God

Strive to do good, but if you cannot do good, at the least, do no harm

Coram Deo

Every day is a journey and it is the journey itself that is your home

Painting Copyright - Michael Leunig

In this temporary manifestation into the material world you have two gifts

your life

and this planet to live it on

Use them both wisely

and fill both with Love

and fill both with Laughter

and

Do No Harm

Yeshua said,

"If those who lead you say, 'See, the Kingdom is in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you.

If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you.

Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you.

When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father.

But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty."

Gospel of Thomas

Religions have two levels, the devotional level and the higher mystical level. The lower devotional tend to see their sacred texts as literal and their belief, although not a bad thing, is fixed and external (although they don’t know this). The higher level leads to Gnosis, self-knowledge.

Through pursuit of the hidden inner meanings of the writings they access their true nature, becoming awakened. (As Jesus often said - “for those who have the ears to hear let them hear”).

For example, mainstream Christianity explains the nature of the universe and our place within it by elevating the Rabbi & Teacher, Jesus, to the Godhead. By stating that he was/is God, come into His Creation to offer ‘salvation’ and to sacrifice himself ‘for us’ - the penalty for not accepting such beliefs being a future existence in a torment Hell (a peculiarly nasty Christian creation that Islam also adopted). In an attempt to integrate the Jesus-the-man versus Jesus-the-God aspects, and to try unsuccessfully to remain monotheistic they also created the strange concept of the Trinity.

Such beliefs would have been unthinkable, utter blasphemy to all Jews, including Jesus, so it is clear that they are a Pagan Hellenistic/Roman overlay to the original teachings of Jesus (even his name, Jesus, is an invention, transliterated Anglicised, Latinised Greek - he was actually Yeshua, Yeshua ben Yosef). Although such a pagan theology with adopted mystery sacraments enabled Christianity to eventually supplant the Roman mystery religions against which it had struggled for supremacy, unfortunately it also supplanted and almost destroyed Yeshua’s real teachings .

Yeshua had two roles - as a direct descendant, through Joseph, of the House of David he appeared to lay claim to be the rightful and exclusively Jewish Messiah, but was rejected by the Jews.

His other role was that of an Awakened one, a teacher of enlightenment.

Connected as he was, or rather, Awakened as he was, to the true nature of reality, his actions ,and teachings through parable, were designed to lead one to an inner realisation, to a ‘moment’ that is beyond logic, beyond conscious thought. They were designed to remove blindness of heart, to open the listener to the sudden realisation of their true nature.

One can still access those teachings, but only by going beyond the literal-belief level, into the source, the meaning behind the dogma, as monastics and deep seekers have done for centuries.

It is not the only route of course, Sufis and Zen Buddhists use similar techniques.

This is not an attack on Christianity, there is no group on this planet who do more to help the helpless, in all areas. They are selfless, kind - doers of good things. Most charities helping others are Christian, they are good people. It is merely to show that you can be good or you can be perfect (which Jesus meant to be ‘awake’), to show that the chattering mind will grasp at any belief system to stop the You from waking up. Which level is your choice, God is love, you are Love.

We are not meant to worship idols, whether a man or a statue or a tree sawn into a cross, we are meant to wake up - to become aware, to look around us at this miracle, this phenomenon of existence, and to become what we really are - fully aware sentient life, boundless love.

~ * ~

So. As you are now, the world is not as you think you perceive it

therefore your concept of ‘what is going on’ is in error.

As you are now, your mind is not as you think you perceive it

therefore your concept of ‘what is going on’ is in error.

The energy that manifests and maintains this phenomenal Universe knows ‘what is going on’.

You are an intrinsic part of that energy, which may be named ‘God’.

Within, the real You behind your chattering mind also knows ‘what is going on’.

It is like this -

the material world has not somehow become more complicated and then randomly produced Life.

Matter does not produce Life - the truth is this -

Life, God, that boundless energy that lies behind the appearance of Matter, produces Matter.

Finite Matter does not produce Life - Life produces Finite Matter

We live and breathe and move and have our being within that energy - we are that energy

- we name it God - and once you understand this and awaken the inner You, you will be unable to do harm as you will be filled with compassion for all living things.

http://selahonline.com/

With thanks to Selah for getting it just right perfect