What is Our Problem?

In our last exploration, we discovered the fact humanity’s pattern of living under fear, ego results in all the miseries of human life, including living under the “law” of reward and punishment, corruption, betrayal, insecurity, anger, drive-by shootings, poverty, the entire gamut of what we know as “life” which is really no Life at all. We have settled for this so-called “life,” calling our human condition “inevitable,” and the result of living in a “fallen world” because Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge, or whatever other excuse we give to “explain” why the world is in the shambles it has become. This “explaining” we do is really nothing more than “passing the buck,” as Pilate washed his hands of responsibility in having Jesus crucified, blaming the crowd, as Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent for “making them” eat of the tree of Knowedge.  It is amazing how human nature, after so many years has not changed a bit.  We are no different from Pilate, Adam, or Eve.  Indeed, one aspect of human nature is playing the “blame game,” and refusing to accept responsiblity for our lives and by extension, the very state of the world in which we live. 

Since we are the world, and the world is us, and society is built upon he backs of every single individual, then the condition of the entire world depends on the internal state of every single human being.  The famous saying we are only as strong as our weakest link is a scary notion, since there are more than enough “weak links” to go around on this sorry planet Earth. Still, while we can do nothing to change others, we can at least choose to look carefully and honestly at ourselves, and in earnest, ask that which is within us, that which is Truth, God, the Holy Spirit, or whatever we want to call it, to empty us of that which is hurting us, our prejudices, and fill us with the vision of Truth, that we would be free of identifying with our prejudice and condtioning, that we would recognize this, and instead identify with the Truth of our identity, which is God, Love, and thereby bring healing to a dying world.

The planet Earth is a hospital.  We are the patients.  Truth, God, Love is the physician.  And there is only one remedy – Truth, Love itself.  Nothing else.  The problem is, we are too busy arguing over the “right” cup which holds the medicine instead of being deadly serious about finding the medicine, the Truth within ourselves. Jesus himself felt this way, as reflected in Thomas 28:2-4, “I found them all drunk, and I did not find any of them thirsty.  My soul ached for the children of humanity, because they are blind in their hearts and do not see, for they came into the world empty, and they also seek to depart from the world empty.  But meanwhile they are drunk.  When they shake off their wine, then they will change their ways.” 

Some think Christianity is the cure, Zen Buddhism is the cure, atheism is the cure, secular humanism is the cure, etc.  And while all of these “paths,” these different “cups” can reflect elements of Truth, not one of them is the sole beholder of Truth, as Truth is beyond all religion, belief, and doctrine.  Humanity can argue all they want about which “cup” for the medicine is “right,” while Love, God, Truth is the only which can heal us, as only Truth, God, Love, can reveal itself to itself.  As Jesus said in The Dialogue of the Savior, 7:4…”the one who sees is also the one who reveals.”  Truth, Love, is absolute.  The cups in which that Truth is carried are not.  Truth is One, while the reflectors of that Truth, the “cups,” are many. Religious wars are nothing more than the result of a confusion of this fact, and a fight over which “cup” for the medicine is “right.”  None are “right” and none are “wrong.”   While cultural differences and prejudice is inevitable due to our unique conditioning, that can be transcended when one is governed by Truth, and not self, ego. 

Herein lies the problem – we are governed by our egos, not by Love.  That is the beginning and the end of our entire problem.  As long as we are governed by ego, then we are slaves to this world, “bound by sin” as it were.  To become “slaves of God, Truth, Love,” is the only way out of the misery we have created for ourselves.  Paul speaks to this in Romans 6:22-23, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Once again we hear both the truth as well as the lie from Paul.  This “eternal life” is not simply going to heaven because we are counted “righteous” in God’s sight because we say Jesus Christ is our savior, but rather abundent life is the natural consequence of living from Love instead of ego and self. 

The wages of sin, that is to say, the consequences of living for the lie, the ego, the self, is what humanity has lived with since the dawn of our intelligence of measurement, when we began to create time and symbolically “ate” of the Tree of Knowledge.  The wages for sin is indeed death, as that is what we have all around us – death of children, death of innocence, death of all which is Truth and leads to Life.  Existence within the ego is not Life at all, but death – human organisms living in death.  The price we pay to live this way is enormous, for the price is Life itself… Love, God, Truth.  One of the consequences of  living under the “law” of our egos is following our beliefs, prejudices, and all of the laws, rules, and regulations we create through government and religion to keep ourselves “under control,” attempting to “legislate morality” since we do not act from a point of Love. Paul speaks of a different way to live, in Romans 6:14, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Unfortunately for the majority, we are still living under the “law” of ego, not by the grace of Love, Truth. 

Instead of Love and Truth dictating our actions, we create so-called “moral standards of behavior” we call “absolute.”  Absolute Truth, being Love, which is Reality, is not the same as “absolute standards of behavior,” or “absolute morality” which is not of Truth.  “Right” and “wrong” is simply that which is either pleasing or displeasing to our egos.  Right and wrong require an absolute standard of behavior, which can only exist from the point of ego, not of Love.  Loving or non-loving action is not the same as “right” and “wrong” because right and wrong, like reward and punishment, are products of the standard-creating ego, not Love.  Standards must by definition be measured against something, and that something is always the same thing –  the self, ego, and its opinions of that which it finds pleasing or displeasing.  Some say it is God’s standard against which “right” and “wrong” are judged.  No.  For that to be, God, Truth would have to be divided, not whole, as only that which is divided creates standards, distinctions of “right” and “wrong.” God, Truth, is always whole and only our egos judge and create separation. 

