Monthly Archives: April 2013

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART CCXXIII

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•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α

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.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

We lead again today with the Great Invocation and our chart that depicts for us the Aspects of God and the Constitution of Man along with their common potencies which differ only by degree, and our new columns which are our sense of relationships to both the Great Invocation and the words of the Christ which He utters as a Truth and as a reality that can be best realized by looking within. As we discussed in the last essay, the way of communication with the Christ and OUR God who are ever ONE is through the Christ Within or the God Within which are ever ONE as well. These are the divine aspects of Life as we KNOW it and it is only through the divine aspects of man that we can approach the corresponding Divine Aspects of God as there is a synergy and a relationship here that we cannot rightly comprehend until that time that we are expressing that Life, the Life of the God and the Christ Within, through our forms in this world.

We must come to understand here that there IS NO separation of any of these aspects nor potencies; from our perspective as men in the word there ARE NO places where they exist. We cannot touch or see Spirit or Soul as men in the world as these both exist, as ONE, in the Kingdom of God and in this we refer again to the Master’s words that tell us clearly and plainly that “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). In this phrase and in our more modern understanding, we can see the reality that our approach to the divine as men in form is an approach of realization which brings us back to how we left off in the last post speaking of the problem of language; where there on only words that describe the things and ways of the world available to us to then describe things divine. How can we understand this idea? Our understanding of realization is closely related to our understanding of revelation which, in a spiritual sense, can be seen as the revealing to our carnal minds a divine idea or an idea that is concerned with divine nature. Now we should see here that the use of divine is intended to show that delineation of thoughts and ideas and attitudes that are for and of the self and his place in the world versus those ideas, thoughts and attitudes that ARE NOT of this world. And this line is not a clear one as we can see in the idea of a man making some great discovery or conceiving of some great invention with which the lives of many will be enhanced and changed and the race of men bettered. These types of revelation and realizations are indeed motivated by the divine, by the Soul of the inventor or the discoverer who is often driven toward that desired outcome by a sense of mission that is dictated by the Soul. This is not unlike what we have been saying regarding those who came into incarnation with the Christ as His ready aids in assuring that His mission would be successful and these include major role players such as the apostles as well as persons who may had only uplifted the spirits of Mary and Joseph so as to confirm for them in the flesh those things that they KNOW in the Spirit.

The converse is the everyday and ordinary thoughts, ideas and attitudes of the man in the world which are such that they deal only with his own Life and perhaps the lives of those close to him; they are selfish and this is not meant in that derogatory way but just to say that the thoughts, ideas and attitudes are self-centered. Here again we face the difficulty of language and of understanding as we say that the majority of the world of men in form are selfish and, of course, this is by degree. Our point here is that the vast majority of men yet today are concerned about the self and the extended self as family and close friends and the concern is in general regard of their comfort and pleasure as men in form, their well being if we may. It is through focus upon the things of God that this changes and this begins with a man heeding the impulse and the prompting of the Soul to action in form and from this perspective we could see a man of some past spiritual success being charged with some dynamic human advancement who comes among us but who is so totally self-absorbed that he cannot break away from the illusion and the glamour of the world and does not accomplish that which he came into incarnation for. Now in the strange and mysterious way that this all works out in the minds of men, many who are charged with some achievement through their lives in this world as based upon the spiritual collateral that they had previously achieved many never understand their charge as spiritual or divine but may see it as strong motivation and in this regard for some their overall lives may appear to be out of tune with the accomplishments that they make. We cannot, from our small perspective KNOW who is who insofar as these things are concerned but we can hold up some candidates such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King who over the span of about a hundred years changed the racial climate in this country and strongly influenced the same around the world; we can add to this men like Albert Einstein and others of his ilk and in his time that changed the way that we look at energy and matter and time and space and this with worldwide ramifications.

And so we have realization and revelation as the impulse of the Soul that is intended to motivate the man in form to action in thought or in activity or we have a realization or revelation that one believes is from the Soul or for which no there is no understanding by the man of the source.  From the normal perspective of most men in form, they cannot tell the source of a realization or revelation and we can here say that if it IS NOT self-centered then it will  likely be found to be of that Wisdom from above of which we so often speak. If we could draw a line of delineation or demarcation between what is divine and what is of the world, we would not necessarily then draw it to delineate thoughts, ideas and action that concern the world from those which are ‘heavenly’ as there is not from our perspective any divine thought, idea or action that is not in some way concerned with the world as this IS our arena for action. Hence our reliance of the words of the Apostle James who gives us our basis for KNOWING that a thought, idea or action IS or IS NOT from above or whether it can be considered divine. Here then let us look again at James words from the perspective of what IS of the world and what can be considered as from above:

“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth *not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace” (James 3:13-18).

