Secrets of God

by Slawek Wojtowicz

  It has been also suggested that the five trees refer to spiritual counterparts to the five natural senses. When we awaken, our senses are put to full service of God. God is awake in us and we can see, feel, taste, smell, and hear in a new way, which allows us to perceive God’s creation in the way it is supposed to be experienced. The joy experienced as a result of this new perception is difficult to describe in words. A song or a poem can convey much better than prose how it feels to be awakened and one with the universe—a beautiful song entitled “Macro” from the album Playing the Angel by Depeche Mode does a great job in that respect.

  20. (1) The disciples said to Jesus, “Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like.” (2) He said to them, “It is like a mustard seed. (3) It is the smallest of all seeds. (4) But when it falls on cultivated soil, it produces a great plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky.”

  Just like with the Big Bang, which started from an infinitely small point yet contained the potentiality of all that exists today, the entirety of God and the universe is also contained in every single atom of our body. How is it possible? The best approximation is a hologram—when we break into small fragments, each of them still contains the whole image. Ancient Hindu scriptures called The Upanishads describe our holographic nature as follows:

  As is the human body, so is the cosmic body. As is the human mind, so is the cosmic mind. As is the microcosm, so is the macrocosm. As is the atom, so is the universe.

  The wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis), also known as charlock, is a common invasive weed. It brings chaos to the established order of a cultivated garden. It tends to take over where it is not wanted, gets out of control, and replaces other established plants that have been growing there. That’s how the Kingdom of Heaven is. It smothers old, crumbling ideas and habits and replaces them with more robust and healthy ones.

  Just like a mustard seed, the Kingdom of Heaven starts very small inside each one of us.

  Initially it is just an impulse to be kind and loving towards others. If we decide to nourish it, it keeps growing and growing until it becomes as big as the whole universe.

  Then, just like a mature mustard plant, we become a shelter for anyone who needs protection, kindness, care, and love.

  The wild mustard (Sinapis arvensis)

  21. (1) Mary said to Jesus, “Who are your disciples like?” (2) He said, “They are like little children living in a field that is not theirs. (3) When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Give us back our field.’ (4) The children take off their clothes in front of the field owners in order to give it back to them, and they return their field to them. (5) For this reason I say, if the owners of a house know that a thief is coming, they will be on guard before the thief arrives and will not let the thief break into their house and steal their possessions. (6) As for you, then, be on guard against the world. (7) Prepare yourselves with great strength, so the robbers can’t find a way to get to you, for the trouble you expect will come. (8) There ought to be a wise person among you! (9) When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. (10) Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

  Here is another very important lesson labeled as such by an alert for anyone “who has ears to hear,” a code phrase indicating that understanding of this message can only be acquired by those ready to receive it. Wise disciples of Jesus know that they live in this world only temporarily. We have to be willing to let go of everything that binds us to this world (“our clothes”), such as unhealthy attachments, customs and habits, addictions, pride, jealousy, guilt, shame, and so on.

  The thief coming to the house is death, which robs us of our memories and forces us to start over again, when we are reincarnated into a new body. The world with its distractions is continuously tempting us to move away from the spiritual path. We need to anticipate and be aware of these temptations and distractions so that we don’t stray off the path to salvation. It is wise to keep the light of love as a guide in the darkness of this world. Every situation we encounter in our daily life offers us an opportunity to decide for or against love.

  As soon as our purification process is complete (and thus we become ripe for salvation like the grain ready for harvest), God takes the final step, “reaps the grain,” and awakens us without any delay. He is anxiously awaiting the awakening of each of His children so that their suffering can be no more.

  22. (1) Jesus saw infants being nursed. (2) He said to his disciples, “These nursing infants are like those who enter the Kingdom.” (3) They said to him, “Shall we then, as children, enter the Kingdom?” (4) Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, (5) and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, (6) and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; (7) and when you put eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and an image in place of an image; then will you enter the Kingdom.”

  (1–3) The Tao Te Ching says this about children: “Being full of power is like being a baby. Scorpions don’t sting, tigers don’t attack, and eagles don’t strike. Soft bones, weak muscles, but a firm grasp. Ignorant of the intercourse of man and woman, yet the baby penis is erect. True and perfect energy! All day long screaming and crying, but never getting hoarse. True and perfect harmony! To know harmony is to know what’s eternal. To know what’s eternal is enlightenment.”

