Forgiveness part 3

Level three.

There is no one to offend.

You may have had the experience of someone coming up to you and asking for forgiveness. Maybe your reply was: “Don’t worry about it there is nothing to forgive.” When I have said this what I really meant was, the offence was so small that I hardly even noticed it. But I did notice it at the time, but considered it a “slight infraction.” Certainly not enough to get all riled up about. Heck I was going to save my real anger for something major. What ever that may be and it was totally up to me to determine what it was.

When I say there is no one to offend I mean there is absolutely no one there that can be offended anymore, whether large or small. There is no such thing as a small offense they are all the same and rob us of our peace of mind and set us up for a chance at retaliation. Attack and counter attack—the worlds way of doing things.

You, are not there. You have died to your ego self/sin nature. In level two the Buddha instructed us to “observe the impermanence of all dharmas.” Here dharmas refers to all mental constructs one of which is: “I am a body.” This identification includes all our perceptions arriving from our association with the body fed to us by the bodies senses. Our sense orientation enables us to survive in this world and our gratefulness for the process naturally attaches us to the physical realm. The down side of this is the fear of not surviving in the physical. This is the foundation upon which our ego/sin-nature builds it’s protective shell. Any threat to our well being is seen as an attack against and a threat to our survival, mentally, physically and spiritually, which of course we try to defend either by running away from the danger or attacking our perceived enemy.

When I say; “I am something.” we immediately identify with it. We do this hundreds maybe even thousands of times a day. “I am, hungry, cold, a boss an employee, a wife a husband, etc., on and on. And we are always on the lookout for threats of any kind—“I am being attacked.” Or “I am safe.” Or “I am defending myself.” But who is the one saying “I am” this or that? Is this “I am” separate from that which it identifies with. Saying I have a body is the same as I have a car. This body is mine and this car is mine and these kids are mine, but “Our life does not consist of the things we posses.”, according to Jesus.

Everything we identify ourselves with will disappear. That which we identify with: are our dharmas, our teaches our creations, mental constructs and imaginations. Every offense we suffer is directed at these impermanent identifications. We are very attached to them. We love them and they are very dear to us. We are their guardians and the loss of anyone of them we consider an affront to our very life because we are convinced they are us. Each loss no matter how difficult is a blow to the ego self that has convinced us we are this small self, an aggregate of all those things we identify with not the least of which is our thoughts about it all.

We are not our thoughts either. Having a thought is the same as having a car, a house, a body, our thoughts are not us. This includes our beliefs, Our beliefs are an aggregate of many thoughts under one heading just like this blog I am writing, God is not a Bully and all the subsequent posts underneath this heading and all the sentences, phrases and words—this particular belief system—is not me. But to write this I have had to throw out many other belief systems that I identified with at one time or another. I have been told that if I am persistent thoughts will stop too.

Luke 9.23 Then Jesus said to all the people:

If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me. ²⁴ If you want to save your life,^[f] you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will save it.²⁵ What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself or waste your life?  [CEV]

The denial of the self is precisely the death of the ego self/sin nature which believes we need all this stuff but Jesus points out

this hoarding of stuff will only accomplish the opposite of what we want and destroy us.

Can one who has died be offended? Does a dead person need to defend itself?

.

Paul was able to say in Hebrews:

13.6“The Lord helps me! Why should I be afraid of what people can do to me?”

He said this eleven years after he wrote the following to the Corinthians:

2 Cor. 11.24 “Five times the Jews gave me thirty-nine lashes with a whip. ²⁵ Three times the Romans beat me with a big stick, and once my enemies stoned me. I have been shipwrecked three times, and I even had to spend a night and a day in the sea.²⁶ During my many travels, I have been in danger from rivers, robbers, my own people, and foreigners. My life has been in danger in cities, in deserts, at sea, and with people who only pretended to be the Lord’s followers.

²⁷I have worked and struggled and spent many sleepless nights. I have gone hungry and thirsty and often had nothing to eat. I have been cold from not having enough clothes to keep me warm.²⁸ Besides everything else, each day I am burdened down, worrying about all the churches.²⁹ When others are weak, I am weak too. When others are tricked into sin, I get angry.

The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians that he is crucified with Christ, that he is dead and all his life is lived by the Christ who lives in him. This was written 3 years before the description he gave of his life as an Apostle.

