Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON GOD; Part XCVII
“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment . He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also” (1 John 4:1-21).
We spent much of our time yesterday in regard to the Wesak Festival and the ONENESS that exists between the Buddha and the Christ. This same ONENESS does exist for all of us Sons of God as Spirits and as Souls and it is an objective of Life itself to bring this same sense to our lives in this world, to overcome the illusion and the glamour and the deception in which we exist. A fundamental reason for man’s realization that “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21) is that we could then understand the ONENESS that exists in that state of being here and now. One could say that the beginning of man’s realization of the Kingdom within can be found in the awakening that occurs when this idea is pondered, that when we focus on this idea we can get a glimpse of the reality of it and, if we can continue in this thought even for small periods of time, we are in effect heeding the call of the Christ Within. There are many ways to Truly heed the call and most all of them are found in the words of the Master; few there are that are in the words and the platitudes of doctrine. We ended yesterday with some thoughts on the Buddha and we will continue here with these again today albeit from a different perspective and one that can be very Enlightening. Before we go there however let us reiterate a thought that we had from the last post as regards the return of the Christ. We said:
If we, as men in form, can form that bond with the Master and with our own Christ Within, if we can repent and follow Him and keep His words, we will put ourselves into that unique position of recognizing Him and KNOWING Him when He returns. Can we understand this? Not only do we not know when He will return, but we do not know how He will return either. Just as the Jews and their religious leaders of 2000 years ago did not recognize the Messiah, so will those who do not Truly follow Him and keep His words not know Him when He comes again. Ponder on this.
Can we appreciate this idea? that only in KNOWING Him here and now can we KNOW Him when He returns. Can we understand that this likely can not be a superficial KNOWING but only a KNOWING by one who hears His True message loudly and clearly and who KNOW that that message will not be of a separatist nature except perhaps as He has told us saying: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21) which should serve to separate the superficial from the True. Understand here that we are not making any claim for ourselves or others in regards to His Kingdom as this is always a most personal thing but we are positing this idea that if we do not KNOW Him here and now, which is the same as entering into that Kingdom which is within each of us, that we will likely not KNOW Him upon His return.
The book that we cited a few posts ago, Buddha: His Life and Teachings, is a two part treatise; the first part is a gospel like telling of the stories of the Life of the Buddha which is based mostly upon Buddhist sources and is written by Paul Carus. The second part is called The Word of the Buddha and deals with the established Four Nobel Truths and the Eightfold Path which are the crux of the Buddha’s teachings and likely the best known parts. The Buddha has many sayings as does the Christ but, perhaps based on His time of incarnation which is about 500 years before Christ or the culture that He was born into, there is little certainty as to when much of these were committed to writing. We frequently quote from the Dhammapada which is a compilation of the Sayings of the Buddha and it appears that these form the basis of Mr. Carus work. However, the parts that we are concerned with today are from Mr. Carus thoughts, though they are based upon his knowledge of Buddhism and its traditions. His words are clear and poignant and tell a story which for us is typical of the message of the Christ. We should look at this in this way:
- In realization that the sense of duality has dawned upon us; that we know of the conscious personality struggling in the world and we know of the Christ Within, the Soul that is ever looking to “overcome the world” and live through and become that consciousness that in reality is IS but which it does not and can not control until such time as the man so chooses. Better said, the True man is the Soul which gives its Life and its consciousness to the form Life of the personality which both get lost in the illusion and glamour of the world until the Soul is able to, by the constant prodding and effort of conscience, overcome the pull of the lower forces.
- In seeing the Buddha as the force of Enlightenment in one’s personal Life; as the Soul speaking to the conscious man who has seen and understands the duality of Life in form.
These are Mr. Carus’ words in italics and we will interpret them as needed in plain text; the words of the Master will be as usual, in italics and enclosed in quotation marks with references.
- The Buddha, our Lord, was grieved at the ills of life. He saw the vanity of worldly happiness and sought salvation in the one thing that will not fade or perish, but will abide for ever and ever. When we recognize the duality of Life we see also the temporal nature and the vanity of worldly happiness and we seek something better, more permanent; we seek the Kingdom and we seek the Lord.
- You who long for life, learn that immortality is hidden in transiency. You who wish for happiness without the sting of regret, lead a life of righteousness. You who yearn for riches, receive treasures that are eternal. Truth is wealth, and a life of truth is happiness. Speaking to the consciousness that has sensed the two ways, the Soul, the Enlightenment, is here prodding the man to choose and to turn those Earthly desires into spiritual ones. Do not the Master’s words ring out here in His speaking of the treasures of the heart saying: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). In His dissertation on man’s wanting and thinking about things of the world, necessary things as food and clothing for the self, the Master says: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33); can we see the Buddha’s words that we read above in this?
- All compounds will be dissolved again, but the verities which determine all combinations and separations as laws of nature endure for ever and aye. Bodies fall to dust, but the truths of the mind will not be destroyed. This is our realization, that all things of the world are temporary except for the laws, the Truths, which establish these things; these are eternal. In the context of this saying we should see the mind not as the lower carnal mind but, as the Apostle Paul says of those who follow the Lord: “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). We should understand here that we are not mind but we use mind, mind it a universal aspect of the whole of the Awesome Manifested Universe but this is a topic for another day. Truth endures, it will not be destroyed and the Master tells us of Truth that “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32) in which we should see the flow of Truth from the Soul to the consciousness as our source of freedom from illusion and glamour.
