The Golden Rule revisited.

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

Thanks for that, Judy.

I found it interesting - since I didn't know - that Jesus' statements on the Golden Rule were actually him referring to the prophets (Judaism) before him. One tends to think the Golden Rule came from Jesus and his time.

V

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

Hi Principled,

My personal favourite is:

"I give thanks this day for my ability to step beyond the borders of my ego and experience the world through the eyes of another who sees it differently form me."

By Djwhal Khul - Ascended Master

How wonderful if everyone - especially in the Middle East at this time - were able to do this.

Best wishes
Publisher [sm=wave.gif]

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

Dear Judy,

I was delighted a couple of years ago to learn about the would-be suicide bomber who was injured and cared for kindly and mercifully by Israeli doctors and nurses. So great was the unconditional care shown him, he turned his back on terrorism - saw right through its lying deceit.

Lovely story, thank you for sharing.

Dear Venetian,

found it interesting - since I didn't know - that Jesus' statements on the Golden Rule were actually him referring to the prophets (Judaism) before him. One tends to think the Golden Rule came from Jesus and his time.

A great deal of what Yeshua taught came from those that came before him. Hebrew scholars state that Yeshua trained at Hillel's prophet school. At that time prophets schools were all over the land......Israel is an eye-opener spiritually. For a small place they have certainly had (and still do) have their fair share of the equivalent of the 'Guru's in India'.

Divine Love

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

I prepared this answer the day that HP went down and forgot to post it!

Hi Kim,

Yes, I thought you’d enjoy that story!

Hello Publisher,

Thanks for that saying - all so true.

And Venetian,

Jesus was Jewish. At the age of 12 as you know, he was found talking to the rabbis for two/three days when he went missing. He was deeply versed in all the Hebrew sacred texts (quite apart from the direct teachings from his heavenly Father!) He said:

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. (Matthew 5: 17)

Luke 16:16 & 17 seems to contradict this is a way – and yet, of course not.

The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

Jesus can to enhance, to fully demonstrate the spirit behind the letter of the law. To me, what he was saying was reject that which is merely material ritual (like the fuss about him healing on the Sabbath) but embrace the higher spiritual meaning behind these laws. To me, he was also saying that these true spiritual laws have power and practicality under-girding them, which he certainly proved (and which continues to be proved today)

The other famous mention of the law and prophets was:

Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Matthew 22:25-40)

If you take the 10 Commandments, the first 4 are about loving God and the next 6 are about loving our brother (and sister) man.

Henry Drummond’s wonderful description of Paul’s teachings on Love in I Corinthians 13 starts like this (I have added paragraphs to the hugely long second one):

THE GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD
Drummond, Henry

EVERY one has asked himself the great question of antiquity as of the modern world: What is the summum bonum—the supreme good? You have life before you. Once only you can live it. What is the noblest object of desire, the supreme gift to covet?

We have been accustomed to be told that the greatest thing in the religious world is Faith. That great word has been the key-note for centuries of the popular religion; and we have easily learned to look upon it as the greatest thing in the world. Well, we are wrong. If we have been told that, we may miss the mark. I have taken you, in the chapter which I have just read, to Christianity at its source; and there we have seen, “The greatest of these is love.” It is not an oversight. Paul was speaking of faith just a moment before. He says, “If I have all faith, so that I can remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” So far from forgetting, he deliberately contrasts them, “Now abideth Faith, Hope, Love,” and without a moment’s hesitation, the decision falls, “The greatest of these is Love.”…………

Nor is this letter to the Corinthians peculiar in singling out love as the summum bonum. The masterpieces of Christianity are agreed about it. Peter says, “Above all things have fervent love among yourselves.” Above all things." And John goes farther, “God is love.” And you remember the profound remark which Paul makes elsewhere, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.”

Did you ever think what he meant by that? In those days men were working their passage to Heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments, and the hundred and ten other commandments which they had manufactured out

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

Dear Judy

Judaism
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour.
This is the whole Torah; all the rest is commentary.
Go and learn it.
Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a

I agree, Yeshua was really emphaising this quote from Hillel and bringing forth that the Torah is really about love and love is the scale that provides the measure of the balance. The cardinal point if you like, it is this love that opens the gates of the Torah. There are those that do not appreciate that the Tree of Life e.g. Sephrot is actually to do with universal spiritual law not commandments received by Moses par se. In the Torah and OT it states that God would put a new convenant and the law in our hearts, e.g. our own being. To me this is the universal spritual laws e.g. first principles of the universe of cause and effect.

And really has little to do with most of the laws passed on by Moses. However, I do feel that the prophets down the ages tried to help others to understand the universal laws. I was overjoyed to learn whilst in Israel that one of the schools there had been teaching universal spiritual law to the children, I pray that one day it will be the same in the UK.

Divine Love

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

PS Tiferet

Is the heart of the Tree of Life and Tiferet means 'Beauty'. It is a state of being where opposites meld and where integrations and manifestations occur. Part of the Tifret in affirmation is "I am part of other people's divine plans" so here we can see the positive influence of the heart of intelligence and oneness, when we see beauty in all things and move from the heart.

My view is that there really isn't any difference between Tiferet and Namaste

Namaste

I honour the place in you
in which the entire universe dwells
I honour that place in you which is
of love and truth, of light and of peace.
When you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me.
We are one.

Divine Love

RE: The Golden Rule revisited.

ORIGINAL: Principled

Jesus can to enhance, to fully demonstrate the spirit behind the letter of the law. To me, what he was saying was reject that which is merely material ritual (like the fuss about him healing on the Sabbath) but embrace the higher spiritual meaning behind these laws.

Yes, exactly, I agree. And Sufism is likewise the spirit of Muslim 'Law' rather than the empty and misleading letter of the Law. In all religions, IMHO, you have to get beyond the printed word and concrete meanings, and get to the inner meanings and an intuitive comprehension. Those who only follow printed words and concrete meanings, in any religion, have yet to know what the very thing, 'spirituality', is.

V