The Sermon On The Mount

 

 
FORWARD
 
 
This Sermon on the Mount is the most incredible text that has come out of our current civilization. I don't know how far you have to go back to say 'our civilization' but for at least two thousand years. The New Testament is known to be fragments of the Teaching of its Time. The 'language' comes from Tanach (Old Testament). It talks to the world, but it has to start talking from somewhere. 
The Work of today is the same Work as always, but in the language and circumstances of today. It incorporates the same principles - a program for evolution. Its meaning is in an area completely different from the things  usually considered. An 'unknown' area, actually - dealing with the 'next world'. Though it's unknown it can be smelt, touched or intuited at times. But it is, for the most part, unknown. So, how do you talk about the unknown? 
 
 
 
The Sermon On The Mount
(Part 1)
February 14th 2004 
 
To start with:
 
'WHEN HE SAW THE CROWDS HE WENT UP THE HILL. THERE HE TOOK HIS SEAT, AND WHEN HIS DISCIPLES HAD GATHERED ROUND HIM HE BEGAN TO ADDRESS THEM. AND THIS IS THE TEACHING HE GAVE: '
 
We stop there and look at this opening in esoteric/psychological terms.
 
 'WHEN HE SAW THE CROWDS HE WENT UP THE HILL.'
 
That's when 'something' Higher in you - when Consciousness Itself within you - becomes aware of your crowd of different small 'I's. 'I' want this, 'I' don't want that, 'I' like this one, 'I' don't like that one. Also, that one likes 'me', or not, which also indicates, as if, an 'I'. All different 'I's. 'I' with my mother, 'I' with my boyfriend, 'I' with my banker. When Consciousness Itself sees all those various identifications and 'personalities’ - the crowd of them - then IT separates. OBSERVING 'I' sees the MULTIPLICITY of small 'I's, sees enough and realizes that THAT which is doing all the seeing - is REAL 'I'. When I see THAT, I AM. 
 
That's what 'God' said. Moses asks God at the burning bush, 'Who are You?' The answer was, 'I AM THAT I AM.'
 
So, when 'Observing I' sees the multiplicity of small 'I's, it recognizes itself as 'something other ' - something UTTERLY DIFFERENT. 
 
'WHEN HE SAW THE CROWDS HE WENT UP THE HILL. '
 
When the 'Christ' in you, when the Higher in you, sees the lower manifestations, even when in the midst of them, there is a SEPARATION. 
'He' goes - 'Up the Hill'. 
 
'THERE HE TOOK HIS SEAT, AND WHEN HIS DISCIPLES HAD GATHERED ROUND HIM HE BEGAN TO ADDRESS THEM. '
 
Who are the 'disciples'? In esoteric language we would call them Work I's. 
 
'AND THIS IS THE TEACHING HE GAVE:'
 
That's where the Higher in you is reminding, telling the lower.
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHO KNOW THEIR NEED OF GOD; THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS THEIRS.'
 
Blest are those 'I's that remember their 'need of God' - the need of their own higher and real presence - the presence of 'God within'. 
 
If, when identified in a small 'I', one can remember their need of God, the deeper Presence within, the Wholeness - then 'THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS THEIRS'.
 
Do you know where God is? God is in 'Heaven' - that next level up within you - that perfect, peaceful, loving place. So, how blessed are those that know their need to remember the Higher in themselves. Because, when you Remember, you're with 'God in Heaven', NOW. Does that sound exaggerated?
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THE SORROWFUL; THEY SHALL FIND CONSOLATION.'
 
The sorrowful - not the angry, not the disappointed, not the critical small 'I's. Sorrowful, in the face of the sad truth of the lower level, and at the same time not imagining things could be other than they are at that level. Seeing it as it is.
 
'... THEY SHALL FIND CONSOLATION.'
 
Consolation - an understanding will come that will more than 'payback' for the seeing and the resulting 'sorrowfulness'.They'll find understanding, they'll find consolation, they'll come alive. 
 
What is 'consolation', generally speaking? You get something back that makes some effort all worthwhile. What can make anything worthwhile other than Understanding? What else has any value? An orgasm, maybe? How blessed are the sorrowful, they shall have orgasms. No, it says consolation. The biggest 'consolation' people seem to want is in that 'O' word. But I tell you, there are much better things in store for us, under the heading of Understanding, that comes from seeing. 
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE OF A GENTLE SPIRIT; THEY SHALL HAVE THE EARTH FOR THEIR POSSESSION.'
 
Those with a gentle spirit, will have the 'earth'. So what is 'gentle spirit'? Well, not proud, not greedy, not magi'a li (I deserve). Babies, infants, have a gentle spirit - everything seems to them so amazing. With a gentle spirit it's all amazing. "Thank you!" To be a learner, a student, with nothing to do but learn. You can't just stand there opened-mouthed in a sunset, on a mountain, overlooking the sea, and that does it. That's for sure not enough. Sometimes you have to read a book, sometimes you have to check what is going on in the 'underworld'. We've been living a very long time in the underworld - spooky, dark, fearful, aggressive, compulsive, competitive, bitter. The only thing missing there is the realization that it's all so sad. People generally don't even feel it's sad, they only react to their own petty personal pain. 
 
'... THOSE OF A GENTLE SPIRIT - SHALL HAVE THE EARTH FOR THEIR POSSESSION.'
 
If you're not totally busy wanting, grabbing and holding then you may have enough energy to pay attention to what you actually do have. Not what you might have, but what you do have. And what you have, most essentially, is your body. You are in a body, and that is your 'earth'. Your body is made of earth substance, and you are meant to 'have' it. Now you don't have it because you don't know it! You know it theoretically, but you're still not really in it. Your awareness, sensitivity, is now being eaten away by 'sweet' dreams.
 
'Stars shining right above you
Night breezes seem to whisper I love you
Birds singing in the sycamore trees
Dream a little dream of me.'
 
 
'... THE EARTH FOR THEIR POSSESSION.'
 
Again, that's when your energy is not being burnt and squandered on your future, past, or present self-picture. Every cell, organ, nerve, sense, has its correspondence in the head brain. When we're sensitive in our body we're making a connection between our consciousness and our physiology. That's a big one. That's opening up your brain to uvda (fact) - not just wishful thinking. 
 
So it appears from what was said here that in order to connect you need a 'gentle spirit'. That means, not being an aggressive, grabbing, pretentious, vain, proud buba (doll). Gentle spirit allows you to be conscious in/of your body - and thereby the 'earth' becomes your possession, and not just a vain image in a mirror.
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST TO SEE RIGHT PREVAIL; THEY SHALL BE SATISFIED.'
 
Now, how about that one! It does not say 'they hunger and thirst to get their own way; hunger and thirst for their reputation; hunger and thirst for their excitement'. No, it doesn't say that - it says: 
 
'... HUNGER AND THIRST TO SEE RIGHT PREVAIL... '
 
Who generally gives a shit? This is, by the way, the 'Above' talking to the multiplicity of 'I's that are generally busy taking care of their immediate 'interests' which they tend to become totally identified with. You are following this? Good!
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHO SHOW MERCY; MERCY SHALL BE SHOWN TO THEM.'
 
What is 'mercy'? It's rachmanut in Hebrew. The word 'rachmanut' is so strong in Hebrew. The word Mercy is hardly heard in English. 
 
Tamara: Compassion?
 
Yes, somewhat - but mercy has, as if, 'forgiveness' in it. You can have mercy, say, on a criminal. Mercy suggests a softening of the law, or not punishing a person as he 'deserves'. In the way it's usually used, it's got an element of 'judgement' in it. It's like you're beating someone with a stick because he did something 'wrong', then you say: 'okay, I'm enjoying this, but I'll stop - I'll have mercy'. It's a funny word. A judge, say, can send someone to prison for twenty years, but if the man committed the crime in order to feed his children, the judge might have mercy on him. It's possible. The courts are not generally known for their mercy.
 
I want to go back a bit. Here we're dealing with the Sermon on the Mount, by Jesus Christ. I think his 'problem' with the Jews was that they were 'overly legalistic'. The Torah is full of laws. Mercy, it appears, was for sure with him. He might even be considered, specifically, The ALL Merciful. He had such mercy that when the Romans nailed him to the cross, he said: 'Forgive them Father, they know not what they do.' Like, don't punish them. But that's really the Higher talking to the lower, saying: 'Don't get angry, they're doing the only thing they can do, and behind what they're doing is You.' If you judge them you're taking their mechanical manifestations as them - a big mistake. So, in a way, 'Mercy' is really SEEING in its deepest sense. It's not judging the external but seeing the ONE - That Source of Light, Spirit and Consciousness - that happens, at that moment, to be manifesting through, no doubt, a distorted level. That's rather complex - so if your mind boggles a bit, that's okay.
 
Again, what is mercy? 
 
Tamara: Not judging... 
 
Alan: I'm a little afraid of the 'not judging', because people say 'don't judge' and then they don't look. You can 'judge', that is weigh the elements, but not to believe it. The trick is not to get fixed in your judgements - but yes to be aware of them. You know you can have one judgement one day and the opposite the next. A judgement can be like Art Criticism. An art critic looks at a painting - then might comment on its color or balance, whatever. He has a certain vocabulary and can express a relative evaluation. He need not argue with another person who says, 'I like this painting', while he doesn't. It's subjective. 
 
Many say 'don't judge' or 'don't criticize'. What do they really mean? Don't see? Just don't get 'fixed' at that level.
 
'THOSE WHO SHOW MERCY'... let's see what happens to those lucky people.... 'MERCY SHALL BE SHOWN TO THEM.' 
 
Of course. Higher Consciousness that can focus on your own mechanicality, can also focus on others'. When your Identity is in the Higher, you can see 'down'. If you can remain in that higher and really see someone else, then the higher in them may also be triggered when looking at you.
 
Hagit: It's like, 'love your neighbor as yourself'.
 
Alan: Yes, yes, yes. And more than one Rabbi has said: 'That is the whole of the Torah, all the rest is commentary.' What is the real Torah? Not the written word as 'law' or explanation, but the Living Truth as ouvda (fact)! The moment you really catch that, you're then functioning at the 'Christ' level in yourself. So, forgive them Father, they know not what they do. They can not control what they do - they're acting from superstition, orders, god knows what else, the mechanicality and habit of their total culture.
 
