IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 446

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART XXXVIII

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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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.

We spent our time yesterday contrasting the ideas of Love and of Wisdom and suggesting that these can be see as the same from many perspectives. We noted how Wisdom was the teaching of Solomon in much of the Book of Proverbs and was large part of the writings of the Buddha as we read them in the Dhammapada which is a collection of the sayings of the Buddha. One might say that the entirety of the Dhammapada is about nothing else but Wisdom and the rational use of the Truth that comes from focus upon the Soul, the Christ Within. We also noted that the Master, the Christ, was the first to speak so Truly about Love and the Power of Love and we called Him the harbinger of Love saying that the realization of this Love is at its highest today after more than 2000 years of humanity misunderstanding or misusing His message. Remembering our chart of the Constitution of Man and the Aspects of God we see that:

The Potency of God for the Son, or the Christ, and Soul, or the Christ Within, is LOVE AND WISDOM and here we should try to understand the relationship that these potencies have as regards the Life of the True man and thereby the Life of the man in form as well. We posited that the relationship is such that one does lead to the other and that the attraction of a man to the one or the other is a matter of a complex combination of culture and the ‘type’ of Soul one may be and we use ‘type’ for lack of a better term. As we have been saying, there is an infinite range of different men, both in form and as Souls not currently in form, and this range is the factor that makes each different on an individual basis which IS based upon the individual accomplishments accumulated through the time that each Soul spends in form in this world. Again, this depiction is not intended to say all about this subject but rather to point to the differences, Soul to Soul and man to man, based on our premise that the objective of our Life in form in this world is to come to a place where the Soul is able to express the “fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) as did the Christ. Seeing this and seeing the basic differences between the Christ and the Buddha insofar as their teachings are concerned should tell us that there are differences on the part of the Soul as both of these Advanced Souls were capable of expressing this fullness; the Buddha on the part of Wisdom and the Christ on the part of Love and here, because of the stature of the Christ, we can surmise that the Love expressed by the Christ was inclusive of the Wisdom expressed by the Buddha. We should look also at the stark differences in the writings of the apostles and with John and Paul as our examples we should be able to see that although they are disciples of higher degree and expressing the Light of their Souls, they write from vastly different perspectives and combinations of Love and Wisdom.

While this is a intriguing area of study, it is not for us to pursue now as we are not able to readily comprehend the inner workings of these ideas, especially from our perspective here in time and space. As we move along thorough our discussions on things spiritual, we will likely revisit and perhaps expand upon what we say here today. Our issue here is that Love and Wisdom, while different in effect, are singular in intent from the perspective of the man in form. And, as we suggested in our last post the one will lead each of us to the other. We should also try to understand that in the vast array of different persons in the world today and as many different expressions of Soul Life, and ALL are expressions of Soul Life, that there is an equally vast array of differing combinations of Love and Wisdom that can be expressed by the men in form. This is dependent on, among other things, what we have said above regarding Souls, here and in previous essays, as well as each’s ability to build forms in this world. A simple look around at the people that each KNOWS will reveal some who are very emotional and others who are very ‘mental’, who don’t readily show emotion, and yet others who seem to be led by the senses and the drive of the physical form. And, there are likely many combinations of these which should lead us to a basic understanding of our use here of the word infinite when speaking about the six billion plus population of the Earth.

We can see here that the predilection of the Soul coming into incarnation, the Soul’s ability to build a form suitable to his needs plus the effects of karmic responsibility bring a man to a Life on the Earth. To this ‘nature’ of the man we must add the ‘nurture’ of the man and hence we have then one man in form whose nature, when he is ready and focused upon the Life of the Christ Within, may tend toward Wisdom or toward Love or toward any combination of these as these are, both of them, potentcies of the Soul. This brings us back then to what we were discussing with a bit more background information and here we can say that Love will emerge in the Life of the man whose focus is on the Soul and whose Soul Light brings Wisdom as his personality expression and, conversely, Wisdom will emerge in the Life of the man whose focus is on the Soul and whose Soul Light brings that Universal Love of the Christ as his personality expression. We should add here again, that the range of possible combinations of this effect is likely endless. So our understanding should be that if we follow the precepts of the Old Testament and the teachings of Solomon regarding Wisdom or if we follow the teachings of the Buddha on Wisdom and the actions of the man who is or desires to be a master or of we follow the teachings of the Christ, the Master, who teaches us the foundation of Universal Love, we will ALL end in the same place of discipleship and of being accounted worthy of His Kingdom.

One of the many problems with the human existence today is that few KNOW and even fewer Truly comprehend the nature of man and in saying this we are not claiming to KNOW any much more that we have stated. For us, this is the KNOWING from above, the Wisdom from above as the Apostle James frames it and we can say this because it does nothing for an individual self to KNOW this and it also fits neatly with the positive statements by the apostle regarding this Wisdom. We must look at these things as individuals from the perspective of these words by James and others should judge them by the same words for if they are True, that realization of Truth then comes from above for ALL who can accept it. In this we look again at the words that we borrowed from our Tibetan brother who gives us these words regarding his many books; we use them regarding these things that we say: They may, or may not, be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition….If they present truth in such a way that it follows sequentially upon that already offered in the world teachings, if the information given raises the aspiration and the will-to-serve from the plane of the emotions to that of the mind (the plane whereon the Masters can be found) then they will have served their purpose. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response from the illumined mind of the worker in the world, and brings a flashing forth of his intuition, then let that teaching be accepted. But not otherwise. If the statements meet with eventual corroboration, or are deemed true under the test of the Law of Correspondences, then that is well and good. But should this not be so, let not the student accept what is said. In saying this we are presenting our words without claim to any special training save that which is found in the Light of the Soul, a Light of which we get an occasional glimmer as we work towards that High Calling of discipleship. Returning to our point, we are saying that if we believe, KNOW, these things to be True in essence if not in fact as well, and if we believe that a part of the problems of our day is this lack of understanding of the Constitution of man and his relationship to God through his own being, his True being as the Soul, then is becomes our duty to put this information forth in as cogent a presentation as possible.

