Saying 68
Jesus said: Blessed are you when they hate and persecute you. No place will be found where they persecuted you.
The first sentence seems to carry the theme smoothly of the keystone being rejected. But what can the second sentence mean?
Don’t skip too quickly over the first sentence. Assuming, as we do assume, that the sayings were ordered carefully, why the progression from internal understanding to external understanding or lack of understanding?
Well, I hadn’t noticed. I suppose I was subconsciously assuming that the sayings alternated between personal and public, between things they needed to know for their own growth and things that dealt with their forthcoming public ministry. But I didn’t put any time into considering it.
Rather than thinking of them alternately, given that internal and external at least reflect each other, if not mirror each other exactly, why not consider them as applying to both, regardless of which aspect they seemed to reflect? Richer that way, for one thing.
“When they hate and persecute you.” Who is “they”? A generalized catchall, the editorial “we”?
Go deeper.
The only way I can make sense of this as an internal reference is as discordant, even malign, members of the internal community that is ourselves. That is, looking at the community aspect of ourselves, a community living together in 3D as a new individual, we can see that some elements may not fit together; may hate what other aspects are and what they wish to do; may obstruct as best they can so as to hinder what they regard as malign development. In such case, if it is not too fanciful, any efforts made by the 3D Will (the 3D individual-in-construction, call it) may meet opposition that amounts to hatred and persecution.
Yes. Hatred and persecution from the “external” world are a reflection of forces much closer to home, though it does not seem that way. Hence, the seeming towering injustices of the 3D world are not accidental, nor are they “ordered by God” or even “permitted by God.” They exist because the contending forces within so many nascent souls exist. The 3D world is contention because that is according to its nature. That is what it is there to enable, and it is good. The suffering and contention in 3D is but a shadow of the suffering and contention in the larger world – the 3D/non-3D – and is a mitigation, a working-through, of it. Thus the second sentence in the saying.
Did I get that last bit right?
Yes. It doesn’t quite seem right to you because it moves into unfamiliar ground. We remind you of the vast impersonal forces that play through the 3D world. What we have called the vast personal forces are, more or less, past impersonal forces that have become/taken on/attached themselves to, specific 3D individuals, for their later working-out.
Karma, so to speak?
Only roughly. More like soul heredity. Not something to be atoned for or compensated, so much as a problem to be worked, a potential to be made real in one way or another depending upon your decisions.
So “no place will be found” means no 3D location? In other words, it was never 3D to begin with?
No, more like, the roots of the persecution were never 3D really, but were a reflection in 3D of the real roots; also, the battle was not really fought in 3D except insofar as men’s souls can be thought of as in 3D, a partial truth at best. You can see what a struggle it was for Jesus to communicate, when practically everything had to be explained and interpreted. Thus he depended upon conveying it by the spark leaping from one to the next, and then he advised love; he did not advise study and logic and metaphysics.
Saying 69
69 a. Jesus said: Blessed are those who have been persecuted within themselves. They have really come to know the Father.
69 b. Blessed are those who are hungry in order to fill the bellies of the needy.
So, saying 69 a and b. The former seems to me, in light of 68, to say that fighting the good fight internally does pay off. That is, seeking to create a definite point of view – seeking to create a sort of harmony rather than a chaos of contending voices – is good work and is its own reward in two ways: to help create peace for oneself, and to provide greater expression and understanding of the world as it really is.
This saying and its implications should tell you, as well, how far wrong your materialist society is in thinking that there is such a thing as mental illness that can be cured by pharmaceutical or other remedies. We said long ago, there is no such thing as mental illness, but we dropped the subject for lack of context. What appears as illness is actually the observable effects of internal warfare. Such effects can be masked; the causes cannot be “cured” but can be only suppressed.
I suppose people will be a bit puzzled at the connections we have not drawn.
Simple enough. You as communities are sometimes at war, one part of your community fighting another part. This will look like mental illness to anyone blind to the non-3D aspect of reality. This saying recognizes that the struggle may lead you onward, and at any rate is worth the effort.
And saying 69 b?
Life is 3D as well as non-3D. While fighting your own demons, don’t forget that what is “external” to you is a part of you no less.
Only, it is not that simple, is it?
No. You’re learning. (Said smiling.) You might look at it as saying, the world needs balance, and tends toward reestablishing it, continually. What you do not have may be assisting others with even less – and this does not refer to 3D food.
All right. Saying 70? Although, I think I understand this one well enough.
Saying 70
Jesus said: When you give rise to that which is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not give rise to it, what you do not have will destroy you.
You do, but say a word or two.
If we manifest our potential, we will be doing the work in 3D for which the 3D was created and, specifically, for which we were created. If we do not do the work, we cannot stand.
Still a little too cryptic, but yes. It is in the work of living your potential that your life consists. This does not mean that everyone should be, or could be, or was designed to be, his own psychiatrist, continually analyzing himself. It doesn’t even mean that everyone should be his own priest, though that is closer. But there is a certain way of taking one’s life seriously that leads to greater life, and a way of frittering it away that leads nowhere.
But this is actually quite difficult to talk about without seriously misleading people. Best to put the clue out there and rely on people to work on its meaning individually, reminding them meanwhile to not be too quick to assume they know, just because they get an idea that resonates. There is more in this one than appears.