One of the Koranic Names of God is 'The All Merciful'. Also, by the way, 'The All Seeing'. 
 
So, what would it mean 'to be' merciful? It's connected with the word 'forgiveness', the way people generally use it: 'Ah, you did something wrong, but I forgive you!' Actually, the 'for', in forgive, is like 'be-fore'. You somehow understood the inevitability of the issue, before it happened. You for-gave, as you already knew those kind of things just 'happen'. There is nothing to 'forgive'... YOU SEE!
 
So, I understand the word 'mercy' as seeing. 
 
HOW BLEST ARE THOSE THAT SEE... THEY SHALL BE SEEN. 
 
Oh, ho - we've got it. 
 
 
END OF TAPE 1
 
 
 
 
The Sermon On The Mount
(Part 2)
February 20th 2004 
 
You're not so familiar with The Sermon on the Mount, or are you? One part of me wants to say, 'what an incredible fact'. How things get lost in time. I don't think there is any doubt in the world that this is the most incredible document that ever saw the light of day in the last two thousand years. But, then again, it's for serious people. What do I mean by serious? People who want to know what works, and what doesn't. To know the useful from the useless. Functionally Serious! 
 
The terminology in this document is what we call 'religious', which is enough to make most people sick. Years ago it might have been understood, at least by some. Then the madness and the hope were expressed in a different vocabulary. But always some people are aware of the same humanly-imposed confusion. Something, in some people, knows that it doesn't have to be the way it is, at least for them. So, how to get out of 'hell' into what some call 'heaven'. That's the only difference that's really worth anything.
 
In the last reading we had: 
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHO SHOW MERCY; MERCY SHALL BE SHOWN TO THEM.'
 
We talked about mercy in the usual terms of a person 'deserving' a punishment and the judge has mercy on him because of extenuating circumstances. That's mercy relative to 'law'. We came to the conclusion that's not really 'workable', because someone had to judge it bad first and then, as if, forgive. And 'real forgiveness' is understanding enough that you for-gave before anything happened, because you already understood how those things happen. You give, give before, for-give. It's not judging it 'wrong' and then saying, 'oh, you know, I won't make a fuss'. We came to the conclusion that in the end it's really a question of seeing. 
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE THAT SEE; THEY SHALL BE SEEN.' 
 
That worked out so beautifully. How can you act rightly if you don't see? Whatever the 'right' might be. I guess that holds true not only in connection with law where there's a 'wrong' done, but also in the case of so called 'need'. That also requires seeing, right?
 
Now, to the next one: 
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE; THEY SHALL SEE GOD.'
 
Let's look at the word 'blest'. To be blest is to receive 'Hesed' (Grace) - something that comes from 'Above'. It's a gift. Someone who has been blest has been elevated by something Higher. They didn't do it them-selves. 'Something' from Above, lifts you to the Above, or lifts the situation. And what is the 'Above'? It's beyond your imagination! It's your own Real Self, Real 'I', what you are essentially. It's also the foundation of Observing 'I'. 'Behind' Observing 'I' - is Real 'I'. 
 
And here it says:
 
'... THEY SHALL SEE GOD.' 
 
They shall recognize their Basic Consciousness, separated from anything and everything, that might be reflected on it. 
 
'... THOSE WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE,...' 
 
And what are 'hearts that are pure'? Heart is used as a synonym for our emotions. Anger is an emotion, but it's not pure, jealously is not pure, insult's not pure, magi'a li (I deserve) is not pure, guilt isn't pure. There is only One True Emotion. All other emotions are fictitious - they start from a 'conceptual error'. That includes a lot. Actually, Pride and Vanity could be the heading for the whole lot - our imaginary sense of 'I' gets 'established' there. 
 
The issue is really about Consciousness, not about being 'good'. To really be good, you'd have to know what that is in reality. Who is being good? Where is good? What is 'good' good for? It would have to be something which really makes a difference. And before you can know what that is you would have to be more than a little aware of what's going on, particularly within yourself.
 
No matter how you twist and turn it, it brings us back to the Work. When you attempt to 'do the Work' even somewhat awkwardly, at least you're not in your usual mechanics. Work requires a conscious effort. And, in order to make that kind of effort you must be, to some degree, awake. When you're only in the mechanics it's all just happening and nothing clear can be gained. YOU were not there to gain, and retain, in Understanding. 
 
To do something that has meaning to you, to experiment intelligently, to ponder, to try something that you think would be useful in real terms requires conscious-effort. For that, you have to be present. That's clear, no? 
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHOSE HEARTS ARE PURE... ' 
 
And, what is a 'pure heart', exactly? Most might say 'a loving heart', right? But, it doesn't say a 'loving heart', it says 'pure heart'. Pure means clean, essential - like pure alcohol, pure gold, pure oxygen - uncontaminated.
 
Blest are those whose emotional center is not contaminated, not dirty. That goes right back to the image of the 'Immaculate Conception'. Immaculate - perfectly clean. That's where the 'Christ' level is 'born' in a person. Pure of heart is the Immaculate Conception. 
 
And then... 'THEY SHALL SEE GOD'. 
 
That's quite a prize.
 
So,
 
HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHOSE EMOTIONS ARE NOT CONTAMINATED - THEY SHALL SEE GOD! 
 
To continue:
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THE PEACEMAKERS; GOD SHALL CALL THEM HIS SONS.'
'... HIS SONS.'
 
In an ideal sense, a son is the true representative of the best in the father, right? A real son is someone who 'lives up' to his father's 'standards'. 
 
'... THE PEACEMAKERS... '
 
That's really not so simple. Is a peacemaker someone who makes peace between others? Is that it? Is that even possible? What about a peacemaker making peace in himself? Can you make peace outside, if you're not at peace in yourself? 
 
How semantically complex things can get. How to look at it? There are 'social activists' from the West that come to this country and stand in front of Israeli tanks. Somehow they must think of themselves as peacemakers. I'm not so sure that they start in peace. That would bring up a more subtle intelligence and widen their perspective of humanity within history etc. If you're going to cure something, you've got to go to the cause, not just the symptoms. You can't cure measles by covering up the spots. 
 
God is Peace. To be a true 'Son of God' is to project the best from That Source from which you came. You must strive to be in that basic condition. 
 
'The End indicates the Means!'
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED PERSECUTION FOR THE CAUSE OF RIGHT; THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS THEIRS.'
 
There is the notion that Christ suffered such a degrading and painful death to somehow 'atone for the sins of mankind'. Nailed to a cross, between two criminals, flogged, spat upon, a crown of thorns - all very 'dramatic'. It's said that 'Christ died for our sins'. That might be worth pondering. The real issue is at the psychological level. The tendency is to take it literally. Not that that episode didn't happen, but whatever happened had, no doubt, more than one layer to it. 
 
The early Christians were ready to suffer, and how they suffered! It was first of all some local Jews that 'caught the message'. They were the first in line. The Jews, for ages, had been forecasting the advent. So it was not an incidental event for them. The Christians considered themselves as the evolution of the Jewish tradition. They're the real Jews now, they say. 
 
'A lot of explanation and a little being' 
 
Wow, what a language. Maybe you can just listen, feel it, sense it. We're looking at something that's got the whole bloody world confused to the extent that hardly anybody looks at the overall situation. Most people have given up on God, given up on peace, given up on love, given up on happiness. I don't know what happiness is considered to be anymore - a shot of whisky, a sleeping pill, an Extasy pill? 
 
'... SUFFERED PERSECUTION FOR THE CAUSE OF RIGHT;' 
 
At some point, the 'Jewish Christians' accepted so-called pagans into the 'New Faith'. The Jews had been saying: 'The Messiah is coming to put things right, we've been waiting for years, he's coming to put things right for us'. Then 'he' comes and say's - IT'S FOR EVERYBODY. 
 
The Romans threw as many of them as they could get their hands on into the Coliseum to be devoured by wild beasts. These people quite literally suffered 'for the cause of right'. But again, the real issue is individual, personal. The 'Christ' should arise in you. The 'Immaculate Conception' is your work.
 
Now, what do we have to suffer? What are these 'persecutions', now? The world is considerably different than it was two thousand years ago, at least on the surface. This text with its coaxing and encouraging and explaining is from then. We now attempt a 'contemporary commentary'. 
 
DO WE STILL HAVE TIME FOR THAT? 
 
What can you do other than come from the very best you've got, and realize your limitations? You can only reach that point by fully using what you've got. Use your best as if there's no tomorrow. You still need explanations? Someone has to tell you that you're living in hell? There's no time for delay. 
 
What does that do to the word 'patience'? Again more words that feel like they've just turned into stone. Painful.
 
"Won't it be nice when freedom comes
When mommy and daddy is gone
When pimples and pains and all that is vain
Will vanish like words of a song
Won't it be nice when we wake in the morning
And jump from our bed with some joy
Not having to answer to anyone else
Or to lie or pretend or be coy."
 
That needn't be taken too literally. It's all inner. Freud talked about the 'super-ego'. He related it to parental influence. When anybody does anything, somehow they check it against their parents' attitude. No matter what is done, semi-consciously it gets checked 'up there'. Would they like it or not? That tends to form our sense of 'morality', for or against. 
 
Osho made some keen observations on how most families turn into such a horrible 'deal'. They tend to mess people up completely. He gave the example: 'You see your mother in an argument with the neighbor, and the neighbor happens to be right and your mother is not - but you have to stick with your mother.' What a mind-fuck, super-ego, so called morality. No conscience, no good feeling. 
 
That doesn't at all suggest a negative attitude towards 'family'. Actually it's quite merciful. Because you get to see the wider picture. You're not busy 'judging' - but you are aware of what you see. That's very respectful if you think about it. In the end it all comes down to seeing - coming out of the narrowness which causes all the negativity and violence.
 
Well, I had to somewhat force this out of myself tonight. We'll see if it has some juice in it. I do this first of all, I think, for those sincere ones who now call themselves 'Christians' but who might have gotten themselves caught up in a cobweb of words, history and super-ego. The Catholics call their priests 'father'. That father should not take the place of Real Father. It's so easy, you know - the Institution, the Church, can easily turn into a super-ego with all the shoulds and shouldn'ts, and with precious little 'see'. The shoulds and shouldn'ts are like the 'law'. 
 
