THE POWER OF THOUGHTS (PART 5) -- CONCLUSION (d) LET US KEEP OUR THOUGHTS PURE!

In this concluding part, one wishes to bring to the fore, the importance attached to thoughts by the author of the Grail Message.  In seven lectures he called, exhorted (encouraged), and even adjured us to do just one thing: keep out thoughts pure! Produced here are quotations from the work In The Light of Truth, The Grail Message and the title of the lectures concerned: -

   1. ...I exhort you:

Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure, by so doing you will bring peace and be happy!

--Awake

2. Therefore I once more urgently exhort you, seekers:

“Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure and then, above all, exercise the great power of silence if you wish to ascend.”

--Silence

3. Do you now understand the value of my counsel to start exerting yourselves with all your strength for what is good, and to keep your thoughts pure? Not giving up, but pursuing this course with all your longing, all your energy? It will uplift you! It will change you and your environment!

--Ascent

4. “Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure, by so doing you will bring peace and be happy!”

--The First Step

5.  The foundation for the upbuilding of a new humanity, which you can­not and must not evade, rests in the one sentence: Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure!

--The First Step

6.       Therefore I call out to every seeker:

“Keep the hearth of your thoughts pure, by so doing you will bring peace and be happy!”

--Responsibility

7.   It is therefore necessary repeatedly to call out to all true seekers: “Give heed to the purity of your thoughts!” Put all your energy into this effort! You have no idea what you are thus doing; something stu­pendous lies in it! You can work with this like mighty warriors and pioneers for the Light, and thus liberate your fellow-men from the poisonous creepers that infest the world of thought-forms!

--Thought Forms

8.    Therefore I once more adjure all men: Keep the hearth of your voli­tion and your thoughts pure, and you will become peacemakers and be happy!

--In the realm of demons and phantoms

In this series, we have examined the power of thoughts; how they operate; what we are to avoid and the emphasis the Grail Message places on keeping our thought pure.

In closing, I wish to point out one practical advice from the Grail Message which can help us to avoid evil thoughts. And this is it: We should just think of the process of the pure Power of God always streaming through us then we will shrink from guiding this purity into the unclean channels of evil thoughts, because without any effort we can equally attain to what is highest and noblest. When we decide resolutely to desire only what is good and strive to give purity to our thoughts, we have found the way to Truth and to Life! The way to God!

THE POWER OF THOUGHTS (PART 4) (c) What to avoid

Let us start by gratefully acknowledging that the ability to form thoughts is a sublime gift from above!

With our understanding of the power of thoughts and how they operate, let us now consider those things which needs to be avoided so that we can make use of this gift aright since no one may trifle with gifts of the Almighty without harming himself.

First, we should be wary of confused thoughts and of all shallowness in thinking. Careless thoughts can debase us to the level of a playground for strange influences, through which one can very easily become morose, temperamental and unjust to his surroundings. Many for example are always thinking of enemies of all kinds and categories. Enemies emanating from their father’s family line, from their mother’s family line and enemies at the market place! If you proceed always with distrust and suspicion of everyone around you, the risk is that one draws things which are like these thoughts to oneself because thoughts too are subject to the Creative Law of attraction of all that is similar. Let us take a very simple example. False rumours spread that something is wrong with a bank which arouse the thought in many customers to rush to the bank to try to get some of their money out while they still can. The number of customers at the bank increases, as does their thoughts of annoyance and excitement, which in turn fuels the false rumours of the bank's insolvency and upcoming bankruptcy, causing more customers to come and try to withdraw their money. Really, the bank was not insolvent. But the rumour of insolvency caused a sudden demand of withdrawal of too many customers, which could not be answered, causing the bank to become insolvent and declare bankruptcy.  This is a classic example of self-fulfilling prophecies which come as harvest for those that sow negative thoughts. Negative thoughts simply attract negative results. Let us avoid it.

Again, many on realising the power of thoughts can be tempted to exploit it to serve their own selfish ends. Dangerous! Such are intellectual efforts and not the work of our spirit. Rather we are enjoined to let our spiritual intuition pervade our thoughts. We are to set free within us the urge for what is noble and good. This will then form that foundation for thinking which comes from the wish of our spirit. When we strive deep inside for only the good, and to live solely in accord with the Laws of God, this striving will affect our thoughts, and subsequently tame our intellect to obey our spirit and to do good as well. This way, even our intellectual plans and works will already be pre-influenced by the spirit and nothing wrong can develop!

The next essay is the conclusion titled:  LET US KEEP OUR THOUGHTS PURE!

THE POWER OF THOUGHTS (PART 3) (b) How Thoughts Operate:

The Son of God was reported in Mathew 5:27 & 28 to have said during the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard… ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

This means that it is not only the external action that can bring about guilt. Thoughts too, as invisible as they are, counts as action! How can this be? The Grail Message explains to us how thoughts operate in a way that clears all doubt and in a way that brings to remembrance the words of Christ in this regard to the effect that a lustful thought is equal to a lustful deed with attendant consequences!

