Monthly Archives: February 2012

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part XXIX

Yesterday’s post was a continuation of our discussion on the Quote of the Day as well as a continuation of our views on the idea of judgement. In the Quote of the Day we have found that the ideas presented in the King James Version relating to condemnation are, in reality, expressions of judgment but not the same form of judgment that we have been discussing in the main essay. In the main essay we have focused on the Master’s ideas regarding the judgment that we may express, outwardly or inwardly, regarding our fellowman and his actions and thoughts while the judgment in the Quote of the Day below is a judgment of one’s life attitudes and beliefs as each expresses them. The latter judgment is a personal thing which is, according to many a church doctrine, the judgment by God of our religious position, on whether we do or do not believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. According to our subject scripture this is not our view as we see that the Christ is not come to judge but to save, that is to rescue, deliver and heal³ which we have expanded upon to say what these mean to us: that as men in form, that we are rescued from the world of illusion and glamour by the Christ Within; delivered from the clutches of the attractions of the flesh; and healed of the separation of the personality consciousness from the Soul, the Christ Within, the True Self. This is the True effect for every one who, as John says, believeth on Him which we understand as to follow Him and keep His words. We must understand this in its True Light as well and this is that it is the Christ Within that is the judge and the result of this judgment is whether the Soul pours more Light into the personality consciousness, the heart, or not. We must understand also that there is no personal decision at play here; if one is following Him and keeping His words then the natural effect of this is that the personality, because of its being in accord with the Higher values, will receive more Light conversely, if one is not following Him but following the ways of the carnal and worldly Life then there is not an increase in this Light. We will continue with this thought as we proceed to interpret our saying in the Quote of the Day section below and have put this here today to draw a firm distinction between the two uses of the idea of judgment and to clarify our understanding regarding the type of judgment that we make upon ourselves under the Law and the Plan of God.

Now the other use of judgment, that which is used in interpersonal relationships, is for us the more important for if one does this part correctly then the the above works itself out in our lives. Our understanding here of this judgment is that any opinion of the conduct and the character of another is a judgment by us and that if this is outwardly expressed or not, does not in essence change the idea of any opinion being a judgment. We may not have expressed this quite so clearly in past posts but there is really little or no distinction although the expression of our opinions can cause more harm or good that those that we keep to ourselves. The Master clarifies this for us in the Sermon on the Mount which we will use much of today to clarify our points regarding judgment, meekness and our New Age word, harmlessness. Jesus clarification is most clear in His depiction of a man’s attitude regarding adultery when He says: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27-28). This reference to the difference between thinking a thing or doing a thing should reveal to us the intent of the Master, that this is not only for this instance but for every instance or our interrelationships with others. Adultery, stealing, killing, etc.; all should be seen to fall under this same ideal and we should also be able to take from this the thought that the doing of the thing is worse but the thinking on it is really not much better. Taking this to our theme we can see that thinking another is a fool because of some action or words on his part is bad but restating this to others is yet worse. This is our understanding and if we ponder on this in the Light of our spiritual aspirations we should be able to see clearly the Master’s points regarding judgment. We said in the last post that this is a universal action in the world today; that as we form judgments about others, they form judgments about us which falls in line with His saying that: “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again“. (Matthew 7:1-2). Is there any escape from this? Is there any way out of this cycle? Yes but it requires one to be on that High moral ground where he does not judge and where his Life is such that there is never an opportunity for anyone to judge him except as they may have judged the Christ. When the Light of the Soul pours through the personality and burns away all worldly ideas and notions and feelings then the man stands as a Soul, as the Christ Within expressed through form, and it is here that we are free.

From here we need to understand that other criteria which, while it may seem to some contradictory, reveals the True nature of judgment and the acknowledgment by the Christ that it is a part of the fabric of Life in form. In the part above we have His admonition that we “Judge not” plus the cause of action against us when we do. Here in these words from the Gospel of John the Master tells us that when we judge we should “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Our simple explanation here is that in the former use from the synoptic gospels the Master is speaking on men judging others as men in form and based upon worldly criteria, from the heart of any man which is, as we know, his conscious personality. In the latter, from John’s Gospel, the Master is speaking on a higher level and cautioning us that if and when we do judge that we must be sure that we do not do it as the former “Judge not“, as a man judging according to the world, but that we “judge righteous judgment” according to the Soul, the Christ Within which judgment can only be Pure and untarnished as is the Soul. This is of course an end result by one who is living his Life in the Light of the Soul and who is focused upon the Christ and the Christ Within, keeping His words and following Him and, until we find ourselves in this place we must be ever careful and diligent to heed these words on judgment as they are a key to much of our relationship with others which is, as we know, the emphasis of so much of the Master’s teachings. In yesterday’s post we took this idea and brought it together with another of the Master’s teachings which we need to see as related to this idea of judgment and, while it is especially toward outward judgment, it is at the same time relevant to those things that we think of others. This other idea of the Master is the quality of being meek and to this we have ascribed a newer understanding of it in the realm of harmlessness.