Christ said he came, not to abolish the Law, but to 'supercede' it. He said: “Not a letter from the Law can be changed until everything is fulfilled - but 'I' bring a new law that overrides all others: 
 
"LOVE EACH OTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU." 
 
If you read the Gospels you should get a very good taste of just how that love worked. Any truly normal, sensitive, person could easily recognize it. 
 
'The Law says we should stone the prostitute', they said to him, 'should we stone this prostitute?' It seems some were trying to 'get him' to talk against the Law. His response was: 'Let the person who has no sin throw the first stone.'
 
Now, if one doesn't recognize that... I don't know. That's more than just love, that's INTELLIGENT LOVE . He says neither 'yes' or 'no'. And who is he 'loving', at least equally with the prostitute? The people he's telling it to, no? The ones just about to act, catch themselves! Well, God knows who does what with what. Whatever gets done with it, it's beautiful in terms of its clarity and sensibleness, wouldn't you say? So, there's one example of what is called 'The Love of Christ'. Intelligence at the Highest Level, the Truth.
 
The last word in esoteric psychology is pure common sense. It's not necessary to go running around yelling 'Hallelujah'. Most people try to be 'good' without being really present. Real Good takes an intelligence larger than our conditioned and limited 'morality'. One must start in peace, otherwise there is no clarity and all kinds of negativity arise. And all that while 'trying to do good'. Also, more often than not, that 'trying' is mostly an attempt to inflict an obligation on the 'beneficiary'. That's not exactly Immaculate. 
 
"If it were only for this life that we work and suffer, we of all men are most to be pitied." 
 
Be ready, die to the false, now. When you leave the body that's the part, for sure, that you do not want to take with you - the speculations, the lies basically, the assumptions with which we maintain an as if 'identity'. Go to the essential 'I AM'. By the time you get to my age you might come to suspect where the real payoff is.
 
END OF TAPE 2
 
 
 
The Sermon On The Mount
(Part 3)
February 25th 2004
 
 
This is our third delving into the text. 
 
'HOW BLEST YOU ARE, WHEN YOU SUFFER INSULTS AND PERSECUTION AND EVERY KIND OF CALUMNY FOR MY SAKE. ACCEPT IT WITH GLADNESS AND EXULTATION, FOR YOU HAVE A RICH REWARD IN HEAVEN; IN THE SAME WAY THEY PERSECUTED THE PROPHETS BEFORE YOU.' 
 
Just in case you get uptight when feeling 'misunderstood' just travel round the Galilee and visit the tombs of the Tzadikim (Righteous Ones). Why are they buried way up there in the hills in no-where's-ville? Because, the masses couldn't stand them when they were alive. 
 
'... SUFFER INSULTS AND PERSECUTION... '
 
Persecution - that's not just criticism - that's when they're really 'after your ass'. The life and death of the One who is being quoted here shows just how far that can go. Tack, tack, tack, on a cross. That's more than 'so to speak'. 
 
'... YOU HAVE A RICH REWARD IN HEAVEN; ... ' 
 
That's within your Self-Remembering. When you're in FULL SELF-REMEMBERING, you're in the 'Kingdom of Heaven'. Well, I mean, that sounds so very nice, and almost true. But you don't quite feel it yet, and you don't find that particularly elevating just in words.
 
When you're out of fear, you've just cleared out the space where Heaven is, where Love is, where Truth is, where Now is. You still exist, but in quite a different way. There you really ARE. That's where the 'I AM that I AM' is. Hardly any likelihood of maintaining a 'reputation' there that means anything in particular. But the truth is the truth, regardless of who sees what. 
 
This section started off very 'gently': 
 
'HOW BLEST ARE THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED PERSECUTION FOR THE CAUSE OF RIGHT; ...'
 
Then it gets more pointed:
 
'HOW BLEST YOU ARE, WHEN YOU SUFFER INSULTS AND PERSECUTION AND EVERY KIND OF CALUMNY FOR MY SAKE. ACCEPT IT WITH GLADNESS AND EXULTATION, FOR YOU HAVE A RICH REWARD IN HEAVEN.'
'Heaven' is always potentially available, Now. People think Heaven is only after, in the 'World to Come' . But what is 'to come' can come now. It's a mistake to wait until the body drops - big mistake. 
Then, 
'... YOU HAVE A RICH REWARD IN HEAVEN; IN THE SAME WAY THEY PERSECUTED THE PROPHETS BEFORE YOU.'
 
The 'prophets before you' were the upright ones of the faith. Basically just honest people, made of the same stuff that you are. Don't go to their graves to pray - emulate them, be straight. They don't need your applause, but they could use you 'there' - so to speak.
 
'...THEY PERSECUTED THE PROPHETS BEFORE YOU .'
 
So don't take it too personally, eh? 
 
'HOW BLEST YOU ARE, WHEN YOU SUFFER INSULTS AND PERSECUTION...' 
 
Well, 'insults and persecution'. That's not just a dirty look. 
 
'... ACCEPT IT WITH GLADNESS AND EXULTATION...' 
 
Now, that's a hard one. Because, that's pain. How do you accept pain in 'gladness and exultation'? Only with Understanding and the resulting ability to transform that energy.
 
Sari: It's illusion. 
 
Well, yes, it's illusion. But what is in it that is not illusion? There's a tremendous amount of energy - and that's not illusion! 
 
'Pain is a high vibration, begging for attention.'
 
It's a high vibration, that you are not used to. That can also arise with a 'pleasure' which is more intense than you're used to. Many things that are just new feels painful at first. As in bodywork when you go in very deep.
 
'As above so below.'
 
So, that's why you 'accept it with gladness and exultation'. Not just 'philosophically', but through direct experience, attention. If you can 'stick with it' you can penetrate through the pain - and find Yourself behind it. No explanations needed - just penetration. That goes for all 'centers'. 
 
'... YOU HAVE A RICH REWARD IN HEAVEN' 
 
If you can feel the pain to the end, actually have gone through it, then you're in another place. That place called 'Heaven'. You cross the line of the 'false', the temporary. Explanations are within illusion. Words are too thin, too small, too linear. You can't capture REALITY in words. If you could the whole world would have been enlightened thousands of years ago. It's been as if explained, without end. Behind the pain, beyond the 'false', is the Great Beyond - the World to Come.
 
'... IN THE SAME WAY THEY PERSECUTED THE PROPHETS BEFORE YOU.' 
 
Again, don't be surprised at being misunderstood. The prophets were misunderstood. The truth is constantly being misunderstood.
 
Now: 
 
'YOU ARE SALT TO THE WORLD. AND IF SALT BECOMES TASTELESS, HOW IS ITS SALTNESS TO BE RESTORED? IT IS NOW GOOD FOR NOTHING BUT TO BE THROWN AWAY AND TRODDEN UNDERFOOT.'
 
What does 'salt' represent? Salt brings out the taste of something, its essence. There's a lot to reflect on here. 
 
'... AND IF SALT BECOMES TASTELESS, HOW IS ITS SALTNESS TO BE RESTORED?' 
 
Yes, you have to be careful. The Work warns you: 
 
'Don't go too far from Home', and 'Keep the Work warm in you.'
 
 
'... IF SALT BECOMES TASTELESS...' 
 
If what you know 'intellectually', loses its function - it loses its 'saltiness'. 
 
'... HOW IS ITS SALTNESS TO BE RESTORED? IT IS NOW GOOD FOR NOTHING BUT TO BE THROWN AWAY AND TRODDEN UNDERFOOT.' 
 
'There is no fooling the Work.'
 
'YOU ARE LIGHT FOR ALL THE WORLD. A TOWN THAT STANDS ON A HILL CANNOT BE HIDDEN. WHEN A LAMP IS LIT, IT IS NOT PUT UNDER THE MEAL-TUB, BUT ON THE LAMP-STAND, WHERE IT GIVES LIGHT TO EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE. AND YOU, LIKE THE LAMP, MUST SHED LIGHT AMONG YOUR FELLOWS, SO THAT, WHEN THEY SEE THE GOOD YOU DO, THEY MAY GIVE PRAISE TO YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.'
 
'YOU ARE LIGHT...' 
 
Love is light - it is also Presence. That's what you actually ARE . Don't let the 'devil' get you and make you forget. All the devil can do is make you forget - it can't change reality. 
 
 '... AND YOU, LIKE THE LAMP...' 
 
Everyone to some degree knows themselves there. But how often have you experienced that consciously? It's the place that sustains the Work, now. There's no 'credit' in the Work. Yesterday is gone - the issue is always what is going on now. The Prime Minister of England during World War Two was Winston Churchill. His inspiration kept England alive and fighting while it was being subjected to incredible violence. He was the hero of the Western World. Soon after the war there was a national election - and he lost it. You can think about that if you have nothing better to do.
 
It goes on:
 
'... AND YOU, LIKE THE LAMP, MUST SHED LIGHT AMONG YOUR FELLOWS, SO THAT, WHEN THEY SEE THE GOOD YOU DO... '.
 
Now, what is that 'good'? It's a rather vague word. In 'my book' what is good is what is effective. It's not necessarily, or likely to be, 'appreciated'. It could be appreciated, but basically its only serious value is that it's effective - that is, it makes a difference that is more than just momentary. A real difference, and not merely some 'nice' thing that we or other people 'like'. We're not into compromise. This is one of the hardest things to understand. The Work is not an 'accommodation to life'. Heaven is NOT a rearrangement of hell - it's out of it!
 
'... WHEN THEY SEE THE GOOD YOU DO (the effectiveness of your remembering, so to speak) THEY MAY GIVE PRAISE TO YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN.' 
That level in you is maintained from 'Above'. You didn't make heaven, but you can 'join in'. 
 
'If you want to be proud, be proud of God.' 
 
'... THEY MAY GIVE PRAISE TO YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN'.
 
And what is this 'praise'? 
 
