isbell@marvin.DEC (06/14/84)
[Long - 51 lines] I have been reading a book called "On Eagle's Wings" by Lord Martin Cecil - the leader of The Emissaries of Divine Light - "a worldwide nonsectarian ministry". My feeling is that the book is a genuine attempt to point out that which is common to all human beings, and all spiritual practices. It has been very difficult to select a passage for this news group. Each chapter is a transcription of an unscripted talk, and selection of a particular passage interrupts the flow of the whole talk. The introduction to the book states "...some religious terms, mostly of the Christian variety, were used from time to time. The language is not the point. No one heed be hung up on the wording. It is the spirit and substance of what is being said that carries the weight." Chris Isbell. (...decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-marvin!isbell) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ People have many opportunities of gathering themselves together for various purposes, for various reasons, but there is only one right reason and this centers in what we may describe by the word *integrity*, a longing to experience the reality indicated by that word... Very often those who are seeking are seeking self-centeredly. By the way, most of what is called religion in the world has been based in this same self-centered consciousness. Within the scope of Christianity, for instance, the approach is 'I am a sinner. That's me, you know. I am a sinner.' The question is asked very often, 'Are you saved?' A self-centered approach. 'What is going to happen to me? Poor me! Am I saved? Am I a sinner?' The whole approach is self-centered, lacking integrity. Integrity is available to the experience of any human being on the face of the earth, because there is something that is true about that person. That person would not exist if it weren't so. Our very existence depends upon the fact that there is something real and true in us, and we find that reality, that truth, when we accept the necessity of behaving with integrity. We cannot behave with integrity until we put spiritual valuse first - we may say, until we put God first. Now this has meant so many peculiar things to so many people and nothing to most. Put God first. All right, go ahead! Put integrity first; here is our contact with whatever God is. God's character is a character of integrity; everything is integrated. If we do not share that character we have no faintest notion as to what the word God might mean. We may have some concepts and beliefs about it, we may get into very heated arguments on this score, but if we find it necessary to argue, it is evidence of the fact that we don't know. We know only through experience, not on the basis of belief. We may beleive something; that's fine as a starting point perhaps, if we are willing to relinquish this beleif after a while because we move into a larger vision. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
rjb@akgua.UUCP (06/19/84)
Chris,
You can't give away what you don't have.
Christianity deals with the self first and your relationship
with God because without that being squared away you won't be
much use to any of your fellow humans or yourself.
Jesus did a good job of demonstrating that you had to love
yourself (that is value yourself because God loves you first.)
When you get to that point you are able to give love and any other
needed thing to your brothers and sisters.
"Love isn't Love till you give it away, give it away,..."
- Sunday School Song from long ago...
Bob Brown {...ihnp4!akgua!rjb}
AT&T Technologies, Inc.............. Norcross, Ga
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