Who is left to offend once you are dead?

Very few people make it to this level of consciousness during one lifetime. According to Dr David R. Hawkins, this is the stratosphere of the saints, enlightened ones, avatars, Jesus, Buddha’s, Gandhi’s This is the place of complete unreserved surrender to God.

It is said of Gandhi that when he was murdered he held out his had to his assailant in the Hindu gesture of forgiveness.

Peter says of Jesus; “Although he was abused, he never tried to get even. And when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he had faith in God, who judges fairly.”

But what is important is that we are on the way. We will spend most of our time learning to walk the second mile, learning to love our enemies and turn the other cheek even those things are more than enough one life.

Our education will continue.

Echoing Paul who says in Ephesians 6.12, We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world.

I’d like to wrap up this writing on forgiveness with a beautiful quote by Tich Nhat Hanh from his book “The Diamond that cuts through Illusion.”

During the height of the Vietnam war In 1967—after hearing of some of his students being killed—he wrote this to them who were considered enemies by both sides because of their pacifists commitment.

“I wrote a poem for the brothers and sisters at the School and asked them to read it carefully. In that poem I told them never to look at anyone with hatred, even if they hate you, suppress you, kill you, or step on your life as if you were a wild plant or an insect. If you die because of violence, you must meditate on compassion in order to forgive those who killed you, the title of the poem is “Recommendation.”

Promise me,

promise me this day,

promise me now,

while the sun is overhead,

exactly at the zenith,

promise me:

Even as they

strike you down

with a mountain of hatred and violence;

even as they step on you and crush you

like a worm

even as they dismember and disembowel you,

remember, brother,

man is not your enemy.

The only thing worth of you is compassion—

invincible, limitless, unconditional.

Hatred will never let you

face the beast in man.”

Waterfall and Leaf

Taken at the Self-Realization Fellowship meditation Garden in Encinitas, CA.

