistent and constant refusal of the Christian psyche to regard desire as that thing what we would call evil and sin and, of course, these words should be seen as the things and the ways of the world an not only in the harshness of those things and thoughts that are Truly bad. From our perspective we should be able to see that the “treasures upon earth” are evil and sin; that the positioning of one’s mind on the things of the world is evil and sin and results in the idea that “thy whole body shall be full of darkness” and to these we should add that to choose mammon as the reality that one serves is evil and is sin as well.

“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. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 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. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat , or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap , nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is , and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:19-34).

In the last post we discussed what we see as the reality between the Master’s use of “take no thought” and the concept of desire. We noted how the entirety of the scripture that leads up to these words “”take no thought” is intended to do just that, to lead up to them as the preceding words are the Master’s way of conveying the totality of His thoughts. From the ideas of treasures on the earth versus treasures in the things of God being, either one, the content of one’s consciousness, his daily thought, to the ideas regarding Light which we should see as the content of the consciousness, as those things that take our attention and our focus, we should be able to see the uniformity of the Master’s message. First the Master tells us about the treasure of the heart or the focus of the life from the perspective of what is or becomes important to a man and then he tells us of the effect of this as it plays upon his mind which we should see as the KNOWING aspect depicted by the eye; the faculty of mental perception and understanding ³ as we previously noted. Finally we discussed the reality of serving from the Master’s perspective and that it includes these things above; in the accumulation of treasures as things of the world we are serving this reality of Life in form, this mammon, and attending to it and, in our conscious focus of Life on these things, we are bringing into the form Life and personality more and more power focused on the carnal nature and, from the perspective of the Soul this is darkness and this is again serving mammon.

ALL of this is reflective of desire, that is the desire for the things of the world and it is this desire for the temporal that the sayings of the Buddha that we have been posting are concerned. We should add here that this desire is motivated by and secured in the illusion and the glamour in which the man in the world lives which is what the Apostle Paul calls for us vanity.

We continue now with the sayings of the Buddha on desire as they appear in our translation of the Dhammapada.

• Do not exalt yourself But lighten the way For your words are sweet. Follow the truth of the way. Reflect upon it. Make it your own. Live it. It will always sustain you. Do not turn away what is given you Not reach out for what is given to others, Lest you disturb your quietness. Give thanks For what had been given to you, However little. Be pure, never falter. You have no name and no form. Why miss what you do not have? The seeker is not sorry. Love and joyfully Follow the way, The quiet way to the happy country. Seeker! Empty the boat, Lighten the load, Passion and desire and hatred. And sail swiftly (On the Seeker).
• Resist the pleasures of life And the desire to hurt – Till sorrows vanish. Never offend By what you think or say or do…..Whatever is not his He refuses, Good or bad, great or small. He wants nothing from this world And nothing from the next. He is free. Desiring nothing, doubting nothing, Beyond judgment and sorrow And the pleasures of the senses, He had moved beyond time. He is pure and free. How clear he is. He is the moon. He is serene. He shines. For he has traveled Life after life The muddy and treacherous road of illusion. He does not tremble Or grasp or hesitate. He has found peace. Calmly He lets go of life, Or home and pleasure and desire. Nothing of men can hold him. Nothing of the gods can hold him. Nothing in all creation can hold him. Desire has left him, Never to return. Sorrow has left him, Never to return. He is calm (On the True Master).
• If you sleep, Desire grows in you Like a vine in the forest. Like a monkey in the forest You jump from tree to tree, Never finding the fruit – From life to life, Never finding peace. If you are filled with desire Your sorrows swell Like the grass after the rain. But if you subdue desire Your sorrows shall fall from you Like drops of water from a lotus flower. This is good counsel And it is for everyone: As the grass is cleared for the fresh root, Cut down desire Lest death after death crush you As a river crushes the helpless reeds. For if the roots hold firm, A felled tree grows up again. If desires are not uprooted, Sorrows grow again in you. Thirty-six streams are rushing toward you! Desire and pleasure and lust… Play in your imagination with them And they will sweep you away. Powerful streams! They flow everywhere. Strong vine! If you see it spring up, Take care! Pull it out by the roots. Pleasures flow everywhere. You float upon them And are carried from life to life. Like a hunted hare you run, The pursuer of desire pursued, Harried from life to life. O seeker! Give up desire, Shake off your chains. You have come out of the hollow Into the clearing. The clearing is empty. Why do you rush back into the hollow? Desire is a hollow And people say “Look! He was free. But now he gives up his freedom.” It is not iron that imprisons you Nor rope nor wood, But the pleasure you take in gold and jewels, In sons and wives. Soft fetters, Yet they hold you down. Can you snap them? There are those who can, Who surrender to the world, Forsake desire, and follow the way. O slave of desire, Float upon the stream. Little spider, stick to your web. Or else abandon your sorrows for the way. Abandon yesterday, and tomorrow, And today. Cross over to the father shore, Beyond life and death. Do your thoughts trouble you? Does passion disturb you? Beware of this thirstiness Lest your wishes become desires And desire binds you. Quieten your mind. Reflect. Watch. Nothing binds you. You are free. You are strong. You have come to the end. Free from passion and desire, You have stripped the thorns from the stem. This is you last body. You are wise. You are free from desire And you understand words And the stitching together of words. And you want nothing. “Victory is mine, Knowledge is mine, And all purity, All surrender. “I want nothing. I am free. I found my way. What shall I call Teacher? The gift of truth is beyond giving. The taste beyond sweetness, The joy beyond joy. The end of desire is the end of sorrow. The fool is his own enemy. Seeking wealth, he destroys himself. Seek rather the other shore. Weeds choke the field. Passion poisons the nature of man, And hatred, illusion, and desire. Honor the man who is without passion, Hatred, illusion, and desire. What you give to him Will be given back to you, And more. (On Desire)

We left the chapter from our translation called On Desire for last while it should have been first in our list today. This ends our look at the sayings of the Buddha on desire and as we proceed over the next several posts we will discuss some of these as they relate to the words of the Master that we have been discussing as well as those other ideas on the focus of Life that we come upon in His words and in the words of His apostles.

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.:

Today we post a World Prayer that is also included in the Prayers and Meditation section with some explanation of its source and its use. We are entering a time of the year which we can consider more sacred by way of the newness of Spring which should reflect in our newness of Life. This is the Festival of Easter and a time of rejoicing; not only for the Resurrection of the Lord from the Christian perspective but also for the teaching that is incorporated in the Master’s sacrifice 2000 years ago and in His continued sacrifice. We should remember His parting words: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20)

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.

• ²  New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
• ³  Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
• ⁵ The Dhammapada Translated by Thomas Byrom
• ** A TREATISE ON WHITE MAGIC OR THE WAY OF THE DISCIPLE BY ALICE A. BAILEY COPYRIGHT © 1951 BY LUCIS TRUST