ON LOVE; PART DCXXIV
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:36-40).
In the last essay we posted the second half of the story of the Wesak Festival as it IS enacted every year as a great cooperative effort by the Christ and the Buddha and in this we should be able to grasp at least a sense of the reality of the Truth of One Humanity, One World and One God. Despite the Christian efforts to paint Jesus the Christ as the ONLY Way to God according to their doctrines, there IS a greater Truth and a greater reality found in this cooperation of two Great Sons of God. That Jesus IS called the “only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14) by the Apostle John DOES NOT say that He IS the ONLY Son of God but merely that He IS the only one born into this world as such; born into this world possessing “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). This IS the unique Greatness of Jesus the Christ; He IS born with this fullness while the Buddha had to develop this as His own Enlightenment as the Great Soul that IS the Buddha came to express His fullness through the form of Siddhartha Gautama in this Earth more that five hundred years before the Advent of the Christ.
The Christ and the Buddha came to distinctly different cultures and the teachings of neither would have woven well with the religious ways of the other; the Buddha came into a Hindu society that was functioning under the doctrines of the times and the Buddha’s teaching was an expansion of this Way. The Christ on the other hand came into the Jewish society under the Jewish doctrines that we KNOW from the bible and it IS in the sense of this incompatibility that such teachings could not be crossed. While many see the stark differences in the messages, the reality of both IS essentially the same; that the carnal self be subordinated to the will of the Soul which IS Love as “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Jesus teaches this as the Way to the Kingdom while the Buddha teaches this as the Way to Enlightenment and both of these ideas ARE the same. It IS said that the Buddha has left this world and has moved on to other Divine duties and what this means we can only guess; in this infinite and eternal Universe of God there are ideas at play that we CAN NOT even conceive of. The Christ on the other hand IS still with us as He said that He would be; this IS recorded by the Apostle Matthew as the Master’s saying: “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20) and whether this IS seen as the end of the age as some render this or the END DOES NOT Truly matter as we have not reached either and He IS still among us.
In this cooperative gesture of sharing the transmittable divine energies if we can say it this way, the Christ and the Buddha serve the race of men; not the men in the world per se but rather the True men, the Souls of each form in the Earth, as it IS this spiritual realm that must become manifest in the Earth by these very Souls. And if the only result of this service by these two Great Avatars IS to help to dispel some degree of the illusion and the glamour of Life in form, to make the Truth of Love and Peace more apparent to the world of men, then this effort by them and ALL that assist them can be seen as a hopeful assurance that the ways of mankind in Love and Cooperation, Peace and Harmony, will continue to build in the hearts of men. Perhaps we can see this in our own terms as an additional prompting by the Souls, the True men, on their personalities in the world, a prompting that IS encouraged by the energies transmitted by the Buddha and the Christ and ALL who participate at Wesak.
We return now to our discussion of the Epistle of James where we left off with a review of the ideas presented by the apostle that are his instructions to aspirants and disciples regarding their ability to stay the course, to continue on the Path, and his own observations of the nature of such a man. He defines for us the man of “pure religion” and tells us how this man must submit himself and “draw neigh to God“; he shows is the reality that “whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God” and that we must live under the “royal law“, as that combination of Love for ALL men with having NO “respect to persons” as individuals among men. The apostle tells us how that we can KNOW what are thoughts and attitudes, revelations and realizations, that come from above, from our own Souls, as compared with the self oriented ideas that come from the personality in the world, and He tells us how that we must ONLY teach the former, the ideas from above, as the Way of God and to God. And, most importantly, he tells us that we must “be ye doers of the word” and while this IS intended to reflect upon Truth and NOT doctrines which at times masquerade as Truth, we should understand that the underlying reality IS that one should DO as one believes IS True and that he should NOT believe ONLY. ALL of these ideas work together for the benefit of the aspirant and the disciple in this world.
We continued again into our current sayings and discussed the idea of speaking as James offers this to us in the Greek word katalaleo which we understand as “speak against” rather than “speak evil” as it is rendered by the King James Bible. In this idea of speaking against we should include ALL of our expression and NOT words ONLY; this IS the same idea that we should see in ALL of James’ words on the tongue and his use of the idea of words…that these ALL refer to the totality of a man’s expression. Our current sayings are:
“Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another? Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say , If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” (James 4:11-17).
In the last essay we expanded a bit upon this idea of judgement, on how that so many thoughts and feelings that come from the man in the world can be judgmental and that these include most ALL things that would tend to lift oneself up. In this we can see that much that can be considered as pride IS also judgement as whensoever one sees himself above others, he IS at the same time seeing others as inferior. The message here IS that one be “a doer of the law” as in so doing one will look past oneself and see ALL men in the same Light; this IS the “royal law” and the essence of the Golden Rule and in both of these we should clearly see the apostle’s words that we should NOT have “respect to persons“. As we said in recent posts, we can see here in this idea the very attitude of James and his brother John who sought higher office than the others based in their own ideas of their self-worth, that they were better suited than the others and here the Master’s answer IS NOT that they ARE NOT and can be rather confusing; we read:
“And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire. And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you? They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory. But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized: But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared” (Mark 10:35-40).
