ON LOVE; PART MCIV
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GoodWill IS Love in Action
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
We begin today with a discussion on the mind and we should start here by acknowledging that the mind of man IS perhaps the most misunderstood part of the human experience and this IS True from virtually every perspective. The mind of man IS NOT his brain nor can we find it in the brain and that so many fields of science and religion believe this to be the case DOES NOT make it so. And while both science and religion like to think that they KNOW the functions of the mind, both ARE missing much that will eventually be discovered. For our purposes a simple definition of mind will suffice and this from Wikipedia will be our working model of the common understanding of the mind; they say: The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory .
If we can see that the mind IS an energy field, our own personal energy field, and that the brain, among other functions, translates the activity of the mind into physical reality, we can begin to see the relationships that DO exist. Not ALL mind activity IS translated into physical action by the brain however and for example we can look at the writing that I am doing now. Some of my thoughts are becoming words on this page but far more are remaining as thoughts and realizations. Some thoughts ARE causing other actions such as researching an idea or looking for pertinent words from scripture and yet others invoke the memory which then feeds more thoughts into the stream. The result of ALL this is an essay but there IS much in that essay that IS NOT preconceived ideas based in knowledge but rather the realization of certain ideas which were never pondered before.
And there IS a duality at play; when my focus IS upon the writing that I am DOING there IS a flow of thoughts and ideas that ARE spiritual in nature and which help me to discern the Truth and to apply this to scripture. However, when I am NOT writing or thinking about those things that I write my focus IS elsewhere and my conscious mind IS on cooking or cleaning or on the things that I DO at work. At the same time, there IS a steady influence of the spiritual thoughts and ideas that I have processed in my mind regarding the carnal things that I must DO and in this we should try to see the idea of measure….by what measure these spiritual ideas can be applied IS the final purpose. Such spiritual thoughts ARE wasted if the DO NOT result in the expression of those realizations through this Life in form.
As I, or any man for that matter, come to realize the Truth behind the Master’s words and process these Truths through my mind with the intent of striving to KNOW, these realizations become perforce the motivating factors in my Life and increasingly color my outward expression and my thoughts and my attitudes. An example of the working out of these ideas IS my use of the ideas of “another gospel“; we have read these words many times and my thoughts about them were restricted to ideas that were the same as or close to the doctrinal thinking on them….that “another gospel” was the teachings of men who were perhaps teaching perverted versions of Jesus’ words.
Suddenly however I had a new insight into this idea of “another gospel” and began to see it in terms of ALL doctrinal teachings that ARE NOT founded in the Truth of the Master’s words. I came to see that “another gospel” IS the very doctrines which have been created by men from the beginning; doctrines which I have always seen as diluting and changing the words of the Lord but which I never applied to the Apostle Paul’s idea. Now I can see that “another gospel” IS ALL “gospel’ teachings that ARE NOT in accord with Jesus’ words and the amplifying and clarifying words of His apostles. The point here IS that there IS a duality. There IS a sense of KNOWING the meaning of a thing and then there IS the realization of the True meaning; the one comes in the nurturing and the indoctrination of a man and the other comes in the revelations of Truth that come to the man who will strive and will focus upon that Truth.
In ALL of this it IS I that am using the mind and here we should see that I am NOT this mind and under this premise the definition above fails. I am the conscious awareness that uses the mind but I am NOT in the mind. I KNOW that I have this faculty called the mind in the same way that I have a hand and a foot that IS can use. It IS the mind however that translates my consciousness to my brain and it IS my brain that translates the mind to my actions and up to the point of such action ALL IS energy. It IS the consciousness, the awareness of the self, that IS the self and IS a spiritual entity and it IS this entity that can change the focus of the mind.
Of course there ARE problems with the simplicity of this explanation and I DO NOT purport to KNOW ALL of the Truth. This being said, we should try to see the whole of this idea in terms of Life in form which IS what we essentially ARE….a conscious awareness living through a form in this world. Early on in this series of essays we proposed that the consciousness IS lent to the Life in this world and if we can see this idea in combination with Paul’s words saying that ALL men ARE “made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same” (Romans 8:20), perhaps we can get a better glimpse of our reality. In the very nature of Life in form that originates in the womb there IS a singular sense of consciousness that IS lost in the incapacity of the infant child.