Of course we must repeat here that which we so often say when considering these words from the apostle which is that the translations and interpretations of these words can be seen much simpler and this is especially True regarding the James’ ideas on what IS NOT from above. As we have not repeated Vincent’s words on the ideas from James above, we will repost here our entire discourse as well as his words: “This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work“. We should see that this follows upon the ideas engendered by the previous verse which cite “bitter envying and strife“ and of which he tells us that we should not fool ourselves, thinking that these should be the way of man. Vincent gives us some help here that may allow us to see these things in today’s terms, he says: Envying (zh~lon). The word is used in the New Testament both in a bad and a good sense. For the latter, see John 2:17; Romans 10:2; 2; Corinthians 9:2. From it is our word zeal, which may be either good or bad, wise or foolish. The bad sense is predominant in the New Testament. See Acts 5:17; Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:20, and here, where the bad sense is defined and emphasized by the epithet bitter. It is often joined with e]riv, strife, as here with ejri>qeia, intriguing or faction. The rendering envying, as A.V., more properly belongs to fqo>nov, which is never used in a good sense. Emulation is the better general rendering, which does not necessarily include envy, but may be full of the spirit of self-devotion. Rev. renders jealousy. Strife (ejriqei>an). A wrong rendering, founded on the mistaken derivation from e]riv, strife. It is derived from e]riqov, a hired servant, and means, primarily, labor for hire. Compare Tobit 2:11: My wife did take women’s work to do (hjriqeu>eto). Thus it comes to be applied to those who serve in official positions for their own selfish interest, and who, to that end, promote party spirit and faction. So Romans 2:8: them that are contentious (ejx ejriqei>av), lit., of faction. Rev., factious. Also, 2 Corinthians 12:20. Rev., here, rightly, faction ⁴. Can we get a clearer meaning from this? The common translations of jealousy and envy are clear and useful but these are likely already apparently wrong to any who would be in James original audience as well as to the spiritually minded man of today; Vincent gives these ideas from James a more hidden tone as wrongs that may not appear to be so and hence the ending statement about deception. We should see also that these ideas are considered extreme by James and this from the context of the next statement which calls them “confusion and every evil work” as being inherent in envying and strife. Vincent’s ideas regarding the word that is translated as envy tell us that emulation is the better rendering and in this is not so much the idea of envy as it is the idea of self-devotion and this idea coincides nicely with the opening verse where the apostle tells us that our attitude should be the opposite of self-devotion. This word emulation gives much clarity to James idea; the 1828 Webster’s dictionary tells us that this means: n. The act of attempting to equal or excel in qualities or actions; rivalry; desire of superiority, attended with effort to attain to it; generally in a good sense, or an attempt to equal or excel others in that which is praise-worthy, without the desire of depressing others. Rom.11. In a bad sense, a striving to equal or do more than others to obtain carnal favors or honors. Val.5. 1. An ardor kindled by the praise-worthy examples of others, inciting to imitate them, or to equal or excel them. 2. Contest; contention; strife; competition; rivalry accompanied with a desire of depressing another ¹. Can we see how this shows an ardent focus on the carnal lower Life instead focus on the Life of the Soul, the Christ Within which is also the basis of the teaching of the Christ and the apostles. Can we see also the relationship of this idea of emulation to idea of strife and then the way that Vincent interprets this idea of strife for us as signifying selfish interest in officialdom, the church for example, which leads then to the promotion of party spirit and faction. Can we see better in this the earthly, sensual nature and the devilish character; can we see “confusion and every evil work“?

From this rather lengthy restatement of James’ ideas and our discussion of them we have developed our simple premise which IS as we have been stating it; if a thought, idea or action is concerned with the self, the man in form and his carnal Life, if it IS self-centered, then it IS a thought, idea or an action that is of the world and NOT from above; it IS NOT a divinely inspired realization or revelation. Conversely if a thought, idea or action falls into the scope of the apostle’s words on what IS from above, if it IS “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” then we can be confident that this is divinely inspired, it IS True revelation and True realization of some thought, idea or action that can be considered as service to the world. Here we must remember that this idea of service IS of paramount importance and it IS the True sign of GoodWill and of Love. We do not often speak about the idea of service but we should understand that ALL True spiritual pursuits will, on their own, take on a role of service and it matters not what that service is so long as it is rendered in Love and GoodWill. The Master and His apostles do not speak much on this idea either and likely for the reasons we cite above, that this IS a rather automatic expression of the Light of the Soul. The Master does however give us some words on this and from these we can see His own understanding of the role of service; Jesus tells us:

