Love is the Fulfilling of the Law
ON LOVE; PART CCXXX
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
GoodWill IS Love in Action
ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (Romans 1:18-23).
We have spent several days now discussing the Great Invocation and some of the ideas that came to us during this discussion and this was interspersed with our treatment of other topics. One of these was our perspective on judgment as it is understood from the Master’s words and then from our reality and we should note here that judgement, except for the Master’s telling us that we should not judge, is not a part of His overall teaching and this is likely because of its negative approach from the perspective of the world and hence, one of the Master’s instructions is “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24) and on this we did spend some time a few posts back. We should see here that the judgment “according to the appearance” IS judgment based upon the wisdom of the world while to “judge righteous judgment” is from the Soul, the Christ Within and IS that Wisdom from above that the Apostle James teaches. Our point here today is that in our Great Invocation and in our Lord’s Prayer there IS no judgment, they do not even consider things for which one should be judged and this includes ourselves; the Lord’s Prayer is in reality quite the opposite as it teaches us forgiveness and the idea that we individually WILL NOT be forgiven if we DO NOT forgive. Now much like judgment, this idea of forgiveness is not a thing that we receive nor do we need to receive from God but rather from those whom we have harmed in any way and, FROM OURSELVES, and from this perspective forgiveness is intimately tied to judgment. From the perspective of the Soul we DO judge ourselves and this IS a rather constant process that we can see in conscience if we are so attuned and for many who are not there is no awareness of the working out of this in Life. Then, from the perspective of the Soul again, we do a wrong in our form Life and this can be most any wrong to ourselves or others and is likely based upon the reality that we have as Souls regarding just what it is that is our own cross to bear if you will. That is, based upon our spiritual collateral or lack of it we are charged, self-charged, with some advancement in each incarnation and this may include for any particular person some self-inflicted retribution for a wrong committed in some previous Life. Note here that we use the words self-charged and self-inflicted and this is to say that the judgment that we endure is from our own Souls as is the ‘punishment’ if we can use that word to express a sense of karma as this ALL works according to the Law.
And we should see here that this judgment includes ALL of what one does in an incarnation, the good and the ‘bad’ or worldly, and the karmic adjustment is intended to meet the severity of the ‘sin’. From the angle then of forgiveness then we have this same dynamic, it is self-charged and self-inflicted and although these terms do not make as much sense here, we should be able to grasp the point which is that the Soul ever looks past those things that require forgiveness and in this phrase is our definition of this act of forgiveness itself. This is forgiveness from the perspective of the Soul and, unless one is focused upon the Soul and the God Within, this has no effect upon the Life of the man in form. And this is the cause of much angst in the Life of a man who does not have this realization and cannot find the wherewithal to forgive himself as he does not sense the promptings of the Soul through his conscience but sees ALL through his eyes and his focus upon the things of the world. We should try to see here also that this is more likely to afflict those who are religious but yet have a carnally minded perspective, those who see and identify with religion and God but who see these things in a strictly doctrinal way; those who rely upon a higher Power for forgiveness and who cannot sense that this Power IS Within. From the perspective of the Soul, judgment and forgiveness are ever related to the spiritual understanding that the ways of the world are sin and must be overcome and that the root cause for ALL is the worldly view of the self and the satisfaction of the comforts and pleasures of the self. Here then both judgment and forgiveness are elements of understanding; understanding of the role of glamour and illusion, understanding of the role of vanity as the Apostle Paul paints this for us saying: “the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope“, and an understanding of the objective of Life in form which is that “the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:20, 21). So we are saying here, as we have said in the past albeit in different terms, that most ALL of what we do in carnal Life is expected as we are as men lost in the vanity, the illusion and glamour, and it is through the action of the Soul that we are redeemed, “delivered from the bondage of corruption“, and set upon the Path to that strait gate that opens into the Kingdom of God.
There is a role then for judgment and for forgiveness and this role can be seen as the impetus to Repentance which is for us that change of focus, or rather that decision or choice to change, from the things of the self and the self in the world to the eventual focus upon the things of God and the God Within. The realization of this is however a long process for some as they are Truly lost in the illusion and the glamour of Life and Truly believe that their Life in the world is THE Life. Bringing this back to our ideas of prayer we should clearly see that there is no sense of judgment in our prayers and while the sense of forgiveness is the Master’s teaching in the Lord’s Prayer, this IS assumed in the Great Invocation which is focused only on the Light and Love and Power as the way to bring the entirety of the creation “into the glorious liberty of the children of God” which we can see as that Plan that the invocation asks should be restored. Again we emphasize the reality of invocation and prayer, and that it IS the requirement of men in the world to individually work out these things in Life, to serve by bringing the Light and Love and Power of the Soul and the Christ Within into expression in Life in the Earth….and this is of course done through one’s focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True as qualities of the Soul and the Christ Within. The Master offers us a parable that can help us to understand the dynamics of prayer and we should remember here that this IS a parable and that it IS spoken to men over 2000 years ago, men in a different mental and emotional state. We address this Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in In the Words of Jesus part 150 but we take it up here from a different perspective. The parable goes thus:
“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).