'Praise God, Praise the Lord!' You hear that out of the mouths of some Christians - Black Southern Baptists maybe. 'Praise the Lord... Praise the Lord!'... and the whole congregation almost levitates. Strange word, 'praise'. People sometimes praise a person: 'Oh, what a fine musician you are!' Or you praise your own child: 'my son the doctor'. This is certainly not meant at that level. What could it mean at the esoteric, psychological level? At a functional level! 
 
Sufi Sam said that the biggest truth that he learnt while in the Middle East was the real meaning of Allah hu akbar. It's usually translated as 'God is Great'.That's not it, he says. How can you say 'God is great'? Compared to what? He learnt, he said, that the actual meaning of Allah hu akbar is: 'PEACE is POWER'. 
 
You are going to 'praise' God? It doesn't fit to say to the Source, the Creator of Everything: 'you're great!' You must be very great yourself just to recognize that, no? 'Compliments' are strange things.
 
We have to dig some more into that. I've got it! We've got it! When you praise something - you're saying it's true, it's better, it's 'beyond' the usual. And what would be an effective way of praising something 'better'? You would listen, pay attention, heed the example or indications, no? I think 'Praise of God', here, is more like that. 
 
Sari: Remember.
 
Alan: Remember, yes. But to remember something you would have to have known it first - then remember it, right? You have to remember the up from the down. 
 
Sari: It's God, all from God. That's the praise, I think, when they say 'praise God'. Because it's all from Him.
 
Alan: Call it 'Him', call it 'Them', or call it 'IT'. 'Him' is a difficult word. It's all from Above. And there are different levels in the Above. What would a 'praise' be that is effective, and not just a 'compliment'? You see, the word sounds like a compliment. 
 
Look for a moment at musicians or other artists who get more 'raves' than almost anyone. How do you praise them? Could there be a parallel between that and the 'Praise for your Father in Heaven'? There is something in an artist's work which he hears or sees, that you generally do not. To 'praise' the artist would be to listen, hear, see. His satisfaction is in your good, and is proportionate to the degree that you absorb, not the degree that you clap. It's been said: 'A serious writer doesn't want to be read, he want's to be studied'. What does it mean, 'studied'? Attention, presence, care! 
 
'Praise' is maybe best likened to 'respect'. Respect is a wonderful word in English. 'Spect' is like 'to see'. Re-spect is to look-again. Look again, widen the picture, consider other angles, question the context. Don't just 'scan' it.
 
Here we come to a new subject. I think that the next item is especially important in this period of history. Here is this gentleman, Jesus, in a particular environment and with people challenging him. 'Who gives you the authority to talk like that? You set yourself above the Law! You go out and heal people on the Sabbath. You're not supposed to work on the Sabbath.' But he responds to such charges. He says: 'What farmer whose calf fell into a well on the Sabbath wouldn't go and pull it out?' Those kinds of 'challenges' continue and continue. It seems that they want to 'put him down'. It seems like he's a threat to their whole 'moral' society. 
 
So he responds:
 
'DO NOT SUPPOSE THAT I HAVE COME TO ABOLISH THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS; I DID NOT COME TO ABOLISH, BUT TO COMPLETE. I TELL YOU THIS: SO LONG AS HEAVEN AND EARTH ENDURE, NOT A LETTER, NOT A STROKE, WILL DISAPPEAR FROM THE LAW UNTIL ALL THAT MUST HAPPEN HAS HAPPENED.'
 
The Law he's talking about comes from the Torah, which definitely comes from Above. But, those that are 'really into it' know that there are seven levels of meaning - obviously more than meets the eye. Some people are now putting the text of the Torah on computers, hoping to break a 'code'. Who can figure it out? When you've finished figuring out what the Torah is all about, then you can go to the Vedas, because the Hindus say everything is there. Some Christians say the only thing you have to do is 'accept Christ in your heart'. Well, that's a good trick if you can do it. All this could lend itself to serious look, in depth. But we'll stick with the text for now:
 
'IF ANY MAN THEREFORE SETS ASIDE EVEN THE LEAST OF THE LAW'S DEMANDS, AND TEACHES OTHERS TO DO THE SAME, HE WILL HAVE THE LOWEST PLACE IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, WHEREAS ANYONE WHO KEEPS THE LAW, AND TEACHES OTHERS SO, WILL STAND HIGH IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. I TELL YOU, UNLESS YOU SHOW YOURSELVES FAR BETTER MEN THAN THE PHARISEES AND THE DOCTORS OF THE LAW, YOU CAN NEVER ENTER THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN'.
 
In today's local context, there are two major religious parties in Israel, Shas and Agudat Y'israel. They are well known. Many non-religious Jews hold these black-clad people in contempt. This text says to me now - unless you are far better than the people of Shas and Agudat Y'israel, you're not going to find peace, you're not going to reach the 'Kingdom of Heaven'. 
 
'Stop debunking, and start living the alternative.'
 
Many people here are so busy criticizing the likes of Shas and Agudat Y'israel. Stop debunking them, leave them alone, and live the alternative. If they're 'wrong', then you do right. 
 
In any circumstances, if you really know better than another person, at that moment you're the adult and they are the child. And you relate with care to a child, even when you know you're 'right'. You wait for the proper opportunity, you don't just go around wagging your finger, yelling 'naughty, naughty'. Your hope is that they may understand something. You might have to wait years for that. 
 
'YOU HAVE LEARNT THAT OUR FOREFATHERS WERE TOLD, "DO NOT COMMIT MURDER; ANYONE WHO COMMITS MURDER MUST BE BROUGHT TO JUDGEMENT." BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: ANYONE WHO NURSES ANGER AGAINST HIS BROTHER MUST BE BROUGHT TO JUDGEMENT. IF HE ABUSES HIS BROTHER HE MUST ANSWER FOR IT TO THE COURT; IF HE SNEERS AT HIM HE WILL HAVE TO ANSWER FOR IT IN THE FIRES OF HELL.'
 
He's talking at the moment to Jews. The 'forefathers' were the ones mentioned in the Old Testament. What's being said here is that your attitude keeps you in hell. The abuses, anger, sneering - that's what keeps you down.
 
It goes on:
 
'IF, WHEN YOU ARE BRINGING YOUR GIFT TO THE ALTAR, YOU SUDDENLY REMEMBER THAT YOUR BROTHER HAS A GRIEVANCE AGAINST YOU, LEAVE YOUR GIFT WHERE IT IS BEFORE THE ALTAR. FIRST GO AND MAKE YOUR PEACE WITH YOUR BROTHER, AND ONLY THEN COME BACK AND OFFER YOUR GIFT.'
 
At the Temple they offered 'burnt offerings'. This is another way of saying 'don't fool yourself'. If you're bringing your 'gifts to the altar', as if for the good, and at the same time bury your negativity under the rug - first go back and clean up your room. Fresh air is much more conducive to doing 'something good'. It's a psychological issue, under all circumstances, even though 'not a letter of the Law can be changed'. 
 
'Love each other as I have loved you.'
 You too can get connected, and share in the glory. 
 
Has anybody got a comment?
 
Rachel: I thought about what you said before about 'being good'. Not to take the 'good' to the ego.
 
Alan: Yes, sure.
 
Rachel: Not just to 'praise God', but it's the higher in you that has to be active. The ego has to be watched. That's what came to me.
 
 
 
END OF TAPE 3
 
 
 
The Sermon On The Mount
(Part 4)
March 26th 2004
 
 
This is our fourth attempt to reflect on The Sermon on the Mount in psychological, esoteric terms: 
 
'IF SOMEONE SUES YOU, COME TO TERMS WITH HIM PROMPTLY WHILE YOU ARE BOTH ON YOUR WAY TO COURT; OTHERWISE HE MAY HAND YOU OVER TO THE JUDGE, AND THE JUDGE TO THE CONSTABLE, AND YOU WILL BE PUT IN JAIL. I TELL YOU, ONCE YOU ARE THERE YOU WILL NOT BE LET OUT TILL YOU HAVE PAID THE LAST FARTHING.' 
 
Don't go to 'court' - come to terms with whomever you are in conflict with. People sue when they think 'something' should be 'coming to them'. They sue when they think they are 'owed'. 
 
Now, let's say that it's not a regular court of law. A person can also be 'sued' in the Court of Public Opinion. Their reputation would be at stake. People tend to judge others with a mixture of personal prejudice and hearsay. It might have anything in it from half-truths, to lies, to slander. 'Public opinion' is what the politicians are always concerned with. How does that relate to the life of the average person? Let's see if we can get some juice out of this:
 
'... ONCE YOU ARE THERE YOU WILL NOT BE LET OUT TILL YOU HAVE PAID THE LAST FARTHING.' 
 
This analogy assumes that you're in 'jail' because of a monetary issue. And you are not going to 'get out', until you 'pay'. 
 
Money equals energy. If you want to fly to India, you've got to pay. It took energy (read: money) to build the airplane, get the fuel and engage the pilot. Buy a house - a lot of energy went into building it. You buy food produced by others' energy. Money, is basically energy. 
 
'IF SOMEONE SUES YOU, COME TO TERMS WITH HIM PROMPTLY...'
 
When someone is suing you, they think you owe them. Is this what the Work calls 'accounts'? Someone gives something and immediately it gets marked down in their mental account book. Who hasn't noticed that? Our so-called 'good' is for the most part a way of gaining credit. I put out some energy for 'your benefit', and expect you to pay back, at some time. It's business as usual. 
 
'When give, give! When take, take!' 
 
Don't spend all your life doing 'business'. These days everyone seems to be suing everyone else. 'After all I've done for you... and THAT'S what I get in return?' 
 
Let's follow that line for a moment:
 
'IF SOMEONE SUES YOU, COME TO TERMS WITH HIM PROMPTLY... WHILE YOU ARE BOTH ON YOUR WAY TO COURT;'
 
In the 'court of public opinion', society's judgements incorporates hukim (laws) and minhagim (customs). It's said that you can sometimes break the law and get away with it but you can never break custom and get away with it.
 
'... COME TO TERMS WITH HIM PROMPTLY' 
 
Work it out - don't go around complaining in the court of public opinion. Don't get into the usual: "I'll let you know what's going on... so that you can see... that I'm right... and they're wrong!" 
 