James tells us that “the wisdom that is from above first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:17) and if we look at what we are saying we should fill this bill completely. From our past discussion on this we take these words:

• First: Vincent tells us that First. Emphasizing its inner quality, pure, as distinguished from its outward expressions. The idea is not first numerically, but first essentially⁴.
• Pure: Websters tells is that pure means Free from moral defilement or quilt; hence, innocent; guileless; chaste; — applied to persons. Keep thyself pure.” 1 Tim. v. 22. Free from that which harms, vitiates, weakens, or pollutes; genuine; real; perfect; — applied to things and actions. Pure religion and impartial laws.” Tickell. The pure, fine talk of Rome.” Ascham¹.
• Peaceable: The lexicon tells us that the Greek word eirenikos which is translated here as peaceable means relating to peace: peaceable, pacific, loving peace; bring peace with it, peaceful, salutary².
• Gentle: We need to be a bit wordy here as this word has much behind it; from our previous essay in full then we find: Our next word here is gentle which, like peaceable, seems rather straightforward. Other translations of the this verse use considerate, kind, modest and courteous but none of these seem to go well with our understanding of the purpose of this verse which is to help us to discern those thoughts and revelations from above so that we are speaking about the revelations themselves. The lexicon tells us that the Greek word epiekes which is translated as gentle means: seemingly, suitable; equitable, fair, mild, gentle² while Strong’s tells us that it means gentle; considerate³ and none of this gives us the right understanding either. Vincent tells us of this word epiekes: Gentle (ejpieike>sin). A common derivation of this word is from ei]kw, to yield. Hence the meaning, mild, yielding, indulgent. But the true derivation is from eijko>v, reasonable; and the word implies rather the not being unduly rigorous: “Wherein not strictness of legal right, but consideration for one another, is the rule of practice” (Alford). Compare Philippians 4:5, where, for moderation (to< ejpieike<v) , Rev. gives forbearance, with gentleness in margin. According to Aristotle, the word stands in contrast with ajkribodi>kaiov, one who is exactingly just, as one who is satisfied with less than his due⁴. These ideas from Vincent are from the same Greek word as it is used in 1 Peter; can we see the manifold ideas here in this word for which there is apparently no right English word? For us there is a safe harbor in the idea of forbearance as this is depicted in the Revised Verison for the saying in 1 Peter and in the vague idea we may get from Aristotle although there is no word to cover this except perhaps content. Taking this then a bit further, let us look at the definitions of forbearing; Websters tells us that this means: Ceasing; pausing; withholding from action; exercising patience and indulgence. Patient; long suffering¹. Remember that we are speaking of the nature of the Wisdom from above and not about our own feelings or ways and in this context we can see that that Wisdom would be forbearing as we define it here, it would not seek to push us in any way against others; yes, it would be gentle, and, in accordance with Aristotle it would be content with itself and would not cause the man to seek more nor to believe that he deserves more. Perhaps a way of looking at this would be in a combination of ALL the words we have seen here in our translation plus those others that are based upon all of these defining terms we have put forth; this would be that in place of the simple idea of gentle we would see a combination of gentle, considerate, kind, modest and courteous.
• Easy to be intreated: Like gentle, we use our entire previous writing: Our next word is really a short saying: “easy to be intreated” and this is also a difficult word to understand. Looking at this the same way, other translations of the bible use easy to be entreated (modern spelling), open to reason, easy to be persuaded, obedient, reasonable, and willing to yield. Again remembering the context that we have put this all in, that the Wisdom from above is these things, what is it that we see here but that a thought or a revelation from above would be open to reason, that is that would not cause nor allow the recipient of it to form hard and fast understandings that would not allow for the pure, peaceable and forbearing nature that we discuss above. Strong’s give us this on the Greek word eupeithes which is translated as we see above: submissive, obedient, compliant³ while the lexicon tells us that it means easily obeying, compliant². Assuming that the English word in the King James Version (KJV) and the American Standard Version (RSV) are correctly stated as entreated (intreated) we do get some help from Websters which tells us that entreated means: ENTRE”ATED, pp. Earnestly supplicated, besought or solicited; importuned; urgently requested. Prevailed on by urgent solicitation; consenting to grant what is desired. Used; managed. This is a very different understanding than that which is offered above and since Vincent is silent on this word other than to tell us that this is its only usage, perhaps we could use these ideas from the dictionary for our understanding of its use in this verse and can start with importuned which is in itself a complex word that is difficult to understand in our terms.

While this is not where we intended to go with today’s essay, we are here and there is too much left to allow us to finish this today. The importance of this for us is that we should be able to measure what it is that we believe is revealed to us from God or from the Soul against the apostle’s words on what IS from above. We will complete our list of words in the next essay and then discuss how our revelations such as the one above on the Constitution of Man relate to these points.

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.

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