By Steve Beckow, December 25, 2021
(Golden Age of Gaia)
As a Christmas gift from us here at the Golden Age of Gaia, we offer you Love Like We Never Imagined It to Be, a look at what the true nature of love is, for your reading enjoyment.
Download here: https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Love-Like-We-Never-Imagined-It-to-Be.pdf.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
I recall reading about a Zen master who, after looking at a copy of the sermon on the mount, said of Jesus, “This man is not far from enlightenment.”
Sri Ramakrishna held that Jesus was an avatar. (1)
This Christmastime I’d like to take a passage from Jesus that is germane to the times and expand it.
The passage is his statement on accountability, which is a subject that many of us are concerned with this year:
“You live in tumultuous times and you live in a time of fulfilment. …
“You are leaving compassion and latitude for correction and understanding.
“You are bringing to light what needs to be revealed so it doesn’t destroy the fiber of your society. …
“When you see the shadow, it defines the light.” (2)
The times are tumultuous.
We’re promised a time of fulfilment and, since I’ve actually already tasted it, I can certify that it’s totally fulfilling. (3)
We take the tool we have in our hand (compassion) and set it aside and pick up another tool (justice) to save society.
And then, in service to the Mother, I am/we are “bringing to light what needs to be revealed so it doesn’t destroy the fiber of your society.”
This describes the period we’re in now very well and what our actions aim at.
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But Jesus also adds one of his wise and multi-level aphorisms; it’s so basic, so fundamental that it’s like a door that opens for us.
“When you see the shadow, it defines the light.” Who cares about the light? Who cares about defining the light? Why is that worth the price of living with the shadow instead of ridding ourselves of it?
Jesus has just pointed to the purpose of life. Caring about the light serves the purpose of life.
The purpose of life is to know our true identity and that just turns out to be … well, how true do we wish to get? Ultimately it’s the One. Stepped down from that, it’s a seemingly-separated point of light – and love and awareness.
Remember what Krishnamurti said? (Sorry for the gender bias.)
“The really important thing is … the knowledge of God’s plan for men. For God has a plan, and that plan is evolution. When once a man has seen that and really knows it, he cannot help working for it and making himself one with it, because it is so glorious, so beautiful.” (4)
“He cannot help working for it.” Yes, if we see the Divine Plan once, we cannot help but work for it.
I know the purpose of life and I cannot help but work for it. Why? Because doing so brings so much love, bliss, and ecstasy.
Isn’t that what it’s all about – that you and I experience love, bliss, and ecstasy? The first one there help the others?
The Mother says: “My essence is love.” (5) If her essence is love, how can mine not be? Is there a second to God? I think not. If my essence is love, I should be able to experience it continuously.
All that stands in my way are my worldly likes and dislikes (6) – that keep me turned to the world – and my ignorance of my true identity. Those out of the way, my hypothesis goes, I’d experience love continuously.
I’m more and more clearly coming to see that I’m a point of love, light, and awareness. All the bodies I wear are to allow me to experience the different realms. I am not any of my bodies. They’re strictly optional. I am the love, light and awareness that operates them all.
The shadow having defined the light, the next thing is to realize it. Time to get to work! Realizing that Light is another way of describing what life is all about.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and a happy, united New Year! May we all realize the Light that we are this year!
Footnotes
(1) Shivanath Shastri told Sri Ramakrishna: “Sir, one of my Christian friends has come to see you. Having heard of you from me, he was very eager to meet you.”
On hearing this Sri Ramakrishna bowed his head to the ground and said: “I bow again and again at the feet of Jesus Christ.”
Surprised at such utterance, Rev. Sannyal said: “How is it, sir, that you bow at the feet of Christ? What do you think of Him?”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Why, I look upon him as an Avatara.”
Rev. Sannyal: “Incarnation of God! Will you kindly explain what you mean by it? Is he one like Krishna and the others?”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Yes, exactly like that. An incarnation like our Rama and Krishna. Don’t you know there is a passage in the Bhagavata where it is said that the incarnations of Vishnu or the Supreme Being are innumerable?”
Rev. Sannyal: “Please explain further. I do not understand it quite.”
Sri Ramakrishna: “Just take the case of the ocean. It is a wide and almost infinite expanse of water. But owing to special causes, in special parts of this wide sea, the water becomes congealed into ice. When reduced to ice it can be easily manipulated and applied to special uses. An incarnation is something like that. Like that infinite expanse of water, there is the Infinite Power, immanent in matter and mind, but for some special purposes, in special regions, a portion of that Infinite Power, as it were, assumes a tangible shape in history, that is what you call a great man. But he is, properly speaking, a local manifestation of the all-pervading Divine Power; in other words, an incarnation of God. The greatness of great men is essentially the manifestation of Divine Energy.” (Prabhavananda, Swami. First Meetings with Sri Ramakrishna. Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1987, 106-7.)
And Jesus acknowledged to me personally that he was an avatar, as I discuss above: “Jesus: “There was an Infilling of the Holy Spirit at a Very Early Age,” December 25, 2021, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/?p=330081.
What is an avatar? See “Avatars (Incarnations of God, Embodiments of the Divine, God-men/God-women)” and the sections that follow, at https://goldengaiadb.com/index.php?title=A#Avatars_.28Incarnations_of_God.2C_Embodiments_of_the_Divine.2C_God-men.2FGod-women.29
(2) Jesus through Linda Dillon, Heart Call, Sept. 19, 2020.
(3) Love is 5th-7th Dimension; bliss, 9th-10th Dimension; ecstasy 12th Dimension – each experience totally satisfying, only surpassed by its higher version.
(4) J. Krishnamurti, At the Feet of the Master. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974; c1910, 17. Everyone who sees a representation of the purpose or design of life probably sees something unique. My version is described here: “The Purpose of Life is Enlightenment – Ch. 13 – Epilogue,” August 13, 2011, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2011/08/13/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment-ch-13-epilogue/
(5) “Transcript of the Divine Mother: Density is Unloving Emotion; Love is Lightness of Being,” March 6, 2015, at http://goldenageofgaia.com/2015/03/06/transcript-of-the-divine-mother-density-is-unloving-emotion-love-is-lightness-of-being/.
(6) Which the Buddha called craving and aversion.
As a special Christmas gift from the Golden Age of Gaia, download here: https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Love-Like-We-Never-Imagined-It-to-Be.pdf.