The court of public opinion may be a lot larger than you realize. When we complain, we think we complain only to human beings. But there is a whole range of intelligences 'out there'. If people knew the wider effect of their every thought and emotion, they just might 'pee in their pants'. We experience a very thin slice of reality through the senses. People sometime talk of 'Ha'olam Haba' (The Hereafter), which is the Greater Reality. But what is after our own death also exists now. There is a whole range of subtleties going on, now, at a number of levels. Our emotional state and our thought waves have repercussions in areas of which we have no idea. So, the Real Law Court is far larger than people can possibly imagine.
 
Now, who's the 'Judge'? Not one person. When having a conflict over who owes who what, that negativity affects a whole energy field. That energy field judges you! It all comes together where the 'judge', the 'constable', and the 'jail' are all one dynamic.
 
 '... AND YOU WILL BE PUT IN JAIL.'
 
When you are negative, you are in jail. Within the Lawfulness of the Universe your negativity judges you, grabs you like a constable, and holds you like a jail. It's a fact. 
 
We just hit the nail on the jail... on the head!
 
It goes on:
 
'I TELL YOU, ONCE YOU ARE THERE YOU WILL NOT BE LET OUT TILL YOU HAVE PAID THE LAST FARTHING.' 
 
Oh, you're going to be held in your negativity until you have paid, in full. Well, how do you pay? For instance, how do you pay for your mistakes of 'expectation'? The first mistake was that you 'knew' who and what could or should have done something. You believed in the negativity of your mechanical preference, and went with your mechanical justification of it. You didn't suffer the issue, consciously. You got identified with it. You thought someone, or God, or 'life', owes you something. You're negative, you've been short-changed, somehow, hurt, treated unjustly - and you're angry. 
 
There are, as if, different negative emotions. You even have different names for them. You can call it jealousy, you can call it insult, you can call it what you want. But they're definitely made up of assumptions of what could or should be. 
 
So people suffer, get negative and justify, thereby maintaining, by the way, a sense of 'I' which is totally imaginary! So they never really get to 'pay'. They don't pay with awareness and voluntary suffering. 
 
This text suggests that once you're in the shit, so to speak, where the judge got you, the policeman took you, and you're in the jail, you might still pay. But you won't get out until you've paid to the 'last drop', to the last 'farthing'. How do you do that? Ignorance of the law is no defense. You can't go through a stop sign and tell the cop, 'I didn't know you had to stop'. Similarly in cosmic law. When you're negative, you're in darkness. From there you go around thinking you're 'right'. You think you're 'justified in justifying yourself', because that's what everyone else is doing. You're ignorant of the Law. Your right or wrong is nothing more than a vague sense, coming from smack within the darkness. From a cosmic point of view it doesn't make a shit bit of difference, it's totally subjective - each one measuring in his own 'way'. 
 
People seem to suffer more deeply from their negativity the older they get. More and more they find out that no matter how they try to explain and justify, it doesn't make any difference, it doesn't change anything. But their whole repertoire of 'identities' is in there. In time they can't help but realize that their life has been hardly anything more than a subjective movie.
 
When a person reaches the point where they can no longer identify themselves within their right and their wrong, they become 'nobody'. But that's the absolute reality! Your personal 'somebody' is sustained, exclusively, in your right and wrong, should and shouldn't and 'could be' etc. That's who you 'think' you are while functioning at that level. 
 
Real 'I' is Here and Now, without any 'fixed-knowings'. And that's a very different 'kettle of fish' from our general sense of ourselve(s) .
 
So people sink into negativity, dealing with the issue of who owes who what. In some jails you could find yourself in a dungeon - here it only says 'jail'. But, you know, there are some jail cells that have a little sunlight coming in, some with no windows at all. There are even cells where they torture you by leaving the lights on all night. Then, of course, there's 'solitary confinement'. 
 
I TELL YOU, ONCE YOU ARE THERE YOU WILL NOT BE LET OUT TILL YOU HAVE PAID THE LAST FARTHING.' 
 
What do you suffer from? Is it all the stuff that you avoided, all those things that didn't 'agree' with you? Things that didn't agree with the mechanical habits of your mind, emotions, or body. The 'Reality of Now' you found 'uncomfortable'... and you didn't suffer it like a Man. You said it was 'wrong'. Eventually you are unable to say 'wrong' because you realize that your wrong is somebody else's right, and there are a million wrongs and a million rights. Maybe, then, you are approaching the end of mechanical, useless suffering. 
 
THE WORK PROMOTES: 
'Conscious Labor and Voluntary Suffering.' 
 
You go to an issue of your choice and are prepared to suffer the Second Force (resistance), CONSCIOUSLY. How someone could do that without knowing more about the laws involved, I don't know. This section of The Sermon on the Mount is a most difficult one. It's actually detailing a Law - a Cosmic Law - in the language of parable. But it's truly scientific. In this age the scientific language of the Work is the most accessible. We can apply the laws of the 'Holy Triad' of non-critical self-observation, non-identification and Self-remembering. Without that we are totally under the sway of 'life influences'. There, it's all just 'happening' - and nobody knows nothing from nothing. 
 
There's a warning in this text. The Work doesn't quite take that kind of approach. The Work doesn't say, 'oi va' voy, if you don't do it, you're going to end off in hell!' It doesn't talk like that - because the Work penetrates right down deep, into the level of hell. It doesn't have to tell you 'naughty, naughty, you're going to get it.' Because, you've already got it! Maybe there's something in you that knows that it doesn't have to be that way. So maybe you study and try to apply the Law. You don't have to 'threaten' anybody - they've already been convicted.
 
Did this expose anything new? In simple terms what it says is: If you justify your 'not feeling good', if you justify your negativity, no matter what your explanation is, you're still being 'criminal'. You don't know the Law - you're ignorant, actually. You don't yet know what people are essentially, and you haven't yet uncovered your own essence. Yet you're making decisions, justifying misery. You break the law, and you pay for it.
 
Next item: 
 
'YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT THEY WERE TOLD, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY." BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: IF A MAN LOOKS ON A WOMAN WITH A LUSTFUL EYE, HE HAS ALREADY COMMITTED ADULTERY WITH HER IN HIS HEART.'
 
To 'commit adultery', in the usual terms, is when you are married and have sex outside the marriage. It has a deeper psychological/esoteric meaning. 
The Perfect Marriage, 'until death do us part', is when one's male element (Consciousness) enters one's female element (Body/Emotion).There you have the 'marriage made in heaven'.
 
So, what is adultery at that level? Aren't people poking at each other all the time? A clever remark, a joke, a challenge, a trick, an induced awkwardness. Don't people like to 'stick it to you', so to speak, using their 'cleverness' to penetrate? Their own consciousness/attention seldom penetrates their own flesh. They use it to agitate, to 'fuck around' with other people. You have your own 'woman' to make love to... it's not someone over there. That penetration/connection is meant to bring on a second birth - a Second Body. That Second Body is the birth of the 'Christ child' within you, and results from the only marriage that really counts. 
 
***
 
We've developed a lot of habits that are really grotesque from a truly human point of view. We were born in a prison and 'educated' in how to survive within that corruption, crudeness and fear. If you don't know of any other possibility how can you think differently? So the darkness gets to be called 'real life'. If someone comes and tells you there's an outside where the sun shines, you can believe it, or not. But in the meantime you keep looking for that extra blanket, try to be on good terms with the cook and maybe make friends with the guy in the next cell who looks 'cute' to you. Oh, we grew up in that. 
 
So there's a fine line, you see, below which is hell. There's no end to it, and it comes in all shapes and sizes. The strange thing about 'ignorance' is that, in fact, it's not what you don't know - it's what you think you know. Actually we don't really think - it's all taken for granted. The mind without structure produces only random associations - useless suffering is inevitable at that level. In order to rectify the situation you need a Way, you need Knowledge. All this business is not for social adjustment. It's Work, to get out of prison. It's truly revolutionary!
 
Breaking the law is breaking of the law. If you're greedy for money, or love, it's still greed. Without another 'program', false-personality is sure to dominate - with each individual confined within his own illusory package. 
 
And HOW it gets explained and justified! Cut the 'Gordian-knot' - there's no unwinding it! Start functioning with NEW MEANING. Sometimes you can be so flexible and humble, then in a flash turn vicious. When mechanicality is activated, you really lose control, and blow away vital energy. There you've forgotten how to pay with Conscious/Voluntary Suffering. You're still weak in the Law.
 
END OF TAPE 4
 
 
 
The Sermon On The Mount
(Part 5)
March 27th 2004
 
 
Just calling this new section into play again brings up some anxiety. Why? Because the issue is the PAIN - the confusion, the wondering, the sleep, that whole business. And the only way someone is going to come to real terms with it, is to go through it. Not to avoid it with their 'cleverness'. But few allow themselve(s) to experience it, they try to circumvent it. 
 
Now I run the risk of becoming a real drag. I have to put on a voice of as if 'displeasure'. Because, that's the atmosphere we start in. There's really nothing to complain about. You don't feel free - but that's the actual truth of the matter. So, we're going to attempt to go through it. And to do that we've got to consciously experience that vibration of displeasure. 
 
Some two thousand years ago the Man said: 'Do you want to know what the problem is? I'll tell you about it!' That's basically what The Sermon on the Mount is about - the common errors that people have been making and continue to make. And That Voice continues to say: If you keep that up, no 'Kingdom of Heaven' for you. Generally speaking we're not doing much better than the Pharisees and the Doctors of the Law of old. 
 
Unless you do far better than 'Shas and Agudat Yisrael' you've got no place in the Kingdom of Heaven, there can be no peace for you. You want to do it your 'own way'? Then, go do it. But, He said, I'm going to tell you about the inevitable results from the errors that you and most everyone is making, all the time, one way or another. 
 
So we approach the issue, step by step, and acknowledge the situation. To say it aloud, hopefully not too much or too little, attempting to 'counteract' all the overwhelmingly destructive habits. Step by step, bringing Knowledge into play, along with experience, hoping to dig the real meaning out of all these words. 
 
Here it goes: 
 
'IF YOUR RIGHT EYE IS YOUR UNDOING, TEAR IT OUT AND FLING IT AWAY; IT IS BETTER FOR YOU TO LOSE ONE PART OF YOUR BODY THAN FOR THE WHOLE OF IT TO BE THROWN INTO HELL.'
 