Do Not Be Afraid

The Fear of God

This is the big one isn’t it? I think all of our fears originate from this one. Basically the fear of the unknown. The future that is as dark as our deepest fears. Our guilt from our past actions projected onto an unknown future inhabited by an angry God. If not God than the capriciousness of life itself which many have blamed on an angry God. Natural disasters for instance. Why has God done this to me? Why has God allowed this to happen. Why doesn’t  God stop all the suffering in the world? If these tragedies are occurring to others and I happen to be left out at the moment they only forecast my possible future.
My hope in exploring this difficult topic is not to answer completely why all these calamities befall the human race but to answer why we need to project our fear of the future onto God. Which, by the way has not answered anything. This projection only moves our fears into a truly unsolvable dilemma. We can fool ourselves into thinking we have some control of the outside forces in this world—it’s painfully obvious we don’t—much less the anger of an unknowable God. If we claim we know God but are still afraid of Him I don’t think we know Him at all.
As far as I can tell the purpose of most religions is to end our suffering by alleviating it on earth and completely dispelling us of any future visions of suffering via God. Buddhism points out that the world is indeed a place of suffering and then gives us it’s particular method of freeing ourselves from it. It denies the concept of God but also tells us that concepts themselves are the cause of our suffering. It is our concepts of God that will keep us from knowing God if we choose to take that route. As Christians we get our concepts of God from the Bible and so I will explore a few verses in hopes of dispelling that concept.
Moses gave us the Ten Commandments the sole purpose is to keep us from causing suffering to our neighbors and by result to ourselves. However to alleviate the ensuing guilt from not keeping the commandments an institution of bloody sacrifice was implemented where our guilt was projected onto a scapegoat who’s death took away our guilt for a short time. These sacrifices unfortunately did not fix the problem of suffering.
Jesus echos these commandments and gives us the Cliff Notes version to love God with all our being and our neighbor as our-self. In the Beatitudes—Jesus’ version of the Ten Commandments—he elaborates by telling us in more detail how to do this. I think Jesus’ mission was to show us we had nothing to fear whatsoever from God.
In the Sufis’, a mystical version of Islam, (I have not read the Koran only the writings of the mystic Rumi and other excerpts of the Sufi tradition) the end of suffering comes with total surrender to Allah in all of life. And complete acceptance of what ever happens as the will of Allah. The experience of unity with Allah ends our incessant fear of future punishment.
Since I am most familiar with the Christian traditions I will explore Jesus’ answer for ending our fear of God. His life and teaching do echo all the other mystical traditions I have read—unity with God and love for our fellow man. His teachings do point out God is not angry with us—never was nor ever will be—and we have nothing to fear now or in the future.
Jesus’ mission statement
Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath and he is handed the scroll of Isaiah and he chooses chapter 61 verses 1-2 and some of chapter 58. In Luke 4.16-22 we find: “The Lord’s Spirit is upon me, because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind to free everyone who suffers, and to say this is the year the Lord has chose.” CEV.
Isaiah’s version: “The spirit of the sovereign LORD is upon me, because he has chosen me. He has commissioned me to encourage the poor, to help the brokenhearted, to decree release of the captives and the freeing of prisoners, and to announce the year when the LORD will show his favor, the day when our God will seek vengeance, to console all who mourn.” NET
Jesus states his version is the one fulfilled by him and his mission. I find it very telling he left out the phrase “…the day when our God will seek vengeance…” As someone chosen by God to demonstrate who God really is vengeance is not part of his ministry at all. Jesus goes on to say in verse 21; “What you have heard me read has come true today.” I can’t think of any better news than that we have nothing to fear from a vengeful God. There is only comfort and healing in Jesus’ words and deeds.
I do not think this was an accidental omission on his part. He did take the time to pick and chose what he wanted to point out to us because he not only reads from chapter 61 but also chapter 58 of Isaiah.
Luke’s version also includes some of Isaiah 58.6 part of which says “…to set free the oppressed and to break every burdensome yoke.”
I can’t think of any more burdensome yoke than to be in this life constantly afraid. Buried in the hidden rooms of our soul is the fear of God whether we believe in him or not. It is from this primal fear that all other fears grow. Not recognizing who we are afraid of we project all our daily fears onto others and make them responsible for our inner terror. This then fools us into thinking that if we can change the “other” (whatever is outside us we see as the cause of our suffering) we will then be free of fear. We then give ourselves permission to do anything including killing to achieve this end. If we don’t blame others we then blame ourselves and set about to deaden ourselves through all the distractions available to us today. Both of these dynamics are at work in us at the same time, as we escape into media it reinforces the idea there is danger out there and the terrorist is right at our doors. The victim and the victimizer have become the same.
The beginning and the end of wisdom and beyond.
Psa. 111.10 “The beginning of wisdom is the awesomeness of Lord Jehovah, and his Servants have good understanding; his glory stands to eternity.” The Aramaic Bible in plain English.
And again in the NIV. “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.” Notice here that when the translation of the Old Testament manuscripts went from Aramaic to Greek awesomeness was replaced by fear. Then it has to be explained that this type of fear is really awesomeness. But fear is fear no matter how much we try to explain our way out of it. If the Greek translators actually meant awesome why didn’t they use it?
The Amplified version adds ‘reverent’: “The reverent fear and worship of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom and skill [the preceding and the first essential, the prerequisite and the alphabet]; a good understanding, wisdom, and meaning have all those who do [the will of the Lord]. Their praise of Him endures forever.”
Ecclesiastes 12.13 echos this sentiment “All has been heard; the end of the matter is: Fear God [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is] and keep His commandments, for this is the whole of man [the full, original purpose of his creation, the object of God’s providence, the root of character, the foundation of all happiness, the adjustment to all inharmonious circumstances and conditions under the sun] and the whole [duty] for every man.” Amplified Bible
In the Old Testament the writer of Ecclesiastes after searching through all the possibilities of life discovers that nothing else will satisfy him but the fear, respect or reverence for God. He then has come to the beginning that the Psalmist tells us about as the beginning of wisdom. The writer of Ecclesiastes can now finally begin to live a really fulfilled life.
I Timothy 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” NAS. Could a pure heart mean freedom from fear?
I John 4:16-18 talks about realizing that goal; “God is Love; and he who dwells in love abides in God. Herein is love made perfect in us, so that we may have boldness [not subservience] in the day of judgment; because as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, because fear is tormenting. He who fears is not made perfect in love.” Lamsa’s Aramaic translation of the Bible. (Brackets mine.)
There is a quote from Jesus in Luke where on the surface he tells us to fear God.
As Jesus says many times; “do not to be afraid” equating fear with doubt several times (see Luke 24.38). Is fearing God or anyone actually doubting God? How can the fear of God which we are told to do be doubting God. Is it because the God of vengeance we have known is not the God Jesus wants us to know. I’m not talking about two different Gods but a raising of our consciousness from one of fear to one of Love as John pointed out.. The purpose of his ministry is to show us an end to fear. All fear. Including the fear of God. It is we who projected our fears of the unknown onto God and called him “The God of fear”
Why is the fear of God the beginning of wisdom? Jesus points out in Luke 12:4-7; “My friends, don’t be afraid of people. They can kill you, but after that, there is nothing else they can do. God is the one you must fear. Not only can he take your life, but he can throw you into hell. God is certainly the one you should fear! Five sparrows are sold for just two pennies, but God doesn’t forget a one of them. Even the hairs on your head are counted. So don’t be afraid! You are worth much more than many sparrows.”
First of all don’t be afraid of people-ever. They can kill your body [our bodies are not alive anyway] but you will not die, no one ever dies, because Life cannot die. You are not your body and all fear is based on this body identification.
Then Jesus takes us to the next level of awareness into a level beyond our physical identification; here is the paraphrase from The Message: “True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life—body and soul—in his hands.” After your body dies then what? We are not a body it’s only a container. Jesus points to the deeper place of after we leave our body, then we will have to deal with the consequences of our life while we were in the body.
He starts us at the same place as the Psalmist and says that we should fear God as the beginning of wisdom but then he does a remarkable thing, he paints a picture of God not as a wrathful being who is going to throw—even though he could—into hell but he gives us the picture of a feminine mother figure who feeds and cares for her children. He shows us a God who knows more about us than we do, the number of hairs on our head and he remembers all the tiny sparrows which have fallen to the ground. And we are much more valuable than hair or birds. Does God care and love and nurture what he values? A couple of chapters later in Luke 15 he gives us the story of the prodigal son. This is Jesus’ version of the fall. God throws a party for his wayward children who return to him. As I pointed out in my last post, (Amazed part 2) all of humanity will return willingly to the father/mother God. So there is no reason to be afraid of our Mother God either.
We do start with the acknowledgment of being afraid and he then asks us to place all of our fears of the “other” onto God. He then takes us from the physical into a new interior realm of soul and spirit. It is in this Reality where we move from fear to love. “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 peter 5.7. This spiritual realm is the only place we can finally get rid of all our fears. This world (the Kingdom of the world) we made to replace the world God made provides no comfort only fear. It is painfully obvious that it is constantly falling apart. The spiritual realm (the Kingdom of God) is the place of true Reality. Infused with LOVE and is all that exists there/here. The Kingdom of God is among you and in you. Jesus tells us.
This obviously does not exhaust the subject of fear but it is a place to start, food for thought. I 'm sure this raises more questions than answers, I would love to hear from you.