  (4–6) Infants experience everything as a part of themselves; they are still one with the universe. They remain in the undifferentiated state uniting polarities, inside and outside, above and below, male and female. As we get older we learn to differentiate and we drift towards some of these polarities and away from their polar opposites. Our lives are a never-ending dance of separation and unification. As we grow, we first detach ourselves from the Source, solidifying our separate identity only to be amazed later in life when we discover our underlying unity. If we start searching for answers to existential questions, we realize that our inner world is identical to the outer world, that we are the source of ALL. On the spiritual path we also learn how to embody in ourselves feminine and masculine polarities (see also Saying 114).

  As we mature spiritually, we become more flexible and are able to apply masculine or feminine behaviors as appropriate in each situation, instead of following culturally prescribed behavior for each sex. We become wholly human only when we overcome cultural imprinting requiring us to behave as “appropriate” and “expected” by the society we live in. We need to learn how to be truly loving and caring in spite of these cultural norms.

  Finally, we learn to see ourselves with spiritual sight, which shows us that we are not limited individuals, but our identity stretches to encompass the whole world we see—including other people, animals, plants, and the natural environment of our Mother Earth. When we see the world in that light, we don’t want to harm anyone or anything, since it would mean harming ourselves. This new state of consciousness makes it easy to be caring and kind towards others, because loving others amounts to loving ourselves.

  (7) The final step of our transformation is spiritualization of our flesh—the resurrection—which has to happen while we are still alive. Our bodies are completely re-created (an eye is replaced with a new eye and a hand is replaced by a new hand). This process is also known as kundalini awakening, which ultimately leads to Realization (resurrection).

  Spiritual vision, accessed by the mystics through the single eye (“third eye” or pineal gland), becomes available to our “normal” eyes. Thus, we are enabled to see the world in the new light, perceiving the Presence of God everywhere. The new body is perfect, free of disease and suffering; we are in total control of how it looks and behaves. Resurrected bodies are not bound by physical laws of the universe, as demonstrated by Jesus when he walked on water, passed through walls, and changed his appearance at will.

  23. (1) Jesus said, “I shall choose yo
u, one out of a thousand, and two out of ten thousand, (2) and they shall stand as a single one.”

  We are all called to emulate Jesus—to be more loving, kind, compassionate, and caring—but only a few choose to hear the call. It is the Christ inside each of us that makes the choice—if we let Him. We decide whether to be loving or selfish, whether we want to awaken or to stay asleep. It is very sad that so few people throughout the ages have been willing to make the choice in favor of love and awakening. Since awakening means a return to Oneness of God, those who are saved stand as a single one—their minds are connected to one another and to God. Thus the illusion of separateness disappears.

  Most Christian churches proclaim that they strive for the unity of Christendom, yet only a few realize that the only way to achieve that unity is to accept the differences between individuals—between different denominations and churches—instead of trying to impose their dogmas on others. The latter approach is unfortunately much more common and is bound to fail. In A Course in Miracles Jesus states accurately that “universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary. Here alone consistency becomes possible, because here alone uncertainty ends” (C-in.2, 5-7).

  24. (1) His disciples said to him, “Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it.” (2) He said to them, “Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness.”

  Another important reminder: The place to look for the light of Christ is within us, not outside. If we search within, we will find Christ who abides there in eternal light, peace, and joy. Once we find that place, we won’t have to grope in the darkness anymore. Those who awaken the unlimited source of love within are eager to share the divine love, freedom, and happiness with everyone they meet on their path. If the light within is suppressed and we are not conscious, loving, kind, compassionate, and caring, we bring suffering and darkness to ourselves and to the world.

  25. (1) Jesus said, “Love your brother like your soul, (2) and protect him like the apple of your eye.”

  Brotherly love involves a genuine concern and compassion towards one another. It is a selfless, true love of such depth that one is willing to sacrifice oneself for the other. This is the type of love that God desires us to both experience and express in this life. We are all one; thus we are all brothers and sisters. Loving one another is not a luxury—it is necessity and the only way out of the madness of hell in which we live now. Each of us can speed up the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven by working on ourselves first, instead of trying to change others. Loving your brothers and sisters means accepting them as they are, with all of their faults and vices. Only when we are healed ourselves can we help others in truly meaningful ways, since only then can we see clearly other people exactly as they are, instead of seeing them through the dark glasses of our prejudices (see also Saying 26).