What does that mean? It has this as if 'grotesque' literal meaning. 
 
'YOUR UNDOING' - things that are against yourself! If you are doing something that's contrary to your overall 'well being', no matter how painful, 'TEAR IT OUT'. That's your 'eye' - your current small 'I' is your 'eye' - a particular identification. It's undermining your better knowing. 
 
'... TEAR IT OUT AND FLING IT AWAY; IT IS BETTER FOR YOU TO LOSE ONE PART OF YOUR BODY THAN FOR THE WHOLE OF IT TO BE THROWN INTO HELL.' 
 
The 'body' here, is your psychological body. Every small 'I' has its own interest. It might give you something, but at most for only a limited time. It's an IDOL, in the real sense of the word. Real 'I' is the potential center of gravity of your Whole Being. The multiplicity of non-working small 'I's are the 'goyim' (gentiles), the 'others', the 'non-believers'. They 'know not God'. They are the Polytheists, with the 'many gods'. Money as god, liquor as god, sex as god, anger as god. What's missing is the 'One God' - the One and Only Real I. 
 
A particular 'I' may be tempting you, but you see that it's limited and limiting. However, to recognize something as limited, you have to have the sense of 'something' that's not limited. People call IT by different names: God, The Eternal, Peace, Love, Truth or Presence. Some people have a strong sense that one or more of these words refer to 'something' that is MOST REAL. Before you can dispense with small wants which at best could only bring temporary satisfaction, you have to have a deep taste of THAT which is truly solid and unchanging. 
 
 It goes on: 
 
'AND IF YOUR RIGHT HAND IS YOUR UNDOING, CUT IT OFF AND FLING IT AWAY; IT IS BETTER FOR YOU TO LOSE ONE PART OF YOUR BODY THAN FOR THE WHOLE OF IT TO GO TO HELL.' 
 
The language has somewhat shifted as we try to draw out the sense of this Teaching of two thousand years ago. It is really quite comprehensive, even though it's fragments. Nicoll had to put out five books of commentaries in an attempt to round out the picture in our current language. This text might jerk you around enough for you to establish a clear feeling as to the essential difference between 'heaven' and 'hell'. 
 
This is meant for people who have a deep love for the Truth, and the Will to live up to it as best they can. That could be enough of a 'starting impulse' - the motivation to work. But you must get to understand the 'why' of it all. It's for sure not to have a lot of people patting you on the back and saying, 'Oh, what a beautiful, truthful person you are!' 
 
The 'religious mind' has a certain sense of 'heaven'. It knows the feeling of Good Conscience and is prepared to struggle in order to maintain it. To know the difference between heaven and hell, peace and conflict, one would have to be blessed with a certain feel for 'God' and the 'after-life'. 
 
It's very rare for a person to get a sense of satisfaction from that which is wider than their own little life - larger than their own immediate sense of comfort and safety. There is a something within that has immense strength to it and an unquestionable permanent reality. To taste that, one would have had to experience the actual vibration of it. That 'Place of Certainty', inside one, that doesn't depend on anything outside. All one's usual thoughts, emotions or sensation are outside of IT. You have sensations, ideas, emotions, appetites, aversions - but they're all 'outside' the Essential You. Within Real 'I', you have everything you need. You've got 'God'. There is Love in its real sense. Can anyone think of something better to have? Maybe something to be found in 'India'? 
 
Allow yourself to feel the pain, allow the tension, the pressure - get into it more. Then at least you'll know what it is that you must pass through. That's an essential step. As for those obstructing small 'I's, 'tear them out and fling them away'. They are the multiplicity of (non-working) small 'I's.
 
Now, what is the 'right hand' which is your 'undoing', that you are encouraged to 'cut it off and fling away'? The 'eye' is your 'identification', your immediate sense of who you are relative to 'what's going on'. The 'hand' is what you 'do', how you react. You don't do with the 'eye' of your identification, but with your 'hand'. That's inevitably what's being talked about here. 
 
'IF YOUR RIGHT HAND IS YOUR UNDOING, CUT IT OFF AND FLING IT AWAY'. 
 
Clear? It distinguishes between so-called 'thought' and 'reaction'. Thought is one thing, action is the response to it. Your 'hand' acts.
 
Now, here we come to another cutie, a real cutie. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to deal with this here. I thought maybe it would disappear or something. 'God', I thought, 'what is this about?' Then I remembered, we've already reflected on that one. 
 
'THEY WERE TOLD, "A MAN WHO DIVORCES HIS WIFE MUST GIVE HER A NOTE OF DISMISSAL..." (a "GETT" according to the Jewish tradition) ... BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: IF A MAN DIVORCES HIS WIFE FOR ANY CAUSE OTHER THAN UNCHASTITY HE INVOLVES HER IN ADULTERY; AND ANYONE WHO MARRIES A DIVORCED WOMAN COMMITS ADULTERY.'
 
I guess we'll have to jump into it. It goes back to what was said earlier about the 'Real Marriage'. The male aspect of a person being the Mind (intellect) and the female aspect being Body/Emotion. Let's see how that fits here. There may be an overlapping of the literal and the symbolic.
 
Ouspensky quotes Gurdjieff in defining a symbol or a diagram as holding a number of ideas in a condensed form - a quick reminder of many things, together. It can re-present 'this' and 'this', and also 'that'. Helps you to ponder the pieces within a wide picture. 
 
Like, for instance, the symbol of the Cross. The Horizontal line of Time, and the Vertical line of Eternity. That symbol brings up the vital issue of 'scale'. To have a real sense of scale, you have to have had a large variety of experiences while noting the differences in thinking, feeling, motivations and activities, at different levels. Experiences of lows and highs and the various in-betweens. More than just a vague sense of 'I feel good', 'I feel bad'. Between feeling 'fantastically good' and 'terribly bad' there's a whole range. Generally speaking, when you say 'I feel good', it hardly means more than 'I don't feel quite as bad as I felt a few minutes ago.' That's not good enough. Every variation in level has a specific vibration to it. Every level is as a 'musical note' on a scale. Take emotional and physical readings, and check what kinds of thoughts or sensations are going on at that moment. Take another reading later from a lower or higher place, and check what is circulating then. Note the differences!
 
Back to The Sermon on the Mount. This here may be allegorical. 
 
'IF A MAN DIVORCES HIS WIFE...'
 
A man's 'wife', his own body/emotions. He, the 'man' in him, his mind/intellect.
 
'... HE MUST GIVE HER A NOTE OF DISMISSAL'
 
If a 'man' can no longer control his 'wife', then he should disengage and allow room for a new 'master'. The false-personality 'gives up' - gives 'her' a 'note of dismissal'. Looked at that way I guess most people are divorced. The head and the heart are divorced, they don't see things in the same 'way', they don't have a common goal. 
 
'... A NOTE OF DISMISSAL.'
 
In other words, it should be made clear. The 'male' says, 'I cannot deal with you', you're now free from my authority. A 'note of dismissal' means you declare it fully and finally. It's done! The emotion, the 'female' is then free to open to another authority. 'Christ' says: I AM the Way, I AM the Authority, that speaks, in the Name, of the Father.
 
It goes on:
 
'BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: IF A MAN DIVORCES HIS WIFE FOR ANY CAUSE OTHER THAN UNCHASTITY HE INVOLVES HER IN ADULTERY; AND ANYONE WHO MARRIES A DIVORCED WOMAN COMMITS ADULTERY.'
 
'Unchaste', at the psychological level, seems to me more like immodesty or pridefulness. 'Chaste' is clean, honest, truthful, something reliable - it's not 'looking next door'. 
 
The 'female' should take the authority of the 'male' seriously. The mind must be driver. If you relate to the driver as 'driver', then you play the navigator's role, relative to the driver, and follow the goddamn 'map'. You're supposedly headed in the same direction. If the driver is driving and the 'navigator' doesn't navigate, dreaming about, I don't know what - then you're not going to get very far together. 
 
A 'divorce' isn't necessarily a bad thing. It might represent a clarity, a new start. If the intellect (male) does not prove to be a valid authority, then the emotions (female) need something new. The 'woman' needs a 'driver'. If you know you don't know, then leave your own pretentious authority. If you don't know how to be an authority to your own self, then locate the alternative. 
 
Ultimately the only real authority is the Truth. That is, 'God', the AUTHORITY, that KNOWS the basic reason for it ALL. And supposedly there are some people who are closer to that understanding than others. When you go looking for a 'Shaman', in a way you've divorced the pretensions of your own mind. You're looking for a new 'husband' - something that 'gathers and holds things together'. But before you can effectively do that, you need a divorce that's clear. Maybe that's what is called HUMILITY, when the mind has no doubt, when it says, I DON'T KNOW! Then you're really open to the new. 
 
Again:
 
'IF A MAN DIVORCES HIS WIFE FOR ANY CAUSE OTHER THAN UNCHASTITY HE INVOLVES HER IN ADULTERY;' 
 
'She' may be fuck'n around, as they say - 'nisht a hir, nisht a her' (neither here nor there). 'She' doesn't accept the present authority but the game still goes on, somehow. The emotions don't trust the mind, yet still does not acknowledge the 'incompatibility'. At the same time it's doing 'something else' with another 'authority'. Some little devil arrives and says, 'I've got the goodies, for you!' 'She' is sleeping here, and also sleeping there.
 
What might be wrongly thought of as a legitimate cause for 'divorce'? Well, maybe anything that the emotions, the 'woman' does, that comes from mechanicality. It's not necessarily denying the authority of 'driver', but it's inconsistent. It's like just playing with the thought that maybe the 'neighbor next door' would be a better authority. 
 
Then:
 
'... ANYONE WHO MARRIES A DIVORCED WOMAN COMMITS ADULTERY.'
 
She was divorced because of unreliability. And if another man marries her, he's marrying an 'unreliable', right? 'Marriage' is relationship. It's wrong if it doesn't fit. If you leave 'adultery' in the physical sense of sex aside, and consider the psychological angle, it's still a question of 'penetration'. 
 
You don't mix teachings. That's the real adultery. 'A man cannot serve two masters.' 'Master' of course, in the ultimate sense, is the Truth. When something is relevant it should be clear. You can't 'screw-around' with the Truth.
 