I am a center in the Divine Mind

“I am a center in Divine Mind, a point of God conscious Life, Truth and Action. My Affairs are Divinely guided and guarded into right action, into correct results. Everything I do, say or think is stimulated by the Truth. There is perfect and continuous right action in my life and affairs. All belief in wrong action is dispelled and made negative. Right action alone has power and right action is power and Power is God…the Living Spirit Almighty. This Spirit animates everything I do say or think. Ideas come to me daily and these ideas are Divine ideas. They direct me and sustain me without effort. I am continuously directed. I am compelled to do the right thing at the right time, to say the right word at the right time, to follow the right course at all times.

All suggestion of age, poverty, limitation or unhappiness is uprooted from my mind and cannot gain entrance to my thought. I am happy, well and fulfilled with perfect life. I live in the Spirit of Truth and am conscious that the Spirit of Truth lives in me. My word is the Law unto its own manifestation, and will bring to me or cause me to be brought to its fulfillment. There is no unbelief, no doubt, no uncertainty. I know and I know that I know. Let every thought of doubt vanish from my mind that I may know the Truth and the Truth may make me free.”

Science of Mind; by Earnest Holmes

Cause & Effect

Here are some very challenging thoughts about Cause and Effect

Horizons of Significance

The greatest difficulty when we turn our attention on something like Cause & Effect comes from the astounding inertia of conditioned assumptions. To make a case that Cause & Effect is an illusion is to put one frail voice up against thousands of years of common sense. This is why it’s so important to sort out futility from what is merely difficult.

