ON LOVE; PART DCCXLIX
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “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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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men.
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
In the last essay we carried our discussion on grace further into an intersection with the concept of Love as we the Master teaches us. Love IS the foremost idea in ALL of His words and the words of the Father. and Love IS the KEY to ALL DOING, the KEY to ALL of the Master’s sayings that tell us that we must keep His words. And we should not be confused here by the doctrinal jargon regarding legalism, a position that IS taken from Paul’s Epistles which doctrine purports to show us that man need NOT DO the word of God and that his salvation is wound up in his sense of faith and believing. When we view the Great Commandments, which we have again at the top of our essay, with the right view of Love and combine these ideas with the rest of His words and the words of His apostles, we can get the True idea of DOING, the True idea behind His instruction that we DO keep His words. And, when we can see ALL of this in conjunction with that sense of Unity that we discussed in the last post, we can come to a better understanding of the Truths that flow into our own consciousness from above but which DO NOT resonate in our personalities which are yet filled with our nurturing and our experience and the preconceptions that these bring to bear on one’s Life. We must ever remember that the personality, charged by many years of nurturing and experience, IS a powerful force on one’s Life and that it IS only by the Light of the Soul and the steady progression of grace that we can continue on the Path to the Kingdom of God.
We ended the last essay by pointing out that the True intent of Life in this world IS NOT to succeed as men in this world but rather to approach God from the perspective of one’s ability to express the Good, the Beautiful and the True through one’s Life in form. We framed this from the perspective of the man saying: There IS much to understand in the reality of Life and how that the intent of the Plan of God that we must understand IS NOT that individuals will spend their days out maneuvering others to be better and to have more. The intent IS discipleship and the intent in to attain the Kingdom of God and ALL of the Master’s words ARE directed at our achieving that goal. The reality of this idea IS founded in the Master’s words, and especially those words that we have been discussing from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John. In these words we ARE told about His Presence and while most DO NOT align this idea with His Love, or with grace, this IS Truly what these ideas should bring to us….that His Presence IS His Love and this IS the grace of God in one’s Life; we read again”
- “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” (John 14:21).
- “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” (John 14:23).
This IS the reality of the Presence of God and we should understand that the associated teaching by the Master regarding the Holy Spirit here in this chapter IS intended to show this same reality of Presence; that the Presence of God and of Christ IS the Presence of the Spirit of God. That these ideas ARE offered to His disciples in the manner of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit IS to show them the actions of God IN this world of men and to show as well the Unity of these ideas. this IS a Unity that IS derived from His words that show us in small hints the greater Truths that ARE ONLY understood when a man can DO as the Master tells us must be done to achieve this grace. However we view the Master’s ideas that are rendered as manifestation and as abiding, we should be able to see the reality of His Presence in the Life of the man who keeps His words and we should be able to understand that this Presence IS spiritual; and in this we find the Holy Spirit as that Presence in one’s Life. And there ARE other ways that we are made to see these realities as He tells us of the Oneness of the Father and the Son, perforce a spiritual Oneness, which we read as “I am in the Father, and the Father in me“, and as “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:11, 10). In these ideas we have the Unity of the Christ and God and in this Oneness of Spirit, this Oneness of God, we have the Holy Spirit as the Presence of God in the Life of the man who keeps His words. In the sayings above where the idea IS of manifestation and of abiding, the latter saying should be seen as greater explanation of the first and in this we also see this Unity as Jesus frames that as “we will come unto him, and make our abode with him“. And we should see the reality of the Oneness of the Christ and the Holy Spirit in His words that speak of the Comforter saying “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” (John 14:17-18).
We should understand here that while the Unity of man and God IS a Truth on every level of existence, that the realization of this ONLY comes in His grace which IS the realizations and the revelations of divinity that flow into the consciousnesses of the man. There can be NO separation of ourselves as Souls and as Spirit from the Spirit that IS God and the Christ which IS His manifest Love; and there can be NO separation of the physical form of the man in this created world from the creation itself as these also are part and parcel. We should understand as well that this same sense of reality IS at play in the mental and the emotional realms of existence which, while they can not be seen, ARE keenly felt by ALL. This realization of Unity IS of course the reward, the grace that one receives from the God and the Christ Within. This IS our personal point of contact with the Universal ONE God of which we have said that there IS and can be only ONE as by definition God IS 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**. This IS the reality of God from the perspective of man and we should see that it IS in the reality that none of this creation IS explainable in any way. Men CAN NOT explain God without interjecting a personality as so much of Christian and other world doctrines DO and in this complexity we can see the reality of Paul’s words from the perspective of the man in the world, as well as the deeper ideas of Soul and Spirit. In ALL realms we DO find our place as part and parcel of God and hence the apostle’s words that tell us this saying: “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
While these ideas ARE NOT seen as we seen them by many in Christian Doctrine, the reality IS that in a True consideration of God, that NO thing can exist apart from Him; and we should see that ALL that exists in ALL realms ARE a part of Him. We see the latter part, the Transcendence of God in the words of the apostle and we see the reality of His Immanence in the Master’s words that we have above, which, while this refers to our realization IS a basic Truth: the Life and the consciousness that enlivens each man on this Earth IS the reality of the God Within, a Presence that IS obnubilated by the vanity to which the whole of the human race IS subjected. Here we should try to see how that it IS a man’s realization of the Truths of Life and of the Kingdom of God that can release him from his bondage, which IS his being lost in the illusions and the glamour of Life in this world. This IS the individual reality of Paul’s words to the Romans saying: “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20-21). Here then we see that the release IS found in grace, in the realization and revelation of the Truths which perforce must come from within the man and it IS this that we should see as the Apostle James’ “wisdom that is from above” (James 3:17) as well as the underlying idea behind the Apostle John’s words saying: “ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John 2:20).