While the common ideas related to this say that it IS the consciousness and self awareness that grows with the child, the greater reality IS that it IS ONLY the ability of the growing mind to translate this consciousness and the ability of the growing brain to translate the mind that changes; the consciousness IS unchanged. The consciousness IS however lost from the perspective of focus as the consciousness, the Soul, DOES NOT KNOW anything in this form but his nurturing and his indoctrination. There ARE however those few who can bring with them some part of their own accumulated self, accumulated as spiritual collateral from previous excursions into Life in form. This ability IS easily seen in the child prodigy, a Mozart for example who began composing music at the age of three.
We should understand here that there IS much more than music involved in this ability and there ARE available lists of persons that show the depth of KNOWING in a certain field with NO explainable source for that knowledge. Here we should try to see that ALL of the consciousness was NOT lost to the Life of the infant and ALL was NOT made unavailable by the nurturing and the indoctrination that takes away one’s focus and becomes whatsoever one KNOWS. However, for the vast majority of men the True sense of the Soul IS lost and it IS in this being lost that the True sense of self, the True sense of consciousness, CAN NOT influence the mind that IS captivated by its nurtured and indoctrinated focus.
Here we should try to see the very purpose of scripture which IS to bring the mind in tune with the consciousness which ever KNOWS the Truth and that it IS the doctrinal approach of men that has inhibited the influence that scripture should have. It IS in the True reading of scripture that the mind can be forced by the underlying consciousness to focus upon the Good, the Beautiful and the True and in this process it IS ONLY the assertive self that can overcome the effects of nurturing, indoctrination and experience. And it IS ONLY in hearing and heeding the prompting of the Soul that such choice can be made, that the consciousness that was long before lent to the carnal Life can become focused upon the Truth. In this IS the True meaning of Repentance.
But the carnal mind which IS yet feeding the consciousness IS difficult to move; it IS the carnal mind that keeps the consciousness in the illusion and the glamour which IS the Life that has been created by the nurturing, the indoctrination and the experience. This IS the essence of the Master’s words saying that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:21) and when we can see that the heart IS the conscious self and NOT the mind that feeds it, one can begin to grasp the whole of the dilemma. Again it IS ALL about focus; if the consciousness IS focused upon the flow of ideas, thoughts and attitudes that flow from the mind in the world, the Life IS carnal. However as the consciousness, the True self, begins to influence the mind then, in the power of the unction, the mind IS forced away from its heretofore carnal comfort.
It IS ever at the prompting of the Soul that the process begins and the Soul that IS the conscious awareness of the man in form IS always prompting. But this goes unheard over the din of carnal living and the chaos that IS the carnal mind. In the clamor of daily Life in this world there IS little room for the sanity that IS found in the words of the Master and the amplifying and clarifying words of His apostles, a sanity that will surely disrupt the carnal Life and that will set the mind upon a new course. This new course IS one that shows the error of the carnal way that has been staunchly protected in the illusion and the glamour that IS Life in this world. In the illusion and the glamour of Life the mind will ONLY reluctantly accept the Truth and perhaps ONLY when it becomes dissatisfied enough with the status quo that IS carnal living.
As we have discussed, the Apostle Paul’s writings ARE to such men who have caught a glimmer of Truth, men who had arrived at a time in their lives where they have chosen the Truth over the illusion and the glamour in which they were before caught. Paul IS teaching these men on the way of spiritual living as he cautions them to keep their sights upon the Truth; he warns them NOT to let the mind slip back into the vanity which IS focus upon the self in the world. We have discussed how that the apostle’s cautions and his warnings ARE misunderstood and misapplied by the doctrinal thinkers who have NOT yet caught a glimmer of their own but who, in the glamour of their doctrines, fight for the status quo that IS the carnal Life in this world.
That they color their carnal thoughts and attitudes with interpretations of scripture ONLY deepens their sense of glamour and their defense of their version of Truth. It IS ONLY when there comes some event that shakes their faith, if we can use that word here, that they may look deeper. However, it seems more likely that such a faith shaking event will turn them yet further from the Truth. In this sense we should try to see that the deeper one goes into his doctrinal beliefs the more difficult it IS to come out and the picture of this IS clearly painted for us in the gospel stories regarding the way of the Pharisees and the other religious rulers in Jesus’ time.