  The commandment to love other people like ourselves has been described in many spiritual traditions throughout the ages. For example, ancient Indian scriptures tell us: “Do not do to others what you do not wish done to yourself; and wish for others too what you desire and long for yourself - this is the whole of dharma - heed it well” (Veda Vyasa, in The Mahabharata). Similar admonitions have been given by Jewish rabbis and Native American and aboriginal shamans as part of the perennial philosophy—the universal wisdom shared by all humanity.

  Problems arise when we narrow the definition of who our brother is. Many religions degenerate over time and distort the original message of all-encompassing love. When preachers limit love, acceptance, and compassion only to their co-religionists, to the members of the same ethnic group or nationality, or to people who are similar to them, they are way off the spiritual path advocated by Jesus. His parable of the Good Samaritan makes that point very clear: Samaritans were despised and loathed by the Jews in ancient Palestine, just like many modern Palestinians and Israelis distrust each other today. We are all brothers, with no exceptions whatsoever. God loves everyone the same way, sinners and saints alike: gays and lesbians, priests, prostitutes, righteous preachers, corrupt politicians, totalitarian rulers, innocent children, hardworking housewives, and cheating husbands. He wants all of us to awaken and to be as loving, kind, and caring towards everyone we meet as He is to all of us.

  26. (1) Jesus said, “You see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but you do not see the beam that is in your own eye. (2) When you remove the beam from your own eye, then you will see clearly enough to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.”

  Virtually the identical saying is found in the canonical gospels: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7: 3–5) It is obvious that it is much easier to see others’ faults than our own. Yet we keep forgetting that simple lesson and end up spending most of our lives judging others.

  In reality, the things we don’t like in other people are the same negative traits that we prefer to ignore in ourselves. We like to think of ourselves as basically good, yet each of us has a dark side, too. How do we come to terms with these unacceptable, dark, shameful aspects of ourselves? The less we like particular facets of ourselves, the deeper we bury them in our subconscious. We form a “shadow” or a “trash basket personality” that contains all of the negative traits we have but don’t want to acknowledge in ourselves. When we reject them, they stay in our subconscious mind and we end up projecting them onto others. We see these particular weaknesses very clearly in other people and usually find them extremely irritating.

  As we become more conscious, we learn to be grateful to those exasperating people for serving as our mirrors so that we can see our own faults more clearly. In the process of bettering ourselves we will acquire enough patience and compassion to help others deal with the same problems without blaming or attacking them. We will also know how to help them, having done the work ourselves. However, we can help others to correct their errors only after we correct our own mistakes and misconceptions first—and after we awaken ourselves.

  A good rule is that instead of blaming others for something very annoying to us—for instance, a lack of punctuality—we should examine our own track record in this arena. What irritates us in other people is in fact a double opportunity. Besides giving us a chance to see our own negative traits that are normally hard to see, it also allows us to realize that other people are just like us. Thus, we become more kind, patient, and caring towards others. Only when we are perfectly punctual all the time do we have the right to gently point this shortcoming out in others. If God can completely overlook all of our sins (as He does!), why do we try to usurp his right to judge others? This is the lesson that was also taught by Jesus when he said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone” (John 8: 7) when a crowd gathered to stone a prostitute.

  God loves us unconditionally, and thus doesn’t even notice our mistakes. He knows that we are still very young and inexperienced—both as a species and as individuals (since our lives are so short). His judgment on each of us is very simple: “You are perfectly innocent,” since what we consider as reality is nothing but a dream in the eyes of God. Thus, He is always waiting for us with open arms, just like the father in the parable about the prodigal son.

  We also have to recognize that it is impossible to force change in others—true and lasting change comes only from within each person. Each of us knows that from personal experience: We change only when we decide to, not when others are trying to change us. That’s why we need to focus on changing ourselves, where our efforts are likely to be fruitful. Attempts to change others forcibly are always futile, since they
produce resistance and usually bring results opposite to the ones we desire.

  27. (1) Jesus said, “If you do not abstain from the world, you will not find the Kingdom. (2) If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the Father.”

  Our busy lives prevent us from experiencing God firsthand. We need to set aside a quiet time devoted to introspection and meditation if we are to find the road that leads to the Kingdom of Heaven. Psalm 46 tells us to “be still, and know that I AM God.” Of course, God is inside each of us, but He is not loud and obnoxious like our ego. He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit all the time, but His gentle voice is easily drowned out by the incessant chatter of our minds.