Love is the Fulfilling of the Law

ON LOVE; PART XCIV

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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“And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 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. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live , ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 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. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, 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. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. 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” (John 14:13-26).

We began with our list of words in the last post and considered our use of the words illusion and glamour along with the allied idea of deception as the last words we covered and here we will try to delve a bit deeper into these ideas from the words of the Master. That there is deception and that people are deceived is no mystery as it is spoken about by the Master and His apostles; for us, we see the root cause of this deception in the ideas of illusion and glamour and we understand that these are powerful forces in the world. For the man who lives his Life in the world and KNOWS little else, these ideas of illusion and of glamour are not apparent as the man believes in what he sees and hears and does; he believes in the way of Life as defined by his particular society and culture. The illusion is that he thinks that these things are Truly the objectives of his Life and the glamour is in the idea that he takes these illusory things and makes them his own and becomes or pretends to become better at them than others. Both of these ARE the causes of the deception of the man in the world and most ALL can be considered as self-deception as it is the individual that chooses what to believe and generally it will be whatsoever brings him the most pleasure. From this perspective it is generally fruitless to speak to the man focused upon the world in these terms of illusion and glamour and this is simply because he does not recognize them. These forces afflict ALL men and this regardless of race, politics or religion and it can be said that the further that one gets in the world of politics or religion the deeper he can become enmeshed in and controlled by these forces of worldly living as there are more things to delude him as he can build for himself castles in the sky.

Until a man Truly recognizes the reality of his Life as being in the Soul and not in the world, he cannot begin to escape the pitfalls of illusion and glamour as they form the very fabric of his conscious Life and and the motivations of his society. This recognition is not found in the affirmations of religions but is found in the Truth of hearing that Still Small Voice of the Soul and heeding its call as it is in this call that a man begins to understand that there is nothing in the world that will satisfy the desire of the Soul to be expressed through form. The result is the acceptance of the True message of the Master on Love and brotherhood and an ever increasing focus upon the things of God with no excuse, while fighting off the lure of the world of things that uses illusion and glamour as its tools. What we are saying here is that the first step is in relation to one’s fellowman and in seeing him as one’s brother, entitled to the same as himself; this IS, in our view, the starting place for ALL spiritual endeavor and it is from this place that he effects of illusion and glamour can be seen. So much of the Master’s teachings point us to this place and so much of the apostles writings enhance and amplify this idea.

Much of the ideas on deception in the New Testament are in regard to what one believes as True about a thing; let us here look at some of the ideas that are presented to us by the Master:

• In the Parable of the Sower, as part of the Master’s explanation, He says to His disciples that “He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful” (Matthew 13:22). We should see in these words the reality of the illusory nature of riches and we should remember here that the value of riches is a very personal thing which is generally measured by a man in relation to his neighbors and not only against those that may seem to have it all and in this we should be able to see the measure of glamour.
• The Master tells us rather clearly to “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 4-5) and here we should see a defined relationship between these words and those which we have been discussing recently that tell us “Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given” (Mark 4:24). Can we see the parallel ideas that if we believe that which we should not based upon what we may hear or what we are taught that, at the same time, we are letting others deceive us? Taking these words from Matthew’s Gospel out of the normal context in which they are viewed, we can see them of themselves speaking about the working of religion in the world; that men can come in the name of Jesus telling doctrines that ARE NOT True and which “shall deceive many“. It is not necessary here to see this as men pretending to be THE Christ but just to understand it as men claiming to speak on His behalf and to be anointed which is one of the defining terms of the Greek word Christos. It is unfortunate or it is according to the Plan that the masses are deceived, we cannot say which but we should be able to see in this the function of both illusion and glamour and that different men will believe different things that may benefit their psyche or their worldly well being.
• Jesus continues in this same string of sayings to tell us two more things. First that “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11) and here in these words we should see similar ideas as above. The “false prophets” are those teachers who claim to have what they teach from God; they take it upon themselves to interpret what they are teaching as being given to them from God. Of course there can be those that are teaching Truths and we can KNOW these by the teaching itself, by discerning it against James teaching on the Wisdom from above and by the fruits which the teachings and the teachers produce; remember that it is the Master who tells us in this same context that “Ye shall know them by their fruits” and again “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:16, 20). And, we KNOW what the fruits of the Spirit are as the Apostle Paul tells us: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22-23) and “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth” (Ephesians 5:9). If we can measure things that are contrary to these ideas and contrary to the Wisdom from above as being True then we are simply deceived and the deception is solely based upon our view of Life as pertaining to the things and the pleasures of Life in the world. The Master goes on to bring this home to the disciple and the aspirant saying that “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:24) and in this we must see that we too must ever be careful. We should see here as well that the idea of deception is many times a shared one as both the teacher and the hearer are afflicted by the glamour and the illusion of the world; this idea of course leaves out those who teach erroneously and KNOW that they do so for the profit of it.
• In the same vein as our last comment above, the Master tells us that “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22). These would be those who deceive others with purpose and for gain. We should understand here that these deceivers are also under the influence of illusion and glamour as they believe that their action is to get them ahead in the world and many are able to build a strong but illusory rationale for their behavior.