The fact we believe in a god who judges proves the fact we are worhsipping not the True God, but the false god of self, ego, as only ego judges.  Truth, God, Love never judges because it cannot judge.  Only ego can judge, as only ego is divided and not whole.  Right and wrong are more divisions created only by the ego itself – a fact the ego cannot see, as it is blind to the illusions of its own making.  The ego is ignorance and the father of fear, “Satan” himself.  Either we love, or we follow ego, fear.  Following ego is not “wrong,” but it is not loving, which brings its own negative consequences.  So we see, the notion of judgement itself is an illusion since God cannot “judge,” for to do so would make Him divided and not whole.  That is impossible, for God, Truth, Love  is forever and for always One, and undivided. 

Loving or non-loving actions bring their perfect fruits within the law of action and consequence, not the false notion of “reward and punishment” of the ego.  The fact there are no absolute standards of morality is not “relativism” as some would say.  Relativism is simply another person’s opinion of what they call “right” and “wrong,” and is no better or worse than so-called “religious” standards of behavior.  Both are incorrect since all standards are incorrect.  Truth, Love, God has no standards because standards are only ideas, and ideas only exist within time.  Truth, God, Love, is not an idea, and not of time.  Loving or non-loving actions are absolute, bringing perfect consequences, but they cannot be measured by superficial means, as some would like to be able to do so they can judge whether an action is “right” or “wrong.”  Absolutely nothing of the Truth can be manipulated, corrupted, or judged by humanity. That is the beauty of it.  

Morality is just one of many crutches we have created as a poor substitute for Love, as when one is acting from a point of Love and not self, ego, one need not follow any standards of behavior since Love always has the perfect solution in all situations.  Acting from Love is not adhering to a standard.  It is following what love requires.  Adhering to a standard of behavior only creates hypocrisy.  It has to because the judgement of “good” and “bad” is itself a division of the ego.  Actions in response to so-called “absolute moral standards of behavior” are hypocrisy because when one acts in response to standards, one is only acting to avoid punishment, or obtain a reward, not because they want to do it.  Such action is borne of coersion, which is hypocrisy and dishonesty, and has nothing to do with Truth, Love, God.  That which is divided, the ego, can only produce further division, which is by definition dual, conflicted, two-sided and contradictory.  Actions, and that which is created from the point of ego, the product of thought, which is divided, can never produce anything of Truth, since Truth is never divided, never two-sided, but Whole.  What is whole, which is Love, Truth, God, can never produce what is divided, just as what is divided can never produce what is whole.  It is no wonder we are so conflicted when trying to be “moral” people.  It is a no-win proposition, like an animal chasing its own tail.  To be a “moral person” is to be a dishonest and therefore conflicted person.  It is not moral people we need to be, but loving and therefore honest people.  There is no honesty in “moral standards,” only dishonesty and hypocrisy, proving it is not of Love, God, but of ego.  Acting from Love never brings hypocrisy.  That is not to say it is always easy to do, but it is always the loving thing to do, and brings Life.  Actions borne of Love bring their own loving consequences in perfect measure. 

Actions borne of love are always life-giving and healing, even those actions which on the surface may appear “mean” or “cold” to some, such as saying “no” to people when we must maintain healthy boundaries in our relationships with others.  “No” is not always a dirty word, unless one is childish and perceives every “no” to be a personal rejection of themself.  The fact outward actions can never be accurately judged based only on the superficial “appearance” of those actions shows we cannot say a given action is “always wrong” or “always right.” There are few obvious “black and whites” in matters of Love and Truth, besides the obvious distinction between what is Truth and what is the lie.  The specific manifesations of that Truth are not always as “black and white” as some would like to think, and are in fact, many shades of gray.

A great example of this is the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill.”  How far do we take this commandment’s meaning? Our bodies, indeed the whole of God’s creation is a killing machine.  Our bodies involuntarily kill cells every day, and no animal, including human beings, can physically live without killing other beings for food, whether plant or animal.  This is God’s natural law, as death and Life are One.  One cannot live without another dying to enable them to keep living.  God’s natural law is the way of sacrifce – that one dies so another may live.  This is not “right” or “wrong.”  It is simply the way it is, the way of Life. 

Morality, rules and regulations, governmental and religious laws, are crutches used by injured, egotistical humanity, and illustrate the way in which we are “under law.” We create this “chain” of morality to keep the “beast” of our humanity under control while under the influence of the “devil,” the ego and its loveless actions.  We feel we have no choice but to live this way because we feel we must control behavior since we do not act from a point of love.  Nevertheless, laws and morality are proven utter failures in making humanity more loving, gentler, and more considerate.  In fact, these things instead serve to expose us for the hypocrites we are, who act out of duty and obligation to empty promises, vows, and adherence to laws when our hearts are far from God, Truth, Love.   This alone demonstrates the non-truthfulness of morality, and the fact it is not the product of God, Truth, Love, but of ego. 

To identify instead with Love, God, Truth within us is be free of the need for being “under law” and “morality.”  It is to live “under grace” as Paul expressed.  This does not mean one is unloving, merciless, and inconsiderate in their actions without morality.  No.  Action from Love is always loving and life-affirming.  Action borne of morality is borne of fear, as “moral standards” are kept in place with the desire for reward and the fear of punishment based on a false standard of behavior.  This makes all actions borne of morality hypocritical and conflicted.  This is not the way of God, Truth, Love.  To act from Love, and not morality, is Truth, because when one acts from Love, there is never any contradiction, nor hypocrisy, nor conflict… as Love… brings only Love…