Here the Master agrees that they ARE worthy but NOT more worthy that the others and that it IS NOT a place that He can give away. In this we read that this IS, first of ALL, NOT a True reality of thrones and seating arrangements or place above another, a thing that Jesus speaks against desiring in an Earthly context, but that this should be seen in the idea of greatness. Second we should see that the spiritual place that each man may rise to IS NOT a reward nor an award but rather the natural ‘gravitation’, if we can us that word; it IS that state of being that a Soul may rise to based upon the focus of his Life. It IS this accumulated ability to express the Love and the Power of the Soul through form that will dictate the place of a Soul after leaving this Earth as well. We should understand here that this idea regarding James and John IS our own which we are led to by James’ words above and we should add here that this vision of the Life of a disciple, a Soul expressing the Love and the Power of the Soul, IS based in the Life of the apostles as we see them; the ideas that regarding after death are based in our view of the continuation of Life for ALL. As Souls ALL ARE equal save for this ability to express through from, the ability to see past the illusion and the glamour of Life in the world….the ability to stand with the Master and say “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
In this light our premise makes logical sense, that James and John are out of place in their request IS also logical as we read further about the animosity this creates among the disciples and the Master’s need to teach them of this sense of equality; we read:
“And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister: And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:41-45).
We should try to see here the underlying message; that they should NOT be looking at these things as DO men in the world; that there IS NONE who “exercise authority” in the spiritual realms. We should see here the idea that the Master CAN NOT give away this supposed greater place to James and John simply because this IS NOT the way that Life works. And, in His explanation of the reality of service, which is rendered here as minister, we should be able to see the reality of the Life of the disciple. The disciple serves, this IS his purpose and his duty and above we see that the Master assumes this for Himself as well and we should note that His service, from the perspective of Life in this world, IS the ultimate….He gives up His own Life. In the idea of ransom we should see this same idea of giving and of service as He does this to show us the Truth of death and the reality of the continuation of Life.
There IS a kind of ‘Catch 22’ at play here. When we realize that the disciple should NOT be seeking higher office, should NOT be desiring to be chiefest, then we should realize too that he would NOT be trying to be the better servant in order to accomplish this. We see this same reality in this exchange between Jesus and His disciples where, after speaking against the ways of the scribes and the Pharisees and how that they seek to be seen as better that the people who they are supposed to be serving, we read: “he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). Can we see the point that IS hidden in these ideas from the Master, His teaching about NOT seeing oneself above others or as greater or more entitled in any way? This IS the reality also of being humble, which point IS in the preceding verses to our current selection from James, and we can see this clearly in these other words from the Master regarding the greatness of any one disciple: “At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them, And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:1-4).
Can we see the depth of the ideas that come from James’ thoughts regarding “speaking against” another and the place of this in judgment and the law? And can we see how that the apostle’s words that seem to be on another subject to his prior thoughts ARE actually on the same continuous ideas of spiritual Life?
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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 |
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 approach the Wesak Festival at the Full Moon of May, it seems appropriate that we post the Great Invocation as our Quote of the Day. Wesak IS the Festival of the Buddha and it IS said that on this day the Buddha returns to us and stands with the Christ to help to focus the attention of men of GoodWill on the Truth of the Plan of God, the Plan that can come to fruition in the expression of the Light and Love and Power in the world of men.
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.
This prayer is a part of our Prayers and Meditations section and there is much information about it there and in our discussion of it in the Quote of the Day section of In the Words of Jesus parts 128-132
The above Invocation or Prayer does not belong to any person or group but to all Humanity. The beauty and the strength of this Invocation lies in its simplicity, and in its expression of certain central truths which all men, innately and normally, accept—the truth of the existence of a basic Intelligence to Whom we vaguely give the name of God; the truth that behind all outer seeming, the motivating power of the universe is Love; the truth that a great Individuality came to earth, called by Christians, the Christ, and embodied that love so that we could understand; the truth that both love and intelligence are effects of what is called the Will of God; and finally the self-evident truth that only through humanity itself can the Divine Plan work out.
Like the Lord’s Prayer, this invocation is a World Prayer which is as all that a prayer is intended to be. It is a prayer for the uplifting of the Human Family out of the mire of materialism and selfishness. The Lord’s Prayer asks nothing for the individual praying it but asks that its benefits be for US and for WE which is why it was given by the Christ as a prayer and as a model over 2000 years ago. This invocation is also attributed to the Christ who, as He promised, has never left us; He, through channels that we do not readily understand, has Himself instructed His disciples to distribute this prayer and to encourage its use as a world prayer and as an aid in preparing the world for His return.
The first three stanzas of this prayer should be understood as reflecting the effective potencies of the Trinity which is God and which, when brought down to an individual level, the Trinity which is Man. His Will, His Love and His Light we should seen as the Potent Powers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
