ON LOVE; PART CCCXLV
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•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•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•ΑΩ•Α
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).
In the last post we summarized our thoughts on a scenario whereby a man can come to the Kingdom and to the greater realization of the Truths as they stream forth from his own Soul. In this we saw the disillusionment and the dissatisfaction of a man with his Life in the world and in this state he will generally look to better his mental and emotional well-being. We should remember that through those stages of Life, birth, infancy, childhood and adolescence, a man comes into maturity KNOWING only the ways in which he was nurtured and taught and thereby KNOWS only the world. As we have previously said, a religious upbringing and education does not change this dynamic, it merely changes the way that the mature man sees the world and this because most ALL religion is based in doctrines which are the conventions of men and are reflections of the progenitors Life in the world. The Truth of the Kingdom is based in the Soul of man and not in the carnal mind and emotions that are trained through the early stages and to this we must add the particular proclivities of the man, the nature and the quality of his mind and emotions, as well his innate ability to use and control them. ALL of this together creates the mature man in the world who is, based on these factors, enmeshed to some degree in his self and the activities of his self in the world. It is at this point of maturity that our scenario begins and here the basic realities of Life begin to play; it is here that one searches for greater education and career, for a family of his own, for the pleasures of Life in the world, and it is here, as a captive of the illusion and the glamour to which ALL men are subjected by the very nature of Life in form, that he begins his own quest which he KNOWS will only end in his death.
Not KNOWING any different, save perhaps from the doctrinal pronouncements of religion, the man wanders ever looking for meaning, and finding it, he looks again for greater meaning and this is not a singular effort as this same dynamic touches ALL that he touches. Expanding upon what we have already said in the last few posts, here we can see the role of distractions, the role of games and hobbies, the role of drugs and alcohol, the role of the night life and the presumed comfort found in sex and other interpersonal relationships; these are distractions ALL and serve to turn the mind and the emotions away from the growing dissatisfaction some part of the Life that one has found in the world. But these distractions are in so many ways similar to those things one desires distraction from and soon many find disillusionment and dissatisfaction in these distractions as well and, if this dissatisfaction can be seen before the distractions become addictions and habits, the better for the man. There is no uniformity in this as these ideas effect ALL men differently and by degree based upon our factors above; the early training of the mind and the emotions, a man’s particular proclivities and the nature and the quality of the equipment with which he was born, plus of course his ability to use these faculties. Here above is the scenario of the man who will continually seek newer and better Life experiences and distractions and who eventually, because he is so unaware of or purposefully ignoring of the prompting of his own Soul, and seeing the self and the self in the world as his only existence, will begin to accept the disillusionment and the dissatisfaction as the very nature of Life and see them as his natural state.
In the Buddha’s words this is the man who is asleep and of whom He says: ‘Wakefulness is the way to life. The fool sleeps as if he were already dead, but the master is awake and he lives forever. He watches. He is clear. How happy he is! For he sees that wakefulness is life. How happy he is, following the path of the awakened. With great perseverance he meditates, seeking freedom and happiness. So awake, reflect, watch. Work with care and attention. Live in the way and the light will grow in you” (Dhammapada on Wakefulness). Here is these words we can see the importance of awakening from the disillusioned and unsatisfied way of Life of the man who is asleep and here we should understand that many of those who are asleep never realize this as this Life IS the only way that they KNOW; it is only when we reach that stage of duality, when we have begun to move our focus away from the self and the self in the world and onto the Soul and the Good, the Beautiful and the True in the things of God, that we can Truly recognize these realities of Life. And here is our reality; that we are disillusioned and dissatisfied with Life, we sense the prompting of the Soul and we pursue that as the needed change; faint and only a glimpse at first, this sense builds as we allow it until we can begin to see the duality and sense the difference between being asleep and being awake. We pursue then what we see as our new Truth and we begin to seek and to strive toward an unknown goal and, if we can measure this new reality as better than the old and can hold our vision of this unknown reality against the pull of the self in the world and the pleasures of the distractions, we can come to that point of decision to change the Life and this decision IS Repentance. Here we begin anew and we should try to see that this IS ALL rather seamless, it moves slowly and steadily without much abruptness and, when we have arrived, we begin the next struggle which is to forebear and to stay the course of awakening which IS a difficult feat to accomplish. This is the nature of the Way of the disciple in the world from our perspective and as a broad outline this should suffice to allow us to see the plight of our brothers in the world and we should ever remember here that we ARE ALL brothers and our experiences in Life ARE NOT all that dissimilar, save the choices we make and the distractions that we pursue, and it is in this Light that we should read the Master’s words that tell us that we must see, understand and aid our brothers; He tells us:
“Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:34:40).
This saying is a reflection of the Love that we must have for our brother, our neighbor and the stranger who qualifies as both and this is in the end the attractiveness of the prompting of our own Souls. It IS this sense of Love and brotherhood that will bring us to this point of Repentance as without this sense we are still beholden to the self and the self in the world; there IS NO other True gateway to our awakening. We have ofttimes said that ALL of our spiritual pursuits begin and end in Love and perhaps here we can see this as the dividing line between those who claim spirituality and those who display the fruits of that spirituality through Love as the Master teaches it in the Great Commandment and the Golden Rule as well as ALL of the other ways that He has found to say the same thing and of which these sayings above are an example. That comparison intended in “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” should speak volumes to the man who desires spiritual revelation and Truth and, as we have said many times, His words must not be seen as these things only but as though these are but examples of the way that we view and act towards our brothers, our neighbors and the strangers in our lives and who may cross our path.
