IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 278

Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON GOD; Part LXIV

In yesterday’s post we commented on our completed observations regarding the sayings by the Master and the Buddha that we had been discussing and we repeat these here again for the benefit of the understanding that these impart to us both in their similarity of message and in the alternative framing that the Buddha gives to this most important message of Life.

How few the birds who escape the net and fly to heaven!t

Dhammapada; on The World

“strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it“

Matthew 7:14

These sayings are, each of them, commentary by a Master; Sons of God that came among us with the privilege of expounding some new and better way for the average man to become a disciple and to reach God. These Great Sons of God are sent to very different divisions of humanity and bring in their messages a way out of the doldrums of the current ‘religion’ in their place and time as well as the overwhelming capacity to reach so many millions more. This is a Truth in both Buddhism and in Christianity as they grew out of the heartlands of the Hindu and the Jew and each of these incarnated Sons of God have changed the world and so continues to do so. The single message of each line above is not of great importance except to those of us who are actively attempting to escape from the net of illusion which is the world or who are attempting to find that strait gate and that narrow way which lead a man out of the turmoil and illusions of living in the world and brings him to that freedom of Life. We know that it is only by ardent desire and extreme effort that we can escape and that we can find the Path to God which is a real Path in consciousness, and which brings itself back from Life in the world to the reality of the Soul which it most Truly is. It is said in esoteric circles that “Before a man can tread the path, he must become that path himself.“** and in the reality of understanding that the whole of our struggle is one of conscious focus and that one’s consciousness is in fact the Soul enmeshed in the duality and the world of illusion, this saying takes on much understanding. We must ever remember the words of the Master as these too are our guiding Light that take us to freedom: “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold , the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).

We spent some time yesterday on the idea of duality and how that until the man recognizes duality as a reality of Life in form and sees it as a  condition of his own Life, he cannot fully see nor appreciate the fact of nor the effects of  illusion, glamour and deception as they play upon his consciousness in form. We have been going through some of the sayings of the Master and His apostles that address this part of the Life of the man who is reaching for God and who is focused on or beginning to focus upon His Kingdom. Starting with the sayings above which we interpret in their context as man’s escape from illusion, glamour and deception and his recognition of the pair of opposites that are engendered between the ideas of Life in the World and the Truth of Life; between living in the illusion and escaping to the Kingdom of God, we listed a number of sayings from which we have thus far discussed two, namely:

• “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:7-9)
• “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But who so looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain”  (James 1:22-26).

In the first one from the Apostle Paul we should see the deception in living for the flesh and this is True of this form of living in ALL respects. Sowing and reaping are facts of Life and effective in ALL the doings of a man and while the church may see these in their own Light, the reality is that it is only in our focus upon the things of the Spirit and our relative disdain for the things of the world that we are rewarded with what the apostle calls “life everlasting” and which for us is the realization of it. If a man spends his days and his thoughts on the things of the flesh, on working for them and thinking of them, then this is to be his reward; things of the flesh. This is a hard Truth to comprehend as it is against most all that a man has learned in Life but it is a Truth and the one that is reflected in the sayings at the top of this essay regarding the difficulty of escape or of finding the Way. In the second the Apostle James reflects for us on the age-old habit of man to hear the good news and to glory in it but to not actually do what is necessary to attain the Kingdom. This is a world delusion; that if we listen and hear that we need not actively do. So many millions are content in this and do not believe that they are deceived in any way; we should know also that if they are sincere that they will reap a reward insofar as they will find themselves more focused upon the Truth than upon the illusion by the activity of hearing. Here is for many the beginning of the duality.

From here we found the ideas that James put forth regarding what it is that a man sees as an analogy to being “doers of the word, and not hearers only“. James’ picture is of a man who is seeing himself in a glass and this can be seen a number of ways. It is our preference to see this as we believe that he meant it and in a way that it makes sense in one’s journey toward God. The whole sense of the saying cannot be as some of the commentaries paint it but must relate to the presenting ideas of doing the word of God and not just hearing them. This is where the depth of this saying is; as an analogy against the presentation and this is where it must be seen.