It IS against ALL this reality and the complexity of the Truth of God and our relationship to Him that the world stands. We have often referred to this existence on Earth as the crucible through which the disciple IS formed and we have set our ideas that this IS the ONLY place where one can accomplish the reality of discipleship and of Truly being accounted worthy of the Kingdom of God. This IS our view of reality and, in this view, a basic understanding of the continuum of Life and the Truth of the concept of rebirth IS needed so that we ARE NOT lost in the hopelessness of achieving the goal of our own deliverance in a single Lifetime. It IS likely based in mans refusal to look past the single Lifetime which he has here and now that has resulted in the dilution of the Truths of the Kingdom and of discipleship; dilutions and changes to the very core of the Master’s message, which allow for a man to feel his salvation in whatsoever way that his particular doctrine predicates. Again, this IS NOT to demean doctrine but rather to show our view of the reality of Life in this world, that it IS man’s being in the grips of vanity, the grips of illusion and of glamour, that cause him to see things in the easier and the presumed clearer way and to develop doctrines that help him to cover his own inner sense. It IS in this sense that we should see the Master’s words on attaining the Kingdom and on being His disciple and, in the words we have from Him above, the reality of His Presence in one’s Life; at the same time, we should come to reckon ALL of these as the same thing; that ALL are based in His grace and ARE His grace when this idea IS viewed in the proper sense.
We must come to see that grace IS the realizations and the revelations of Truth, that these ARE His Presence in the Life of the man in the world and that these ARE the Love of God which flows forth to ALL men. This IS the True Life of man as a Soul which IS the reality of the Christ Within and the Spirit which IS One with that Soul IS the reality of the God Within. And, this IS the Holy Spirit, the Spirit that the Master tells us “shall teach you all things“; this IS the Spirit of God which CAN NOT be separated from His Presence as it IS His Presence. Here again we see the circular reference to ALL of this and we see as well the reality that the Master tells His apostles saying “but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” (John 14:17); from this we see that they have the Spirit in them and with them and the idea that this IS unrealized IS found in the discourse itself. We should remember that this saying IS translated by some as “is in you” which, while contrary to doctrine, IS the reality of Life in form and of the God and the Christ Within; the Spirit of God CAN NOT be separated from God Himself nor from the reality of His words saying: “I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you” (John 14:20).
We should remember as we discuss the Master’s words and the words of His apostles that these are their revelations of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God and that as such they are offered to us in ways that ARE NOT understood by the man who DOES NOT have the ability to understand them or their significance. We should understand here as well that the man who DOES NOT understand the reality of these ideas interprets them in such a way that he can make some sense of them and it IS this sense that has become the multiplicity of the worlds doctrines. The ability to understand IS the grace that comes to the man who chooses to focus upon the things of God, and it IS in this beginning focus that ALL begins in that spiral growth where one uses what IS revealed and upon his usage more IS revealed to him. This using of the grace received IS the expression by the man of whatsoever measure of that “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22) and that “wisdom that is from above” that has been realized in his Life. True realization and True grace ARE the spiritual Truths from the God Within and this IS ALL that grace IS; there IS naught in this grace that IS of the world nor is there aught that is for one’s benefit in the world. It IS the God Within, the unction which IS the anointing, that IS in communion with God and it IS this communion that IS steadily revealed to the consciousness in form until that time when the expression of the man in the world IS the expression of this communion, the expression of “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ“. This IS the fuller understanding of Paul’s words saying “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13). If we can understand this word faith in the same way that we understand that “faith as a grain of mustard seed“, we can then understand this as that KNOWING of those things revealed from God.
It IS here that we have the completeness of the Truth of our divinity and the realization of that divinity IS ONLY found in DOING. This IS the KEY to ALL things spiritual and the KEY to the Kingdom of God. In the reality that this revelation and this realization IS His Presence and His grace. We should be able to see the way that this Presence grows in the Life of the man in the world from a spark to a flame and how that this IS his journey on the Path which begins at Repentance and ends in his being “delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. And ALL of this IS against the ways of the world and the ways of men in the world which IS, as we say above, spoken against by the Master and His apostles; but this IS not nearly understood in the way that this IS offered. Jesus tells us what we should seek after, and it IS NOT to succeed as men in this world; it IS to come to our True calling which IS to express the divine nature of the Christ and the God Within to the world. We end today again with our final selection from the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of John and the Master’s words that show us that He too keeps His words and in this we should see the reality of this KEY:
“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. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe. Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence” (John 14:26-31).
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.
We repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.
Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita
It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- ** A Treatise on Cosmic Fire by Alice A Bailey © 1951 by Lucis Trust