• “But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever *will be great among you, let him be your minister;  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:26-28).
• “But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat ? but I am among you as he that serveth” (Luke 22:27-28).
• “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 should note here that the same Greek word is rendered as both serve and minister in the first two points above and this is as the choice of the King James translators. Vincent tells us this regarding this Greek word rendered as minister and that different word used by Matthew as servant: Minister (diakonov). Servant, ver. 27 (doulov). Doulov, perhaps from dew, to bind, is the bondman, representing the permanent relation of servitude. Diakonov, probably from the same root as diwkw, to pursue, represents a servant, not in his relation, but in his activity. The term covers both slaves and hired servants. The attendants at the feast at Cana (John ii. 5) are called diakonoi. In the epistles diakonov is often used specifically for a minister of the Gospel (1 Cor. iii. 5; 2 Corinthians iii. 6; Eph. iii. 7). The word deacon is, moreover, almost a transcription of it (Philip. i. 1; 1 Tim. iii. 8, 12). It is applied to Phoebe (Romans xvi. 1).

We should note here the reference to a minister of the Gospel which would go to the priest, the rabbi, the deacon and so forth in the church and this is a reality for most, they ARE servants. However we must keep in mind that service IS NOT a panacea here, it does not account for anything on its own from the perspective of the Kingdom and of discipleship unless it is accompanied by one’s diligence in keeping His words and not merely keeping the doctrines that at times cover His words. Now we are not casting aspersions on the many of men and women who find their life in the church in some capacity but we must understand the reality of what it is that we are speaking about daily here, that there is a great disparity between the various doctrines of the churches and the reality of His words and it is this idea that we have been discussing as we related the Master’s displeasure with the Pharisees and other rulers of the Jews to the workings of religious doctrine in the churches even to today. Our point here is however to see the value of service as it is a fundamental result of keeping His word and is essentially the Life of the disciple and we see this in His words above that clearly tell us that “but I am among you as he that serveth” and “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister“. For us, simply put, the expression of the Soul in the Life of the man in form IS service and that service IS an outwardly visible expression of that Love that the Master teaches us.

In the last idea above that we get from John’s Gospel we find a different dynamic at play; here the Master is telling us the benefit of serving Him and He comes to this saying as an isolated one with no related words that lead in nor follow. We take it then on its own merit and in this we should try to understand the idea that many are willing to serve Him in that day and in succeeding days up until today and many ministers of the churches believe that this is what they are doing….serving the Master. However, we need to look deeper here for the reality that He offers and that reality is in the words “If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am , there shall also my servant be” and here we find two rather parabolic things. First that we follow Him as a prerequisite to serving Him and here we must understand that the intent is similar to how we perceive believing in or believing on Him; to follow Him Is to keep His words. The Master continues to tell us then that the one who follows Him, His servant, will be with Him, where He is and this too is not to be understood in its worldly sense, as to be with Him IS to be of the same mind as He IS as this pertains to the thoughts, ideas and actions of the man in the world and this IS the very nature of the disciple. Vincent gives us this regarding the Master’s use of “follow me“: Follow ( ἀκολούθει )  Often used in the New Testament with the special sense of following as a disciple or partisan. See Matthew 4:20, Matthew 4:22; Matthew 9:9; Mark 1:18; John 8:12. Also with the meaning of cleaving steadfastly to one and conforming to his example. See Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; John 12:26 ⁴. In the end the Master is giving us a clear understanding that in serving the him, one honors the Father and in this word honor we should take the reality of how we speak insofar and the Christ Within and the God Within and try to see that as men in form who serve the Master we not only are expressing that Love and Power of the Soul but we are honored by ALL such Souls and Spirits as they exist in the Kingdom of God, the Father’s House and thereby the Father.

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.

We are again at a time of year that includes the three Spiritual Festivals which are yet largely unrecognized by the Christian churches except for the one that recently past called Easter. We know about these festivals through the teaching and the efforts of the Master’s of the Wisdom who we should see as advanced disciples of the Christ, a group which may yet include those Souls that appeared with the Master as His Apostles, disciples and others who aided and assisted in His Great Mission such as the Baptist and His natural mother Mary. Each of these festivals is celebrated at a Full Moon and the cycle begins with Easter which is celebrated on the Sunday following the first Full Moon of Spring. At the Full Moon of May, which occurs on the 5th day of the month, is the Wesak Festival which is the Festival of the Buddha and at the Full Moon of June, which will occur on the 4th of June, is the Christ Festival also known today as World Invocation Day. As we progress toward the Wesak Festival we will post Quote’s of the Day that are, in our view, conducive to the view of the Buddha and the Christ as regards the spreading of Love and GoodWill throughout the world; we begin with the Affirmation of the Disciple.

I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.

And thus I stand

I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.

And thus I stand.

And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.

And thus I stand.

We repeat again what we had previously said of this Mantram:

Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world“ (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹ Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913
• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888