Okay, now let's see if we can divide the social from the psychological issue. Have we done that already? In the age we're living now - and maybe it's always been that way - most people through 'education' and other conditioning develop a very dubious relationship between their mind and emotions. That's the issue that this addresses. So we can well understand someone looking to an 'outside authority'. 
 
One of the reasons people get so 'uppity' about what they call 'cults' is because of this authority issue. They see it as one person's illegitimate influence over others. Orage said that 'half the people who met Gurdjieff thought he was a saint and the other half thought he was a charlatan'. But those that saw him as a charlatan didn't see that the people that took him as an authority took him that 'way' relative to what they felt was true and in their own best interest. 
 
Could you say that people are already divorced from themselves? Is 'divorce' a fact, even before the so called outside authority arrives on the scene? Take the average person - their mind and emotions are in constant conflict. It's like the emotions are always asking the mind: 'what should we do?' Then, of course, the conditioned mind is forced to, as if, make 'decisions'. It's a very nervous relationship full of assumptions and superstition. What did Gurdjieff say man's two biggest weaknesses were?
 
Stephen: Suggestibility and Imitation!
 
Alan: Yes, suggestibility and imitation. 'No guard at the door'! A person should have a guard at the door - to know everything that comes in and everything that goes out. People are full of ideas and, for the most part, have no idea where they all came in from. Generally it all groups itself together in a shifting variety of habits - the 'thinking' totally mechanical, the emotions in turmoil. Very unsatisfactory. The 'female' is suffering, and the 'male' is pretending. The male blames the female, the female blames the male. The male wants the female just to be quiet. The female wants the male to make up his mind. And of course the male doesn't really know the female element and the female doesn't really know what to expect from the male element. That's one hell of a partnership. To me that sounds like real grounds for divorce. 
 
Up to now the issues seem quite mixed - the literal, the social and the psychological. Looking at all this one might get a bit dizzy. But we touched things that seem quite reasonable. Now let's see if we can draw some clarity out of the 'reasonableness'. 
 
How might it affect our life? Does it make an essential difference if you're born female or male? Is it not basically the same challenge for everyone? That's a vitally serious question, no?
 
The only real authority is the Truth. That is Reality, cleared of wishful thinking, imagination and magi'a li (deserving). Knowledge from ABOVE, transcendent to all the confusion and 'normal' assumptions, comes from the very Spirit of God. Connection is at the next level up within you! The Being of a person can only 'accept' Knowledge to the extent that they both vibrate correspondingly. Vibrations of all or any negativity cannot relate to the finer vibrations of TRUTH. 
 
You sometimes hear people say: 'I'm working on my marriage.' I wonder what they mean by that? I wonder how they do that? In the most serious sense, for a Being to work on the 'marriage' between mind and emotion, that Being has to be more than a little HUMBLE. Eventually that could result in a clean conception, an 'Immaculate Conception'. 
 
So, it goes very deep. The 'issue' is the birth of the 'Christ' within. The active/intelect/male as 'Father', the receptive/body/female as 'Mother'. Then, what we are looking for, is the CHILD - the birth of the Higher within you - Second Body!
 
I wanted to get this clear. I'd also like to leave it now. But we'll push on a little to see if we can get to 'something' that we can, as they say, 'hang our hat on'. Something as clear as a hat-rack.
 
WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? How is it that you don't know what to do? That's it when you get down to it, no? 'I don't know what to do!' But don't you, yes, kind of, do know, but can't always do it? Is that to too big an assumption? Maybe you don't know exactly what to do most of the time, having only certain little moves that sometimes make a difference. 
 
Well, there we have some closing thoughts on the matter.
 
END OF TAPE 5
 
 
 
The Sermon On The Mount
(Part 6)
May 4th 2004
 
Teachings for the most part deal with what gets in the way of the (as yet) unknown. Love, Peace, Truth, Presence are all different words indicating a specific place, a level sometimes referred to as 'heaven'. There's really not so much you can say about it other than it's THERE. And if you were there 'with it' life would be altogether different for you. To talk about it when you're not there may be even worse than useless because that can trigger all kinds of pictures within imagination, which is the only functional 'conceptual' we have at the lower level. The real issue is not pictures - it is essential reality. We have been conditioned to live in pictures, and that we can say much about!
 
Pictures are, at best, fragments of the All and Everything and, alone, are essentially illusion. That's the lower level within which we habitually live. So, what to do? To start with, to be as truthful and observant and HUMBLE as possible - a whole lot of 'simple and sincere'. That's the only place where a Teaching and Knowledge can start to take effect.
 
All real Work demands observation, non-identification and re-membering. To slowly separate That which is Really You, from what you 'think' you are. To re-locate yourself, to go Home, to Remember Your Self. That is what Work is about. 
 
How much do you have to see in order to realize that each person is living in a world picture which is exclusively theirs? How else can it be said? You can call it a realization - something you see 'all of a sudden', that is just an amazing fact. 
 
What is a person's 'own world' made of? They were born into a particular home, with certain people, within a certain community. They went to certain schools, had certain teachers. Everyone heard different things and moved to different places. They themselves were of different 'types'. Even if they were born into the same household with brothers and sisters, each one's experiences were different. And, of course, each one has their own reactions, emotional, mental and physical, to whatever is going on. It's generally all taken so for granted. People, amazingly, even seem to speak the same language. One 'world' talks to 'another' as if they actually understand each other!
 
There's the saying, perhaps from the Bible, that: 'if you kill a person, it's as if you destroy a world'. How come, 'destroy a world'? I think that what we're talking about here is as close as you can get to what the meaning of that is. When a person dies their world-picture is gone, right? It was held together by one's own... what? What holds it together? You go to bed at night, wake up the next morning, and there it is again. That could be a shocking kind of realization. To whom? Okay then, I'll put it out as a question: Does what I have just said makes sense to you?
 
Rachel: I experience it. I think we talked about it.
 
Alan: Yes, sure.
 
Rachel: There are other worlds, yes?
 
What we've seen is that each person is in their own world, alone. It seems that everyone has the sense that they are the center of the universe. Their family moves around them, their friends move around them, the sun moves around them, people come, people go. So, generally speaking, everyone feels like they're the center of it all. And they criticize the 'others', all those other egoists, who feel that they are the center of it all.
 
How could it be different? You are the center of 'your world'. Well, thank you for welcoming me in there for a few minutes! I'm not cynical, though I've been recently accused of sounding cynical. And from a good willed source, even. And I look at it and say, hum, I'm glad I heard that. Our only hope, actually, is in the direction of increased awareness. 
 
Each 'center' has its awareness capacity, and is capable of 'reflecting' far more than any explanation can offer. For awareness to freely expand it must be unencumbered by the past with its mechanical habit. There is Knowledge that can help us to see, even within the darkness of that ignorance. When you start using it you are actually inserting light into the darkness. 
 
But it's all very subtle. The problem isn't what we don't know - it's what we think we know. That mass of information and experience you tend to take as 'you'. All of which simply does not add up! You want to be free of it. But, within that confusion is all the material that you 'think' from, and have your sense of 'I' within. Without that ignorance - 'you' do not exist. 
 
That ignorance is the giant issue. It's who you think you are. 'I'm good, I'm bad, I know this, I know that, I know more, I'm the angry one, I'm the compassionate one, I am jealous, I am generous. I, I, I, I, I, I, I -BECAUSE! ' Don't forget the 'because' - it's full of assumptions. But if you put a cool eye on it, if you back up, you might say: 'ech ani yodeah? (how do I know?), 'me'effo ze? (where's that from?), ma ha'hevdel? (what difference does that make?). It's nonsense, it's illusion, all within the darkness.
 
If you put the light of observation on all of that it has the effect of dissolving the pictures that were held together with, as I sometimes say, 'scotch tape and spit'. Even a little light starts to melt it. Separate, look back at it - and get a smile on your face. 
 
Okay, so now you see. So how far do you want to go with it? Look at the mistake you're making, never mind the 'correction'. The correction is, 'stop making the mistake'.
 
'The issue
is not
the issue' 
 
What is the issue? Well, you would first have to have some idea about 'issues'. This is not for 'the man on the street', so to speak. You see, your issue might be 'getting some money'. But what's behind that? What is the assumption behind the motivation? The basic motivation is the real issue!
 
Why do you want that money? “I don't know... I want it, I guess, to be happy”. And someone asks, 'Well, if you get that money now, you're going to be happy? I mean... if you reflect... is that going to make you happy? What do you know about 'happy'? What is happy? Then you might remember Yogananda, or somebody else. Then you say, you know, 'would he need that to make him happy?'
 
Here we are in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. There is obviously a tremendous gap between this as a 'program' and the vagueness of our usual life. We had very little control over what we absorbed or how it formed up in us mentally, emotionally or physically. But it's our own personal concoction, for sure. And we do somehow manage to live a life among and along with other people. We live a 'reality', talking and interacting with others who, as if, join us in our world. We're going to need a lot of patience to understand who's doing what, and why. That's rather important, wouldn't you say?
 
We know one thing for sure - our habits cause us to be blind, or ignore completely, these basic facts. How do you get to live what you already know? We hardly do that. We begin to see that we're actually moving in a self-created prison. It really is a prison. And it is held together with lies. 
 
Work is sometimes referred to as: 
'The Study of Lies.' 
Our habitual 'understanding' is full of untruths. 
 
To continue:
 
'AGAIN, YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT OUR FOREFATHERS WERE TOLD, "DO NOT BREAK YOUR OATH", AND, "OATHS SWORN TO THE LORD MUST BE KEPT." BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: YOU ARE NOT TO SWEAR AT ALL - NOT BY HEAVEN, FOR IT IS GOD'S THRONE, NOR BY EARTH, FOR IT IS HIS FOOTSTOOL, NOR BY JERUSALEM, FOR IT IS THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING, NOR BY YOUR OWN HEAD, BECAUSE YOU CANNOT TURN ONE HAIR OF IT WHITE OR BLACK. PLAIN "YES" OR "NO" IS ALL YOU NEED TO SAY; ANYTHING BEYOND THAT COMES FROM THE DEVIL.'
 
