The Sermon on the Mount, Part XVI and XVII of XL

The Sermon on the Mount, Part XVI of XL
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TEXT: Continuing with Matthew 5:

48. You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

COMMENTARY: There is only one Way to be "perfect." That is to move out of the Way and let the Supermind, the Lovemind, live in and through us! For we cannot "gain" perfection under our own limited human power.

Instead, we must clear our minds, moving into the clarity of "interior emptiness," allowing the Spirit, first, to communicate with us, then, allowing Her to "take over" and "possess" us! This reflection of "perfection" is the longterm goal of the mystic in every spiritual tradition. So, the more that one studies the Sermon on the Mount, the more it appears as a mystical document.
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The Sermon on the Mount, Part XVII of XL
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Chapter 6.

TEXT: Continuing with Matthew 6:

1. "Beware of practicing your piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.

COMMENTARY: The person of Love rejects, refuses, and renounces fame. Jesus, the most famous man who ever lived, did not want personal publicity. But he did want to spread his Message of Love as widely as possible. Jesus here, in effect, prohibits his true followers from seeking personal fame. The follower of the Way never wants her name to be the subject of attention; she diverts all attention to Love, and to the Lord of Love.

If people took Jesus seriously, and believed in his Message, we would be forever free of selfconscious, strutting, "pea-cocking," selfdisplaying religious types. These showoffs love to be seen, and admired, by people; for, deep down, they suffer from selfloathing and a profound sense of inadequacy and incompetence. They love to see their egonames in newspapers, and for people to talk about them. Those who brag, boast, and strut have no place in the kingdom of Love, of "the Father." For arrogance is fear, and fear the opposite of Love.

TEXT:

2. "Thus, when you give alms, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by men.

COMMENTARY: We all tend to be so uncertain of ourselves, so untrusting of the Love of God, that we almost always, at least, in our immature ("spiritual embryo" or "toddler") phase, tend to want to gravitate to continuous and haunting uncertainty. Then, in stupidity, ignorance, and arrogance, we lust after the praises and notice of human beings. This is evidence that a person is no longer on a spiritual path. For the truly spiritual direct all praises to the interior Father of Love. They are selfnegating, never the selfabsorbed. This is, in fact, the very meaning of that most rare of spiritual jewels-- humility.

Arrogant ministers, priests, and preachers prove themselves deeply and spiritually flawed when seeking the attention of the press, for example.
For this is anti-Christian.

The Sermon on the Mount, Part X of XL

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TEXT: Continuing with Matthew 5:

27. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' 28 But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

COMMENTARY: This is one of the most repeatedly, radically misunderstood texts in the history of Christianity. For every human being has a biological body. And no human being can regulate or control every bioresponse of that body. Is, then, the situation completely hopeless? Is the Christ of Love damning all of us?

That is not tenable. To understand this verse, we must look at the context, especially the audience to whom Jesus was likely speaking. He was talking to super-selfrighteous people, to ultrareligious people radically infected with spiritual pride. The religious leaders of the time felt themselves immensely superior to the "rabble," or the "crowd," the common person. They smugly felt themselves spiritually superior, largely because they were convinced that they had never, in all their lives, broken any of the "laws of Jehovah." But they despised the common person, whom they dismissed as "sinners," and so, fairly hopeless, especially when compared to their "righteous" selves!

Jesus wanted to show these hypocrites that they were just as sinful as the "common" person! He wanted to rip off their masks of smug superiority, if not to expose them in public. So, he taught that sin was a state or condition of mind rather than a mere bodily act. Further, those who saw themselves as so ultrapure he exposed as "unclean," just like all others. For an imperfect mind was the great equalizer among people. It placed them all on a level playing-field!

So, Jesus was not, very atypically, condemning biology, or the body, or its urges and feelings. That would be to damn everyone! This is the opposite of Love! Instead, his intent was to expose the ultraright, selfrighteous, superioristic religious leaders to parts of themselves that they could not deny. For they had long acted in denial of their own lower (humanimal) nature, setting themselves up as superhuman beings, loftily above the crowd. Jesus' friends, sinners all, were severely hurt by their attitudes of condemnation and sneering dismissal.