Love or Fear? The Choice is Yours

I am really a fan of Jesus' lesson known as “The Sermon on the Mount”. A few weeks back, we studied the “Metaphysical Meaning of the Beatitudes”, which were a part of that same lesson. Yet “The Sermon on the Mount” is much more than just the Beatitudes, and this morning we are going to look at another lesson from that great teaching.

If you happen to find yourself in a hotel room and you are really bored, you can usually open one of the nightstand drawers, take out the little black book in there, known as “The Bible”, dust it off, and turn to Matthew, chapter 6 and start reading, especially Matthew 16:19-21. Here you will see something that is really appropriate to the times that we are living in right now. Jesus had been telling a group of probably 4000 people “do not lay up for yourself treasures buried in the ground, a place where moth or rust will destroy them and thieves may break through and steal them; but, lay up for yourselves treasures in 'Heaven', where neither moths nor rust will destroy them, and where thieves do not break through and steal; for, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Yes, this little statement is very appropriate for us today and remember “Heaven” is not a location. No, it is a state a consciousness; thus, putting your treasure in “Heaven” is putting your trust in Source, in God, in Spirit, the name you call “The Ultimate” is irrelevant. “The Ultimate” is an inexhaustible supply.

Also remember that people back then did not have banks or safety deposit boxes or stocks or commodities markets as alternative places to put or invest their money. Thus, whatever valuables that they owned, they buried in the ground or hid them in certain places in the walls of their houses. The owner of the valuables or coins buried the treasure or valuables at night, when it was quite dark outside so no one could see him and come back later and dig them up. Thus, if you buried your valuables, you were the only one who knew their location. Often when someone died, the treasure remained buried only to be found years or centuries later. Many people could not even trust their own family. That family member might tell someone and then all that they owned would be gone. As well, most things buried in the ground will eventually rust and corrode and become worthless because of the moisture in the earth. Thus, that is what Jesus is talking about here, when he says, “don't bury your treasure in the ground”, and all the people understood it very well.

Houses in the time of Jesus were not built out of wood or bricks, as they are today. They were built out of what was available at that time, earth and stone and the walls were naturally filled with bugs. That is where bugs live; and if you have a house made of mud, you have bugs.

Karl and I lived years ago in San Diego in a very authentic old adobe mud house made of dried adobe bricks. If we bumped the wall and made a hole in it, we could simply go outside, mix up a little red clay soil and fix the damage. Now, I don't remember a plethora of bugs, but we did have a regular pest control service, something that the people did not have in Jesus' time. There are similar sod houses in North and South Dakota today that you can visit and walk through and see the way that the people used to live. They did not have trees or forests in those areas of our country but they did have dirt; thus, they built their homes out of what was available to them. In the summertime, I imagine from my experience in our similar San Diego home, the houses were great because they always stayed a cool temperature indoors. But, unlike San Diego in the winter, I bet it got pretty chilly in those homes, especially in the depth of the snowy winter days of the Dakotas. What I have read from people who have gone through these sample huts, is what was really creepy to them were all the bugs in the dirt.

The folks in Jesus' time had the same deal going for them regarding their living situations. Thus, the money or valuables that the family had accumulated was often sewn into and worn by the elder of that family in his or her personal robe. Particularly the father or patriarch would have and wear a very rich valuable robe in its own right. Remember the story of the soldiers casting lots for the robe of Jesus after his crucifixion? His robe was not the robe of a beggar. He was actually quite a wealthy guy.

Thus, people had these valuable robes but as usual they would not wear them 100% of the time. Therefore, they would dig a hole in their home to hid them when necessary. If you did that and left it there for a long time to keep it safe from thieves, you were liable to take it out one day and find it full of holes from the bugs in the sod. It might have, to your dismay, become bug dinner. The valuables in the home instead of being put in the most valuable robe, depending on the size and amount of wealth, were often buried outdoors near the home at night in the dark, when no one was watching. Now this was a challenge. For then, like today, there were always thieves looking for what they could steal. Nowadays we still have the same people at work, although they have law or banking degrees and work for large corporations, and a lot of them have found very good jobs on Wall Street. But the goal is still the same. It is still greed. It is taking something for nothing. Thus, Jesus addressed this whole situation back then by saying, what I read previously in Matt. 6:19-21. Today he might say, “do not lay up treasures for yourself buried in the ground or in the bank where moth and rust can destroy them or thieves and unscrupulous lawyers can steal them; but instead lay up your treasures, in “Heaven”, metaphysically a place of higher consciousness, an inexhaustible supply.” Now this was a situation well known to the crowd to whom Jesus was speaking. They understood about what he was saying. Yet, it has been brought again to our attention by the unsavory goings on in Wall Street. Do we understand what he was telling them, what he could be telling us?

We must remember that this little statement is only a tiny segment of Jesus' “Sermon on the Mount” and that he had already taught the people that the secret place within them was the place that he called “Heaven”, the quiet private place that you go to in order to store your treasures, your inner consciousness, metaphysically, “The Ultimate”, the inexhaustible supply of Spirit.