While this appears straightforward, we should note that this IS a parable and as such there is a hidden meaning that we do not readily see or one that is so apparent that we are blinded to it. Here the story is about real people and the nature of Life in form and here as well Luke tells us that this is directed AT a certain group of men, those “which trusted in themselves that they were righteous“. Here we should add for those He spoke to as well as us as readers that ‘if the shoe fits, wear it’ as this is a malady that afflicts most ALL men of religious training as their doctrine builds for them their own reality and a cover from the inconvenient Truth of Life. We should note here first that in the Pharisee’s prayer IS judgment of others as “extortioners, unjust, adulterers” and we should note here the word that Master uses in speaking of this man’s prayer, that “The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself“. In this word with are not many other translation choices and among them are unto, to, and for which should give us an understanding of the Master’s intent here which which we can see as that this Pharisee, although he may believe that he is a spiritual man, is not praying to God or to the God Within with these words but rather to his carnal self and in his words he is lifting himself up above others in judgment. Can we see the illusion here and the glamour? It is the publican, a man who we can assume here is not religious or religiously trained, who has the right perspective on God and on Prayer, that it should be humble and not judgmental except insofar as he is judging himself. It is the publican who IS NOT disadvantaged by the teachings of doctrines that allow a man to rely upon the self in the world for righteousness. Here we can see that the publican is unaware of the doctrine of religion as it teaches the Pharisee in that day to believe and to trust in their own sense of Truth and righteousness, a sense that causes the Master to instruct us on the way to the Kingdom saying that “except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). And there is a lesson here for us ALL today and we should take this lesson in the reality of the Apostle Luke’s words that we interpret as saying: ‘if the shoe fits, wear it‘. Of course the end result of the Master’s lesson is about focus, and here focus upon the self in the world as He tell us “every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” and we should understand here that these ARE the Master’s words and that “every one” means what it says.
This is not where we intended to go today with our essay nor did we want to end here but this is a business travel day and if you are reading these words it is because I did not get back in time to finish and post today words. We end here with the Great Invocation again and we follow this with the Lord’s Prayer:
THE GREAT INVOCATION:
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.
THE LORD’S PRAYER: *
- Our Father, which art in heaven,
- hallowed be thy name;
- thy kingdom come;
- thy will be done,
- in earth as it is in heaven.
- Give us this day our daily bread.
- And forgive us our trespasses,
- as we forgive them that trespass against us.
- And lead us not into temptation;
- but deliver us from evil.
- [For thine is the kingdom,
- the power, and the glory,
- for ever and ever.]
- Amen.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect of God |
Potency |
Aspect of Man |
In Relation to the Great Invocation |
In relation to the Christ |
|
GOD, The Father |
Will or Power |
Spirit or Life |
Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN |
Life |
|
Son, The Christ |
Love and Wisdom |
Soul or Christ Within |
Heart of God |
Truth |
|
Holy Spirit |
Light or Activity |
Life Within |
Mind of God |
Way |
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 are again at a time of year that includes the three Spiritual Festivals which are yet largely unrecognized by the Christian churches except for the one that recently past called Easter. We know about these festivals through the teaching and the efforts of the Master’s of the Wisdom who we should see as advanced disciples of the Christ, a group which may yet include those Souls that appeared with the Master as His Apostles, disciples and others who aided and assisted in His Great Mission such as the Baptist and His natural mother Mary. Each of these festivals is celebrated at a Full Moon and the cycle begins with Easter which is celebrated on the Sunday following the first Full Moon of Spring. At the Full Moon of May, which occurs on the 5th day of the month, is the Wesak Festival which is the Festival of the Buddha and at the Full Moon of June, which will occur on the 4th of June, is the Christ Festival also known today as World Invocation Day. As we progress toward the Wesak Festival we will post Quote’s of the Day that are, in our view, conducive to the view of the Buddha and the Christ as regards the spreading of Love and GoodWill throughout the world; we begin with the Affirmation of the Disciple.
I am a point of light within a greater Light.
I am a strand of loving energy within the stream of Love divine.
I am a point of sacrificial Fire, focused within the fiery Will of God.
And thus I stand
I am a way by which men may achieve.
I am a source of strength, enabling them to stand.
I am a beam of light, shining upon their way.
And thus I stand.
And standing thus, revolve
And tread this way the ways of men,
And know the ways of God.
And thus I stand.
We repeat again what we had previously said of this Mantram:
Today’s Quote of the Day is called the Affirmation of the Disciple and is spoken from the perspective of the Soul and not from that of the man in form. It is the Soul that we are in this life on Earth, housed in this ‘temple’ of flesh and it is the Light of the Soul that must flow through this ‘temple’ in order that we may say with the Christ “I have overcome the world“ (John 16:33) which is our goal and our destiny. Speaking then as the Soul we affirm our reality and true existence in God and in His Three Aspects of Light and Love and His Will. As this Light and Love and Will flow through our conscious personalities and forms we, as disciples, take on the nature of the second stanza being able to offer to the world a better way through our service and our Love for all, encouragement to righteousness through our strength of purpose, and the Light which shines in accordance with the Master’s instructions to “Let your light so shine before men” (Matthew 5:16) and illuminates the Path. Finally we realize that we are standing in this world and walking as men but, as conscious Souls in form, we know the way and the ways of God and are able to say with the Christ that “I am not of this world” (John 8:23).
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- * From the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; this version is from the Book of Common Prayer of 1662