Continuing with our words from James that we have been discussing and where we have been struck for more than two days now on the same rather obscure saying which we viewed from different translations and in commentary only to find that there is no one who Truly understands the apostles intent. The whole of James’ words here are:
“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded” (James 4:1-8).
We put into bold type those words that we could not find meaning for in all that we read and, while we did find inspiring words in one translation as well as in a saying purported to be the source of James’ words from the Book of Wisdom, we recognized that there is little likelihood that either are what the apostle Truly means. As we said yesterday, it was as we were about to close out this topic and move on that we caught a glimpse of what James’ meaning could be and we reported this as such in the last essay albeit in a rather choppy way. In further pondering on this glimpse and the words that we wrote, we are more convinced that this could be the apostles message as we KNOW that he is writing to disciples and aspirants with many words of caution that they do not fall back into the ways of the world and he methodically outlines the themes of importance starting with temptation and going through doing versus hearing only, the power of the tongue and how to KNOW what IS Wisdom from above to name a few. And his message above is a caution as well; a warning against having Love for, and attraction to, the things of the world and, as we have said, James’ words are straightforward and blunt, they are not at all a message to those whose focus is squarely upon the self and the world. It is in this dynamic that we see as his presentation to the disciple and the aspirant, as are most ALL of the apostles’ writings as well as so much of the words of the Master, that we can see the perspective from which James is saying these obscure words: Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? If we are that aspirant or that disciple, we are expressing somewhat of the divinity of the Soul through form and this is becoming our person, our appearance to the world. But, we are still in the world having yet to progress to that point where we can say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Until this point of True Glory, there is yet the spirit of the world in us, a spirit that we must ever struggle against and one conceived in and full of lust and envy and we, can see here that the apostle is yet cautioning us against giving in to this pull of the world as to do so is to be “a friend of the world“ which IS then “the enemy of God“.
Of course we should remember that these idea of friend and enemy are not to be seen in their common understanding but rather along the lines that we discussed previously saying that: Friendship is an odd word to use and James continues with this further on in the word rendered as friend which Strong’s tells us means Love as well as friend as taken from the Greek word philia 3. We should note here then the hint of Love in the idea of the apostle’s saying although not in the strength that the word agape would show nor the idea that we would get from philadelphia which is directed at another. Vine’s tells us that: akin to philos, “a friend”, is rendered in Jas. 4:4, “the friendship (of the world).” It involves “the idea of loving as well as being loved” (Mayor)6, and while we may not agree here we do get confirmation of the idea of Love in James’ saying. James give us the proper understanding that this friendship or Love of the world at any degree is enmity with God and here we should understand this idea of enmity from the Greek word echthra is like the last where philia or friendship is Love that is short of agape, this then could be displeasure which is short of hate which is how this is rendered in other translations and is short of enemy as it is rendered here and or at the end in others.
Our point here is that in this friendship or Love of the world we are enemies of or are expressing hatred toward God and we must mitigate this language to a more realistic level as we do in our words above from our original look at this. This is the caution of the apostle to the aspirant and the disciple; that the closer he may get to the world and the things of the world, the farther he will be from God and that it IS the function of the spirit of the world into which we are indoctrinated by Life itself, a spirit that is filled with lust and envy, that can keep us in the grips of the self and the self in the world and prevent our further movement toward greater expression of divinity.
While it was not our plan, these two parts of our daily essays over the last few days merge in these ideas that we see now in James’ words.
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 repeat here again a saying that is from the Bhagavad Gita, which goes well with our theme of the God Within, the Soul, which we see as the Christ Within and while this is good in the Christian world and is True based upon our understanding of the Christ as the manifestation of God, we should also see in these words below that it does not matter what these divine ideas are called; that it matters not what we call this Inner Man, that he is the same in ALL, he is the Soul.
Thou carriest within thee a sublime Friend whom thou knowest not. For God dwells in the inner part of every man, but few know how to find Him. The man who sacrifices his desires and his works to the Beings from whom the principles of everything stem, and by whom the Universe was formed, through this sacrifice attains perfection. For one who finds his happiness and joy within himself, and also his wisdom within himself is one with God. And, mark well, the soul which has found God is freed from rebirth and death, from old age and pain, and drinks the water of Immortality.—Bhagavad-Gita
It is difficult to tell just what verses of the Bhagavad Gita the above is from; whether it is a paraphrase or a combination. It is from the book “The Great Initiates” by Édouard Schuré which was originally published in French in 1889 and perhaps it is in the translation of the verses that they become hard to recognize. However, the sheer beauty of the presentation caught my attention and so I share it with you. The Path to the Kingdom is the same no matter what religion one professes.
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!
- 2 New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- 3 Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
- 6 Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996
