In the previous series, we touched on quite a number of issues that man is faced with in the earthly life. They are so many and if one has to write a book on them, however voluminous such book is, he wouldn't have written enough.
My take therefore is, those problems will always confound us, especially the reality of human being, of the world, object of human life, reality of time and space, problem of morality, good and evil, how really free are we, impracticality of freewill and omniscient God, why was the world created, who created the world, the negative power, the Supreme Being, and a host of other questions too numerous to be listed - lest we make a surfeit of matters.
To try to offer answers to all these challenges of life, it is of essence we move to the level of determining our true nature which is defined as “Man Beyond The Stethoscope and Surgeon's Scalpel.”
The necessity of this is that not until we know our real Self and fine tune the instrument of sublime comprehension that inheres in man as an image of the Creator, can we fully understand the phenomenal world, talkless the inner world.
Given the seriousness of the topic, we will be raising the intellectual bar of this discourse a bit. Those who are satisfied with their comfort zones might find the facts boring or confounding and may want to drop off. We wouldn't have apologies for such, having made it unambiguous right at the outset that this discourse is targeted at those who are ready to use the boon of better brain available to humans alone, to rationalize, query, invent, adventure and to crown it all, to get in touch with the Creator, by the means of transcendental meditation.
Albeit, we mustn't fail to remind those who are comfortable with their positions in life and wouldn't want to bother about life hereafter that; they are compared with the sparrow that closes its eyes to a prowling cat instead of taking a flight. The eyes closing doesn't chase the cat away, rather it makes the sparrow an easy prey-a good delicacy for the cat.
The objective is to further expand our understanding of what has sustained and improved life generally and thereafter move to the unfathomed inner world, which we seem to be quite oblivious of. We are thus borrowing a leaf from the British Poet - the great Alexander Pope (1688- 1744) who said: “A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep or taste not the prairian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain and drinking largely sobers up again.”
On this premise I proceed infra:
At this crossroads of truth seeking, we are confronted with five (5) instruments or sources available to man to comprehend the created.
They are:
1. Law
2. Science
3. Philosophy
4. Religion
5. Spirituality
Law may seem not really within purview of trying to access God, but no society can thrive or survive without law. By the same token, to access God, we have to primarily fulfill the laws of man - being a pre-condition for worshiping the Lord in Truth.
Therefore, to assist our good living or call it neighborliness, it is deemed necessary to briefly discuss what law is all about although this is better handled by legal luminaries.
It however goes without saying that whereas, man can live his life all through without bothering about other professions, every modern or city man requires a bit knowledge of law, to stay free and essentially to stave off criminalities, living as we now do in a society where it seems everyone is trying to outsmart or rip off the other. It is for this reason that law's principal purpose can in a narrow but spiritual sense be described inter alia as “Establishment of standards, maintaining order, resolving disputes and protecting liberties and rights.”
There are however two major laws governing the Creation. One is the “Cosmic law” set up by the Creator Himself to operate His creation. We will dwell at length on this when we take up Spirituality. The other is that of human law and is very essential, otherwise things would have run out of control. That is saying, if we can do anything and get away without being made to account for it, we can imagine what a dangerous world that would portend.
All the Saints have always discerned the need of law to control human life. Moses went for the Ten Commandments and he gave us what is known as the Torah or Mosaic law. Mosaic law is about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Christ operated at the level of the Supreme Lord and gave us a fundamental law of Love. Love had always been the basis of all infractions. This supreme law would be found in Matthew 22 vs 36-39: “Rabbi, which is the greatest commandant? And Jesus answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, thy mind and body.” He continued: “The second is like unto the first; thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself.” As a corollary Jesus said, “On these two laws hang all the prophets and commandments.”
This law of Love was given over 2,000 years ago. It contains truth eternal and direct from the Lord made flesh. Because it is unaffected by law of mutability, love holds true till date and shall ever be.
Embedded in all violations and transgressions-leading to litigations is the non-observance of Love by we human beings. If we had obeyed that foremost and all encompassing law of Love, all proclivity for greed, extortion, corruption, robbery, covetousness, and indeed all criminalities would have died of attrition.
Having failed to observe the fundamental law of Love, it became a desideratum to establish laws to guide the conducts of man, coupled with enforcement agencies in all societies the world over. In any sane society devoid of military rule, we generally have four organs to maintain law and order.
The first is the Legislative House whose duty is to promulgate laws, then the Judiciary charged with interpreting and administration of laws. After, we have the Police under the Executive arms. They are responsible for apprehending offenders and enforcement of judgement. We also have lawyers who serve differently either as prosecutors or counsels to defendants, to Government and to all and sundry. By extension of the law enforcement system, Prison is established as reformatory and for convicts to serve out their punishments.
All these modern age necessities could be attenuated if we make Love our abiding principle. And if for any reason we fail in that regard, another chapter in the Bible comes handy for us in Matthew 5 vs 25-26: “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together in the way, or your adversary may hand you to the judge, and the judge may hand you to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.Truly I tell you thou shall not escape until thou hast paid the utmost farthing.”
Cognizant of this caveat, jurisprudence actually created a legal maxim for it. It reads: “Esto consetients adversario tuo cito dum es in via cum eo.”
The maxim ends with: “Neither the hazzard of litigation, nor the cost of proceedings must ever be underestimated. Thus, amicable compromise early on is invariably the best policy.
As a spin-off, we are to remind ourselves of the attendant consequences of the two principal laws that operate in the world. The two laws are Justice and Forgiveness borne of Mercy.
From the canal perspective, Justice could be considered as good particularly, by the limited man, but what we can achieve by Mercy can not be achieved by Justice.
When we demand for Justice, we earnestly want to punish an erring individual. We are really trying to wash blood with blood. How could our vessel be cleansed by that approach? Yet, a cleansed vessel is a condition precedent for our re-admission to the bosom of the Supreme Lord.
Ergo, Once we punish the offending individual, we trigger off in him vengeance and he wouldn't rest until he avenges the punishment meted out to him.
If he is able to revenge, we avenge back, he revenges again and this goes on like a vicious circle, until one side imbibes a forgiving spirit, forgives the other person and by so doing, he breaks the karmic chain once and for all.
On the other hand, if we practice forgiveness ab initio, we eliminate any thought of vengeance in the person that has been forgiven. He feels highly indebted to us and continally looks forward to rewarding us for forgiving him.
The drift in essence is: Justice belongs to the world of duality under the charge of Lucifer aptly referred to as The Prince of the world by Christ.
In the Court of the Lord what operates is Mercy. It is “Go ye, be whole and sin no more.”
Were it not so, Jesus wouldn't be praying for His persecutors under a most excruciating pain, saying “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.”
So, when next we are prone to sue anyone or practice vengeance, let us remember the injunction of 1 Corrinthians 6 vs 2-5: “Dare any of you, having a matter against one another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? How much more things that pertain to this life?”
This is food for thought until I come your way next week to discuss Philosophy.