The Apostle Paul is a man who we KNOW has suffered through the duality of Life in form as he tells us of his own struggles and in this we should take comfort as Paul found the end of the journey on the Path as a disciple of the Master. Like Peter, Paul is set for us as an example of the trials and the tribulations of Life in the world and of the “glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:21) as Paul tells us. It is this sense of duality that gives us the True picture of the effects of the forces of illusion and glamour as they play upon the mind and the emotions of the man in form. When we come to KNOW our True presence as a Soul trying to express the Good, the Beautiful and the True through the Life in form, we then can recognize both the dual nature of Life on Earth and the effects of illusion and of glamour and it is at this time that we are armed to stand against deception. We can see this struggle in the words of Paul who gives us instruction on just how to stand:

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:10-17).

Can we see the deeper realities in Paul’s words? realities that go beyond the doctrinal teachings of the devil? Can we see the reality that the devil is but the power of the world of things and the principalities are the illusion and the glamour that this power engenders as the forces of darkness? What could keep man more in the dark than a Life spent in the grip of illusion that prevents him from seeing the Light of Truth? There is a saying here that is too obscure to properly render but the translators have done so by ascribing evil to the realm of God, in Heaven, as it is recorded in other translations; the King James translates this as “high places” and this may be the more sensible translation which still leaves it in obscurity. Perhaps we are here speaking about the rulers of this world as in the prior thought who from their “high places” express wickedness in spiritual things which is similar to those type persons that the Master cautions us against above. Doctrine however is all to ready to accept the personality of evil in the devil or in Satan and in this way fend off their own responsibility as they look at these ideas of evil and sin as only the grossly bad behavior and not as simply the ways of the world to which we all are subject as the effects of illusion and glamour.

It is when we realize the existence of these forces in our Life that we can stand against them and Paul gives us the wherewithal to do so by reminding of Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, focus upon the Spirit and keeping the word of God.

We did not get any further in our list and to our next word which is vanity and we leave here today with Paul’s words on our subjection to this which we KNOW as illusion and glamour: “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope” (Romans 8:20).

Aspect of God	Potency	Expressed as Fire	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Electric Fire	Spirit or Life	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Solar Fire	Soul or Christ Within	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Fire by Friction	Life Within the Form	Way

As we approach Thanksgiving 2012 we are reminded of the True purpose of this day by its very name…..THANKS—GIVING and this should be a day in which we Truly give thanks for all that we do have regardless of how little or how much it may be. And, we should ever realize that as aspirants and disciples of the Lord that we Truly have much in a Life that is filled with spiritual endeavor and the peace and harmony that comes in our realization of some of the more hidden meanings in Life. This realization is for us a large part of our understanding of forsaking ALL as we come to realize that those things of the Earth that we tend to strive towards and for are of no value and carry no True meaning to our True self as the Soul.

From the more Earthly side we should note that while the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday are rather obscure, it is nonetheless an American tradition that dates back to colonial times with declarations of days of thanksgiving to mark the nation’s successes. In the mid-19^th century a movement began to create a Thanksgiving Day in November which was declared as such by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. During this time Ralph Waldo Emerson penned these simple words below which, based upon his own beliefs, are not intended to embrace any particular religion.

Thanksgiving

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

Wishing you all a very

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 

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.:

Today we post a World Prayer that is also included in the Prayers and Meditation section with some explanation of its source and its use. We are entering a time of the year which we can consider more sacred by way of the newness of Spring which should reflect in our newness of Life. This is the Festival of Easter and a time of rejoicing; not only for the Resurrection of the Lord from the Christian perspective but also for the teaching that is incorporated in the Master’s sacrifice 2000 years ago and in His continued sacrifice. We should remember His parting words: “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20)

From the point of Light within the Mind of God
Let light stream forth into the minds of men.
Let Light descend on Earth.

From the point of Love within the Heart of God
Let love stream forth into the hearts of men.
May Christ return to Earth.

From the centre where the Will of God is known
Let purpose guide the little wills of men–
The purpose which the Masters know and serve.

From the centre which we call the race of men
Let the Plan of Love and Light work out
And may it seal the door where evil dwells.

Let Light and Love and Power restore the Plan on Earth.