We cited two examples of the Masters’s use of the word meek; in one, from the Beatitudes, there is the blessedness and the reward for the one who is meek  (In the Words of Jesus part 11) and for which we included our understanding. The other is the Master describing Himself as such. Between these we should be able to shed any of the wimpy ideas that we may have of this word and of our new word harmlessness for which we gave some very insightful quotations by the Tibetan. It is from here that we continue today by going back again to the Sermon on the Mount for in this there are many references to this idea of harmlessness; not only towards those who may come against us but also in regard to our normal daily interactions. Overall, we should be able to get a good understanding from these verses plus the ideas put forth above regarding judgment. Let us begin with these sayings from the Sermon:

• “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire” (Matthew 5:21-22). Here we should see the idea of killing being a bad thing and also that anger is an outward form of judgment and is harmful and not meek especially when it is without real cause or, we could say, it is based upon an opinion of what another has done. The same for Raca, which is defined by Strong’s as a term of abuse, derived from the Aramaic reqa’, meaning “empty (headed) one”³ and which we can see in this same light, as an outward expression of a formed opinion. This same idea pertains to calling another a fool or speaking of another in this way. Can we see the Master’s intent and the equality of the perceived punishment from the killing to the name calling? Can we see that the opposite of this is harmlessness and meekness?
• “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart“. Taking these ideas down to the thought level is found in this repetition of the Master’s teaching on the power of thinking a thing; this being, for the heart, the conscious personality, the same as the act itself and, as we say above, we should not think that adultery is His only reference. Consider this looking at any thing that we can lust for and consider the outer expression of such thoughts and their effect on oneself and on others.
• “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30). A common perception here is that because this follows upon the saying on adultery, this is meant in the same way, against lustful looking, but this is not so. This is a saying that  tells us that if in one’s perception he offends the Truth of the Christ Within, that he is better to “pluck it out” than to continue on in this way and this can be found as true in any perception at all including one’s opinions and judgments. The second part, regarding the hand, can be seen as a more physical action; if one is doing a thing that offends the Truth of the Christ Within, then he is better to “cut it off” than to do or to continue doing. Do we see the idea of harmlessness and of meekness here according to our understanding; that one would cease doing a thing or thinking it because it is offensive to the True Self.
• “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away” (Matthew 5:38-42). There is much here in these few verses that should not be seen literally nor specific to the topic at hand but in the more general way of harmlessness and meekness. In the first part of this is can be seen the essence of both, especially as it effects our dealings with others with whom we may disagree or be at odds. No retribution, that one swallow his pride and accept what has happened without even anger. Deeper yet, offer the other cheek as well, which is to go out of the way to appease the situation and in doing so give the right impression that whatever can be done to a man in this world does not in any way affect His True Self who stands above it all in Peace and in Harmony, even together with the Soul of that one who is outwardly against him. Again, meekness and harmlessness. The idea in the next verse of compel is not so clear and is generally seen as being forced. Vincent offers us this as explanation: This word throws the whole injunction into a picture which is entirely lost to the English reader. A man is travelling, and about to pass a post-station, where horses and messengers are kept in order to forward royal missives as quickly as possible. An official rushes out, seizes him, and forces him to go back and carry a letter to the next station, perhaps to the great detriment of his business. The word is of Persian origin, and denotes the impressment into service, which officials were empowered to make of any available persons or beasts on the great lines of road where the royal mails were carried by relays of riders⁴. A bit of a different perspective and one that would call to mind the idea of one’s car being commandeered by a policemen and being told to drive some injured man to a hospital. The message here can be seen in the admonition that one should not only do his duty, which would be under law, but to offer to do even more; willingly. Finally we have the idea of borrowing and to this we will add only that if one wishes to borrow from another it must be assumed that the borrower knows, and the prospective lender as well, that what he wants is available for him and in this event we can get the message of meekness and harmlessness in the lack of refusal to share. One can turn down another’s request but, according to the Master, the right thing is to give.
• “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48). This is the grand finale of this segment which we are interpreting into a teaching on harmlessness and meekness and on not judging. Read these words again: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you“. Can we see the underlying tone of harmlessness and meekness, the lack of prideful reaction all based upon the solid understanding that the Soul, the Christ Within, is above all that can happen here in the world.  Can we see that He is telling us that we should act as the Father, giving to ALL; not only those that may Love us, or family and close associates, but ALL. Act as the Father is the crux of it all, a High ideal and an effort through which so many changes come to one’s life from the Soul.

We close today with an appropriate saying by the Buddha who tells us:

“All beings tremble before violence.      All fear death.     All love life.      See yourself in others.      Then whom can you hurt?         What harm can you do?”

Dhammapada  (On Violence)

Can we see here the relationship to the Master’s words of the Golden Rule:

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise“

(Luke 6:31)

Note on the Quote of the Day