Continuing to attempt to sort out the world’s problems by navigating Cause & Effect is futile. Clarifying our bankrupt assumptions is merely difficult.

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Live exceptionally

Mirrors of Encounters

“Exceptionally” cames of course from the word exception. If you want to be able to decipher the “hidden” messages of life, you have to learn to think and feel exceptionally.

Exceptions never follow a main stream order, obviously it´s a thing not following the rule.

It means that exceptions cannot be neither perceived or assumed by the normal logical mind, as logic is linear repetition of the known.

Mind, like every system, is a mechanic entity, usually a non vivid entity as it is a conglomerate of repetitions and habits. What would happen if we all got rid of the habit of logic and linearity and embrace life as a wondrous sequence of exceptions? The implications are huge.

Imagine the incredible amount of energy and unknown potential to be released in such a healthy approach.

TO LIVE EXCEPTIONALLY IS TO ACCESS YOUR WHOLE POTENTIAL, BEING WATCHFUL HERE AND NOW. It means…

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We would rather die, than letting go of our mad stories

So true. All of our Nows are hijacked by our past. I am left bereft and floundering in the mud of what only seemed to happen.

Mirrors of Encounters

Everything starts anew. Every instant is unrepeatable:

Life is a story with no story…

But that is too challenging and daunting to admit.

So ultimately it´s all about our narratives prevailing over Life itself. It´s all about our memory versus the inscrutable mystery of living.

Ponder:

Memory is often the insufficiency of our experiences. Memory is thus eternally incomplete. Deficient. It always answers inadequately to the challenge of every moment. How can something deficient understand this very Now, which is incommensurable wonder?… It simply can´t. Subsequently, not being able to grasp this present moment correctly, memory´s constant answer to life is Failure….

How can we be anything than failure when our very identity is, and derives from memory?

To put it shortly, we would rather continue to successfully fail and have our identity unchanged, than assuming the risk of letting go of our subjective memory, apprehending Life in open and imponderable wonder…

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Do not dwell in the past.

The interlacing wonder of the Present

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha.

The present—The Present—each instant is a present a wonderful gift where all is given that is needed and wanted and desired. Right now in this Present Gift there are no needs, wants or desires. God is here in the Eternal, Timeless Present and all is given and received as One.

This Communion of the Union between all eliminates the “between” into a seamless harmony of sound, space, thought and vibration into and out of the energy of love; supported, nurtured and unified into one whole present, holy moment, where all communion is NOW.

There is only peace, now in this Present, where all is provided and nothing is needed, there can only be Peace, Love and Joy.

If there is pain I have brought it from the past. If there is fear I have brought it from the future. Neither place exists and yet without them I would not be held in the synchronicity of the Present. The movement away and the drawing toward keep me in balance and equipoised in a place of serenity of the perfection of the present.

Wear

You don’t need to have a plan.

Valentine transformation

“You don’t need to have a plan and you do not need to know precisely what this new world will look like. You simply need to be willing to live by the Truth.” ACOL Treatise 3:16.2 pg 325

Our entire world is goal oriented. We are taught very early on that if we want to make it in this world we have to have a goal. And of course this makes perfect sense. If I want to write this blog I have to have the desire and the goal to do so. If I want to eat I better decide to go to the store and get some groceries. If I want to have a successful life—however that looks for me—It would be really good to know what it looks like and set up some plan to get from here to there.

Not having a plan does not mean not doing or not following through on desired means. It means doing without attachment to preconceived outcomes. To do and to let be.

Jesus also said: “If you keep on doing/obeying what I have said, you are truly my disciples. You will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free. Goal→Action→Outcome.

The only thing Jesus asked us to do is Love. Love God and our neighbor. If we keep on doing this every moment—that is the only time we can Love is in the moment—the outcome maybe exactly what we had planned OR it maybe something else entirely. But it will be the Truth of who we are and the situation right at that particular instant. Whether we like it or not is really irrelevant but it will be what it is. If we live what is, in love, in the moment without attachment to the next moments we will know the Truth and we will be free of all fear. There is no fear in love.

So can I Love this moment and the next and the next? Do I build on a foundation of love or one of fear? The project built on love each moment of the way will be the Truth of who you are. I do this with the knowledge that I don’t know precisely what this new world will be.