From a strictly spiritual perspective, there ARE few in this world at any time who can fully populate their mind with the flow of Truth that comes from the Soul; that IS there ARE few who can fully dissuade the carnal instincts and the carnal thoughts and attitudes that impinge upon the mind and seek to carry it back to carnal living. And this IS Paul’s point in the lists that we have been studying: that while his audience may have overcome the gross human behaviors they ARE still susceptible to the more normal impulses that promote the self above ALL else.
ALL is a matter of focus. When the focus of the mind IS put upon the things of God the flow of Light begins its work of Redemption which IS essentially our spiritual goal. And it IS toward this that we should strive KNOWING that the carnal influences will distract us and perhaps send us astray. But, so long as we DO as the apostle, so long as “we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven“, we will progress and do so by the measure of our groaning, by the measure of our striving….and we will have the same measure of the Presence of the Lord. Repeating the apostle’s words to the Corinthians that show us this same duality that IS of the mind from a perspective of focus, we read:
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).
If we can see these words from Paul in terms of mind and of focus perhaps we can get the True intent of his message. This IS NOT about death, the death of the body, nor about some form of resurrection. Neither IS this in regard to that nebulous idea of a glorified body which some understand as a glorified resurrection body. Save for the example of the mortal body, the “earthly house of this tabernacle“, there IS naught here about bodies whatsoever; the entire selection IS in regard to the focus of the Life of the man in this world.
In previous essays we spent some time discussing the ideas behind the Greek word kataluo which IS rendered here as dissolved and IS generally seen in terms of destruction. This word IS used in several different contexts ranging from destroy to being a guest or lodging and if we can understand this as the latter, that Paul’s saying IS that if we cease to lodge in this tabernacle, we can perhaps see a deeper meaning to his words. Vincent tells us that kataluo IS: Lit., loosened down. Appropriate to taking down a tent 4, and if we can see this as a conscious idea, if we can see this as one’s willingness to cease to dwell in this tabernacle, then we have the way to tie ALL these word ideas together.
Paul shows us that it IS “in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven” and here we see the desire to change the focus of one’s Life in a more complete manner; to cease one’s mental view of Life as this Life in this world and to see the deeper meaning of one’s spiritual Life and the expression of that Life through form. And to the idea of one’s willingness to leave off dwelling as a conscious entity, as a Soul in this tabernacle, we have Paul’s words saying “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord“.
Here the apostle IS NOT speaking about willingness to die the death of the physical body but ONLY to change its focus which IS tantamount to his words that we have been studying that tell us to “put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh“. This IS the ONLY death to which he refers and in this we should see his other way of saying this as he tells us also that “they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Galatians 5:24). This IS the death that we should see in these words and NOT the ideas of doctrines which ideas ARE nebulous at best.
We close today with two things; first we have corrected our text from 2 Corinthians to include the words “clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life” (2 Corinthians 5:4). We DO NOT KNOW how we lost these words and we will discuss them in our next post as these ARE pertinent to our message of Life. Second, we close with these words that we have been carrying for quite some time….our trifecta; these ideas DO play a central role in our topic and ARE the KEY ideas of our journey. Repeating the trifecta we read:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free“ (John 8:31-32).
- “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).
- “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” (John 14:21-24).
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
| Aspect |
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.
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 repeat here a Quote of the Day that we spent much time with over the course of our essays. In this affirmation we find the Truth of discipleship as we have been ever been expressing and here we can relate our themes of the last few days; “take no thought” for the things of the world and that we approach the Kingdom and discipleship in the nature of the little child, in humbleness, meekness, unashamed in any way and unassuming. The message that this imparts for us today IS that it IS the Soul that is at work in the world of men as it expresses to some degree the purpose, power and the will through Life in this world. These words are from a meditation offered to his students by our Tibetan brother and in which we find greater understanding of the message of the Master. This IS Truly the way of the disciple.
My Soul has purpose, power and will; these three are needed on the Way of Liberation.
My Soul must foster love among the sons of men; this is its major purpose.
I, therefore, will to love and tread the Way of Love. All that hinders and obstructs the showing of the Light must disappear before the purposes of the Soul.
My will is one with the great Will of God;. that Holy Will requires that all men serve. And unto the purposes of the Plan I lend my little will.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