• John Gill in his Exposition of the Bible⁸ tells us that the meaning here is: But if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, &c.] The Arabic version here again reads, “a hearer of the law”, and so some copies; not hearing, but practice, is the main thing; not theory, but action: hence, says R. Simeon, not the word, or the searching into it, and the explanation of it, is the root, or principal thing, (hvemh ala) , “but the work”: and if a man is only a preacher, or a hearer, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass; or, “the face of his generation”; the face with which he was born; his true, genuine, native face; in distinction from any counterfeit one, or from the face of his mind: it means his own corporeal face. The Ethiopic version renders it, “the lineaments of his face”. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way He takes a slight glance of himself, and departs: and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was; he forgets either his spots, blemishes, and imperfections; or his comeliness and beauty; the features of his face, be they comely or not: so a bare hearer of the word, who is not concerned to practise what he hears, while he is hearing, he observes some things amiss in himself, and some excellencies in Christ; but, when the discourse is over, he goes his way, and thinks no more of either. There is a disconnect here based upon doctrine and one which clouds this idea of a cloudy mirror in which the man sees himself and then forgets what he sees. Looking again as we did in the last post we should see the idea that the man that hears the word and does it has paid the hard price of discipleship; hard from the perspective of the man in form. The other man who does not do the word but is a hearer only is deceiving himself by thinking that the hearing is enough and this is likened to that man looking in the mirror and seeing his Truth and His reality as a doer but has not the fortitude to actually do and so forgets what he has seen being content to go forth as he had been, creating his own deception that he has done enough.
• The Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible⁸ paints this a bit differently and more according to our view: not a doer–more literally, “a notdoer” [ALFORD]. The true disciple, say the rabbis, learns in order that he may do, not in order that he may merely know or teach. his natural face–literally, “the countenance of his birth”: the face he was born with. As a man may behold his natural face in a mirror, so the hearer may perceive his moral visage in God’s Word. This faithful portraiture of man’s soul in Scripture, is the strongest proof of the truth of the latter. In it, too, we see mirrored God’s glory, as well as our natural vileness.  24. beholdeth–more literally, “he contemplated himself and hath gone his way,” that is, no sooner has he contemplated his image than he is gone his way ( James 1:11 ). “Contemplate” answers to hearing the word: “goeth his way,” to relaxing the attention after hearing–letting the mind go elsewhere, and the interest of the thing heard pass away: then forgetfulness follows [ALFORD] (Compare Ezekiel 33:31 ). “Contemplate” here, and in James 1:23 , implies that, though cursory, yet some knowledge of one’s self, at least for the time, is imparted in hearing the word ( 1 Corinthians 14:24 ). and . . . and–The repetition expresses hastiness joined with levity [BENGEL]. forgetteth what manner of man he was–in the mirror. Forgetfulness is no excuse. Do we see the idea here their words that As a man may behold his natural face in a mirror, so the hearer may perceive his moral visage in God’s Word. This faithful portraiture of man’s soul in Scripture, is the strongest proof of the truth of the latter. This puts us in the right idea of the Soul in the mirror being the same as doing His word but we still have a rather vagueness in the teaching about doing as none that this idea of doing is relates to the actuality of the words of the Master. This still then is the illusion, glamour and deception of Life in form.

In both of these commentaries on hearing the word and not keeping it they seem to miss the severity which is not captured in the way that it has been for us presented. From James’ perspective the result is deception and there is no reality to one’s spiritual Life in deception. We can easily link this to the Master’s teaching on keeping His words and his commandments which become for us that sign that we Love Him and our own Souls and that we are His disciples. Again, there are no shortcuts and all that envision that there are are simply deceived.

From here we went on to look at a similar vision in the Epistle to the Corinthians by Paul which we posted as our Quote of the Day yesterday in its entirety. We should see in this writing by the apostle some of the deepest teachings in all of the New Testament as regards our vision of discipleship based on that Love that the Master teaches us. James saying above is equally deep and instructive and in James we have possibly one of the most difficult epistles for man to accept as it straightforwardly points out one’s shortcomings in escaping the net and finding the strait and narrow Path. We covered the ideas by Paul on Love as our way of escape and as our guidepost to the strait and narrow for it is in understanding that we ARE this Love and that being so we must express it in Life, that we can come to that point of being a True disciple of the Master and being free of the illusion, glamour and deception that keeps a man in the world. It is in this that we can say with the Master that: “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

We will cover the rest of this from the perspective of Paul’s epistle in the next post and leave it here today as our Quote of the Day.

Note on the Quote of the Day