Alright, let's look at it:
 
Everyone lives in his 'own world', but also lives in the Universe. And here he's talking not to one person, but to the 'multitude', people that we find in the world all the time. And he's talking the current local language and might somehow have been understood, at least by the few. How does it relate to us TODAY? 
 
I ask myself as again we review this Sermon on the Mount - do I waste my time trying to go back to that 'old language'? Why not the same truths but only in the language of today? For example - we just related to the fact of each person wandering in his own conditioned world. At that time Freud hadn't yet arrived on the scene. Now we have an 'expanded background'. The general population does have a certain awareness of the subtleties of the 'subconscious'. Throughout time everyone has been living in their own world, but seldom aware of the 'unconscious' level. Now we are somewhat conscious of that level, when we remember. That's not uncommon in the reality of today. So, do I waste my time trying to dig back into this Teaching of the distant past? I don't know, maybe I'm doing it for some sincere 'Christians' who tend to get confused between the text's possible literal or symbolic meanings, while at the same time knowing that this text is of supreme importance. Although this is the most incredible text, the average Jew has no idea it even exists, although it is pure esoteric Judaism. But that's just another one of those strange things that happen within 'sleeping mankind'. No one remembers nothing - not about themselves, nor yesteryear, hardly.
 
So it says:
 
'... YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT OUR FOREFATHERS WERE TOLD, "DO NOT BREAK YOUR OATH"... 
 
Okay, he's talking to their background: You, he says, read the Bible. Your forefathers were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Moses, and maybe some others. And you were told, 'don't break your oaths' - that's serious in the eyes of God, in the eyes of Truth, in the eyes of sanity. If you promise something, just do it. I guess many people then were making some 'serious' oaths. You know, like, 'I'll never eat meat again, I'll always observe the Sabbath, I'll never hit my wife again... I'll never, never do that again'. They 'swear to God'.
 
And, 
 
"... OATHS SWORN TO THE LORD MUST BE KEPT. BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: YOU ARE NOT TO SWEAR AT ALL - NOT BY HEAVEN, FOR IT IS GOD'S THRONE, NOR BY EARTH, FOR IT IS HIS FOOTSTOOL,' 
 
That's saying, not by whatever your idea of God is, not by your own thought should you swear that you'll do something. 
 
'BECAUSE YOU CANNOT TURN ONE HAIR WHITE OR BLACK'
 
You can't even change a little hair on top of your head. And you 'swear'? 
 
'... PLAIN "YES" OR "NO" IS ALL YOU NEED TO SAY; ANYTHING BEYOND THAT COMES FROM THE DEVIL' 
 
That's a sincere intention, right? Not an oath. Anything more 'elaborate' that you're promising or swearing to do, or not to do, comes from your imagination. What do you think you can do, and what circumstances will allow it? It's imagination, it's ignorance. And when you're identified with your ignorance, that's the DEVIL. And YOU give it life! What is this saying, essentially? It's saying, 'don't lie'.That's all it's saying. You want 'God'? Then don't lie. You want the refinement of your own soul? Then don't lie. And you can see, by the various things that are pointed out here - just how you do lie.
 
'YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT THEY WERE TOLD, "EYE FOR EYE, TOOTH FOR TOOTH." BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: DO NOT SET YOURSELF AGAINST THE MAN WHO WRONGS YOU. IF SOMEONE SLAPS YOU ON THE RIGHT CHEEK, TURN AND OFFER HIM YOUR LEFT. IF A MAN WANTS TO SUE YOU FOR YOUR SHIRT, LET HIM HAVE YOUR COAT AS WELL. IF A MAN IN AUTHORITY MAKES YOU GO ONE MILE, GO WITH HIM TWO. GIVE WHEN YOU ARE ASKED TO GIVE; AND DO NOT TURN YOUR BACK ON A MAN WHO WANTS TO BORROW.'
 
'YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT THEY WERE TOLD, "LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR, HATE YOUR ENEMY." BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND PRAY FOR YOUR PERSECUTORS; ONLY SO CAN YOU BE CHILDREN OF YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER, WHO MAKES HIS SUN RISE ON GOOD AND BAD ALIKE, AND SENDS THE RAIN ON THE HONEST AND THE DISHONEST. IF YOU LOVE ONLY THOSE WHO LOVE YOU, WHAT REWARD CAN YOU EXPECT? SURELY THE TAX-GATHERERS DO AS MUCH AS THAT. AND IF YOU GREET ONLY YOUR BROTHERS, WHAT IS THERE EXTRAORDINARY ABOUT THAT? EVEN THE HEATHEN DO AS MUCH. THERE MUST BE NO LIMIT TO YOUR GOODNESS, AS YOUR HEAVENLY FATHERS GOODNESS KNOWS NO BOUNDS.' 
 
Well, now, how about that! When a person reads this they're apt to scream: 'Well, I'm not a saint!' Pondering on these words just might lead you closer to an understanding of what the Work means by: 
 
'Die before you die.'
 
That's going to take a bit of an effort on your part. The WHY, as emphasized in this text, is the 'Kingdom of Heaven'. The HOW must be in practical terms. It would be more than useful to gain some clarity around these issues - while recognizing your current limitations. In order to live by this takes more than good intentions.
 
'YOU HAVE LEARNED THAT THEY WERE TOLD, "EYE FOR EYE, TOOTH FOR TOOTH."... '
 
The army around here seems to think in those terms, or so it's reported in the newspapers. 'They' hit 'us' - say, detonate a bomb - and we 'go get 'em'. It's like revenge, give them a 'lesson'. Someone does you 'wrong', so you hit back. Of course, with some intelligence and observation, not to speak of knowledge or just plain good will, you begin to recognize that each one's 'right' and 'wrong' is more than a little subjective. 
 
'If you're negative, it's strictly in the way you're taking something.' 
To talk fully about this would be to talk about the whole of the Work. 
 
It went on:
 
'... BUT WHAT I TELL YOU IS THIS: DO NOT SET YOURSELF AGAINST THE MAN WHO WRONGS YOU.' 
 
Why? Well, can anything intelligent or useful result from a mechanical reaction? And, do you know of anybody who does anything and doesn't think that they're doing 'right', say 'under the circumstances'? That goes back to 'everyone in his own world'. People act 'logically' according to their own picture. Each one thinks they are right. When someone 'wrongs' you, that means their 'right' is your 'wrong', somehow, no? It's your picture against theirs. Actually what this says is, 'don't set yourself against someone else's picture'. You hardly know your own picture, it's changing all the time. Life is not a still snapshot - it's a multi-media, 'guess what' show. 
 
'... IF SOMEONE SLAPS YOU ON THE RIGHT CHEEK, TURN AND OFFER HIM YOUR LEFT.'
 
It's not so much in the physical sense - it's psychological. Someone calls you a rat... then wait until he calls you a pig. What difference does it make? Must we continue to 'live from being seen'? That has many disturbing implications. Be aware of your inner reactions - back up until you can see what does or doesn't make a difference. Give them your other 'cheek'. ALL that this is really saying is: 'don't throw away your God-given energy!' 
 
Then:
 
IF A MAN WANTS TO SUE YOU FOR YOUR SHIRT, LET HIM HAVE YOUR COAT AS WELL.
 
If we were only to see 'adults' in depth like we sometimes see a child. There you are, writing, and for some reason a child wants your pen. Now, you want to continue doing what you're doing - but you let him take it anyway. Just to see what he wants it for. You care about the child more than you care about the inconvenience! You care about the life in front of you, not whether you're getting your own way, or what your 'rights' are, huh? It implies a completely different relationship to Human Beings. 
 
Actually, every person is another aspect of YOURSELF - as a FACT, not merely 'philosophically'. 'KNOW THY SELF' is the hope, and the recipe! 
 
A 'child' wants the pen - let him take the paper as well. Now, are they happy? That's what makes them happy under those circumstances? It is possible to have an attitude based on a different motivation, on a different aim - for the understanding, of what 'works'. Also, why lose precious energy being an emotional victim of most everything that comes your way?
 
'IF A MAN IN AUTHORITY MAKES YOU GO ONE MILE, GO WITH HIM TWO.'
 
These are quite like meditative themes. Within the Work Knowledge much more is laid out in detail, both the aims and the means.
 
I want so much to get through this, to do it. But my wants and what's immediately possible may not be the same. What determines the 'possible'? The weather, the company, the energy? Whatever it takes, this hasn't been working so very well ever since the fourth attempt. I thought, is this maybe enough for the time being? Why go way back to the Sermon on the Mount? I had to do it, to see whether the text could be interpreted alongside the Knowledge and Work of today. 
 
But the Truth doesn't need yesterday's confirmation. This text is saying: 'Look, this is what you people have been studying in the Law given to you by your forefathers. This is what you have been reading in your Bible - about Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and Moshe rabenu, and the Prophets. And, you've been praying to God, God, God. Now it's time to go down to the very root of the matter! You've got to stop being self-enclosed, selfish, fearful, unconnected 'believers'. If you can't 'go the distance' then stop profaning the word 'God'. God is found in Heaven, you're still in Hell. Do you want to get out of hell, or not? Your prayers and your so-called sacrifices are just... Well, they don't work... they are not enough!
 
Oh, this is a nice 'finale'. Maybe we did get somewhere. What! Do we now have to talk about 'love your neighbor' from sixteen different angles? Do we have to reinterpret everything at the level of this 'sophisticated cybernetic environment'? Best to WORK with whatever you best understand, now.  Right?
The energy just turned a different color when I said 'right'.
 
 
You know, life seemed so simple when I was a kid growing up:
 
 
" I'm going to get you
On a slow boat to China
All by myself
Alone
Get you and keep you
In my arms ever more... "
 
(Life was really simple.)
 
 
" I'm going to buy a paper doll
That I can call my own
A doll that other fellows cannot steal.
And then those flirty flirty guys
With their flirty flirty eyes
Will have to flirt with other dollies 
That are real.
When I come home at night
She will be waiting
She'll be the truest doll in all this land.
I rather have a paper doll that I can call my own
Than have a fickle minded real live doll. "
 
(Strange, this world of romance.)
 
Yes, I feel I've just been relieved of a big burden. 
Maybe later we'll be called on to do more. 
 
 
 
 
AND GOD KNOWS BEST