- Truth knows neither birth nor death; it has no beginning and no end. Welcome the truth. The truth is the immortal part of mind. Establish the truth in your mind, for the truth is the image of the eternal; it portrays the immutable; it reveals the everlasting; the truth gives unto mortals the boon of immortality. What more can be said of Truth? The Master tells us that the Third Aspect of the Godhead, that which we call the Holy Spirit is, at the same time, “the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father” (John 15:26). Jesus tells us also that “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come” (John 16:13) which tells us of that which will happen for each of us when we are in His presence and His Kingdom.
- The Buddha has proclaimed the truth; let the truth of the Buddha dwell in your hearts. Extinguish in yourselves every desire that antagonizes the Buddha, and in the perfection of your spiritual growth you will become like unto him. That of your heart which cannot or will not develop into Buddha must perish, for it is mere illusion and unreal; it is the source of your error; it is the cause of your misery. Can we see in this the manifold message of the Christ as well. Looking at this according to our premise, that the Soul is speaking of itself proclaiming Truth, can we see that Truth becomes the treasure in one’s heart. As the Master says it is “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34) and when the treasure of the heart is the things of the Kingdom then the man’s thoughts and speech will be in Truth and all that is contrary to the Life of the disciple must and will perish. Can we see here our current theme regarding illusion and glamour as well?
- You attain to immortality by filling your minds with truth. Therefore, become like unto vessels fit to receive the Master’s words. Cleanse yourselves of evil and sanctify your lives. There is no other way of reaching truth. We should see here the relation to the idea of believing on the Master which we understand as following Him and keeping His words; it is thus that we are His disciples, it is thus that we realize immortality. We should understand also that in doing this we are cleansed by the “baptism of repentance” and that it is in this change that we can be, as conscious men in form, fit to receive the Power and the Love of the Soul, the Christ Within. Without this change, this cleansing, there is no place for such power in the carnal consciousness of man.
- Learn to distinguish between Self and Truth. Self is the cause of selfishness and the source of evil; truth cleaves to no self; it is universal and leads to justice and righteousness. Self, that which seems to those who love their self as their being, is not the eternal, the everlasting, the imperishable. Seek not self, but seek the truth. Here we see the duality arranged so that the Self is the consciousness that thinks itself to be such that it is, a man on the earth, while the Truth is the Higher Self, the Soul and, as the Master tells us, the Holy Spirit which we know as the activity of the Christ Within in our lives. When a thought or a desire comes the man must discern its origin, the Self or the Truth, for the thoughts and desires that bombard the consciousness of the man come from both realms; the one thinks only of the separated Self and what is good for it and for its benefit the other sees only Truth and keeping the words of the Master. The one is engulfed in the illusion of believing that the Self is their being and the other KNOWS, for it is the Truth.
- If we liberate our souls from our petty selves, wish no ill to others, and become clear as a crystal diamond reflecting the light of truth, what a radiant picture will appear in us mirroring things as they are, without the admixture of burning desires, without the distortion of erroneous illusion, without the agitation of clinging and unrest. Again, can we see the whole of the Master’s message in this? Can we see the reference to the Soul which in the prior part was the Truth? Can we see Love and GoodWill and the Master’s admonition that we “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16) and can we see that the good works are simply the righteousness of Truth?
- Yet you love self and will not abandon self-love. So be it, but then, verily, you should learn to distinguish between the false self and the true self. The ego with all its egotism is the false self. It is an unreal illusion and a perishable combination. He only who identifies his self with the truth will attain Nirvana; and he who has entered Nirvana has attained Buddhahood; he has acquired the highest good; he has become eternal and immortal. Here we again address the duality and the difficulty of achieving the Kingdom which is here called Nirvana. It is to the man in form, even the religious man, that his Soul is speaking and saying ‘you will not commit to me’ which is the sentiment of the Buddha and the Christ regarding the nature of man. The Soul here says that if the consciousness cannot commit to the Truth that it should at least recognize and understand the source of all thoughts and feelings and it is in this point that the man is perplexed. He is caught between the acting out of Life in form and the way of Truth from the Soul, the Christ Within. We must remember that there is no evil here just focus either upon the lower life and the illusion of the perishable existence or upon the Soul, the Truth, the Christ Within, the Kingdom of God…..Enlightenment.
We will end this here and hope that we have made the points that we intended. First that the teachings of the Master and of the Buddha are of the same nature and have the same objective for the man in this world who is lost in the illusion and the glamour of his Life in form itself. Secondly that in our presentation of this as the Soul speaking to the consciousness, we can see that this is as we ever do in reality; saying these things as the prodding conscience. Once we recognize the duality of Life in form, we all have afterthoughts about what we say and think and do. The words above however, as with the actual sayings of the Buddha and of the Christ and His Apostles, are intended to be forethought which can guide us on our Path to Nirvana, to the Kingdom of God here and now.
We will get back to our chapter in the next post.
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 leave this Prayer of Saint Anthony again as our Quote of the Day. If we were all to accept these ideas as guiding Lights in our lives, we would be expressing the Love and the Faith that the Master teaches.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
This is a prayer that is Truly in line with the teachings of the Master and the ideals encapsulated in this should be those that govern our lives and our prayer should be that ALL can see Life in this same way.
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* Buddha: His Life and Teachings; Peter Pauper Press, Mount Vernon, New York 1 1 r v