Over the centuries, those who have eyes to see and those who have ears to hear, have heard and seen this message and got it. “Heaven” is within us. Whether you believe it or not is up to you. It is just my job to put these ideas out there for you to ponder on in your own time and make your own decisions about what you think. Some folks believe that “Heaven” is a place up in the sky. But we have been to the moon and other areas of outer space and haven't found it. We also have the actual words of Jesus, who said, ”the kingdom of heaven is within us, as close as breathing, as close as hands and feet.” Was he a liar or did he tell the truth? You decide.

Now when Jesus was talking to the people back then, most likely what he said was not absorbed by the vast majority of the people, because many of us even today are not in a place where we can understand these mystical concepts. Still, his job was to share his ideas and he did a pretty good job of it.

His message then was as it is now. It was the message of the “Divinity of God”, the 'Divinity of Man”. Somehow over time, our religious institutions have separated us from this message and his real teachings. They focused on what he did, where he went, rather than on what he said; and, some of his teachings got lost or distorted along the way. The Religious Institutions told us that God was a Holy Man far out in the “Heavens” somewhere. But that is not what Jesus said. Thus, many people began to believe that God or Spirit was a remote God far away from us, and to be feared. They said that he made the world and all the creatures in it; and then ran off and left us to go to a place called “Heaven”, where he most likely went on to create more universes. Yet that is not what Jesus taught, and Jesus, to me at least, is the highest level teacher that we focus on here in the western part of the world. So what did he say? He said that “Spirit, Heaven, is within us, as close as breathing, as close as hands and feet.” That is pretty close and clear to me that I am never alone.

It stands to reason to me that a benevolent creator would design creation so that all its creatures would survive. All the creatures everywhere would be given all the tools that they needed to survive in their environment, whether it be the polar bears or the ants or the humans. We all have what we need to survive. We simply must remember what we are. Are we our real self with Spirit living a state of love or are we our false small self living in a state of fear in a world that is made up of illusion? There is only one way home and that is to awaken from the dream that we have created and together reach for the hand of the Holy Spirit to return to the place that we never left.

The life forms of nature, those of us who do not keep ourselves lulled by reality television in our little houses; but instead, get outside in nature and look around at the animals, the birds, creatures of the sea, the creepy crawlies, notice that these creatures don't seem to lose their connection with the life force that we call Love, Spirit. If you watch an anthill or school of fish or a flock of birds, they all seem to move in harmony together. They all seem to be connected as one. That is what is missing in our illusionary world, that knowledge of our oneness with one another. We must move out of that fear of death and dying, a fear that nature does not have. Anyone remember the movie, “Little Big Man”? Old chief Dan George, would say, “Oh, this is a good day to die.” Then, he would go up a hill to lie down and die; but, it would rain, so he would come back down again and wait for another day. I first saw the movie years ago; and, I didn't get the meaning of his words and actions then, but I do now. Death is just a part of life. We're just moving through this illusion that we call life. We go into the theater, we get out of the theater, we get into the car, we get out of the car. Nature itself, and we, as well, when we step out of our cocoon of fear, won't be afraid either. Jesus showed us that at the Crucifixion; but, few of us got it. We simply need to choose love and happiness over fear and loneliness. Nature has already made the choice. When will we?

There is a lot that I do not know. But this I know for sure. We have the tools to live life as mankind on planet earth. We have those tools right now. We have been given “Mind”, not a mind; but “The Mind”, not a brain, not an intellect, but the “Mind” itself. The brain is only an organ that is used to communicate with “Mind, 1st Principle”. We create with “Mind, 1st Principle, Spirit.” through the body. Everything in life that comes from the hand of man began in someone's conscious mind first, everything, no exception. It began as a creative thought, a creative idea, and then was put into form by the body. Not only things like chairs and cars and airplanes and cell phones, but also the events and circumstances of our lives. You and I are so amazing. We are children of Spirit and what do we do? Just as “Spirit” does, we create. And we can't stop ourselves anymore than a dog can stop chasing his tail or in my dog's case, his ball. It's what we are and that is what “The Sermon on the Mount” says to me, particularly this part, “ where my treasure is, there will my heart be, also.” In his book Emmet Fox used the term “objectified thought”. Yes, the world that you live in, the world that I live in, is just a thought, manifested into an object; an “Objectified thing”, something that we can observe. Our thoughts are eventually objectified outward into our lives, then, reflected back to us, just as a movie camera projects an image on to a movie screen, and we can see that light or picture projected back to us. Your life is the theater of your mind. Get the picture? Now, you have two basic choices in this play called “Life”. They are: am I one with my creator or am I separate from my creator? In other words, do I live in Love or in Fear? Love is a feeling of oneness with your creator, a feeling of peace; fear is choosing an emotional roller coaster and being separate and alone. Love is light, fear is darkness. Love is peaceful, fear is full of drama. Final question, where do you want to be? No man can serve two masters, “You cannot serve God and mammon, for you will either love the one and hate the other or hate the one and love the other.” So make a choice for “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Namaste,

Barbara