In the lecture of the Grail Message titled Morality, we see pictorially the danger posed even if just one person out of 30 pure minded people in a swimming pool for both sexes harbours impure thoughts.  If this 30^th person stimulated by what he sees begins to nurture impure thoughts towards the object of his glances, then such thoughts will take on invisible forms, moves towards and attach themselves to the affected person and defiles the person even if nothing has been said or done by both parties! The person thus contaminated will carry this dirt away with the danger that this dirt can attract similar straying thought forms which are capable of poisoning and confusing the victim. Is this not scary? Of course, there is protection against the dangers posed by such thought forms, but that protection is for one who constantly strives for purity of thought and is inwardly anchored firmly to the centres of light-streams!

The visible deed, words and thoughts belong to the Realm of Gross Matter in this Creation! Thoughts operate in the World of Fine Gross Matter, words in the World of Medium Gross Matter, and visible actions take form in the World of densest Gross Matter. These three kinds of our activity are gross material!

Therefore, the forms of all three are closely connected with each other and their effects are interwoven. This means that a thought, automatically work­ing according to its nature in Fine Gross Matter, can strengthen words of a similar type in the World of Medium Matter, thereby producing more powerful forms. Going further, the thought gains more strength, continues to work on and eventually arises in a visible active form in the coarsest World of Matter, without the originator of the thought appearing to be directly linked to the visible action which may be carried out by someone else at another part of the planet!

No wonder then the Grail Message gave us a strong warning to the effect that not one single evil thought will remain unexpiated, even when it has not developed into a physical deed!

The next essay will discuss: What to avoid.

THE POWER OF THOUGHTS (PART 2) (a) The Power of thoughts:

Our thoughts are our act of will. What makes thoughts special is that they are endowed with spiritual power if they are deep. This is because real thoughts are glowed through by the inner perception of the spirit. Where this is not the case, such thoughts are cold and feeble. Thoughts arise through the activity of the frontal brain (large brain). No doubt, the brain perishes at earthly death but the thoughts it had generated which had received the radiations of a spiritual nature take on form and outlives the body.


The true self of the departed will then have to experience the thought forms it brought into existence during its sojourn on earth. If these thought forms are of an evil nature it will hold the departed in gloomy areas just like the nature of these thoughts. In the case of good thoughts, they form a path for happy experiencing in lighter regions of the beyond.


Even in the here and now, we are builders of our lives and environments. When we think of forming our environment with the three well known states of matter then our deeds are like the solid, our words the liquid and our thoughts are like gas that form a part and parcel of our environment.


With our thoughts we can guide Divine Power which streams through all that exists to good or evil purpose! Of course, we are fully responsible for the consequences through the well-known inflexible law of sowing and reaping.


Instead of a negative use of thoughts or just frittering it away, let us be creative with our thinking. The author of the Grail Message charged us to do something very great with our thoughts when he told us to create out of our thoughts the Holy Spear which fights for the good, heals wounds and furthers the whole of Creation!


Let us wrap up on this first sub-topic on the power of thoughts by taking a special note: through our wishes, our thinking and our inner desire we can poison this world and the beyond, or we may purify and uplift them towards the Light. Therefore, the Grail Message tells us “direct your destiny so that it may lead upwards through the purity of your thoughts!” The next essay will be on- How thoughts operate.

THE POWER OF OUR THOUGHTS (PART 1)

Are we tired of the evil, filth and wickedness all around us? Are we thirsting for a real change for the better in our lives, family and society? Are we willing to leave our agelong indolence and stubbornness and become pleasing to God? If we have answered “yes” to these questions, then we need to consider what role thoughts can play in our quest for the good, and the upbuilding of a new humanity that is pleasing to God.

I just checked, and I can inform you that worldwide, there are about 200 well known terrorist groups including Al Qaeda, Boko Haram and Hezbollah. We hear of mind-boggling corruption worldwide. We have also seen the extent to which morbid sexuality has led mankind. Same goes for all kinds of addiction including phone/social media addiction. How about the fake religious leaders? Daily Mail on January 10, 2014 published the story of a South African preacher who made his congregation eat grass to 'be closer to God' before stamping/marching on them. According to the BBC a church commissioned a report in 2004 which said that more than 4,000 of its US priests had faced sexual abuse allegations in the last 50 years, in cases involving more than 10,000 children - mostly boys.

All these acts are preceded by thoughts! But then, thoughts can also be the basis of spiritual upward movement and a healthy earthly progress. It is also important to know that many are implicated in the deeds mentioned earlier just because they have contributed to those actions through harbouring thoughts of a similar nature even if they have not carried out the acts themselves. While the earthly justice system can deal only with those who carry out visible deeds, many others who have contributed in thoughts remain behind the scenes but are liable before the laws of creation. With this knowledge, we need to keep our thoughts pure so that we do not become implicated in the many crimes and sinful acts that are perpetrated on earth today and which we might even detest in our innermost being.

We will contemplate our topic by means of the following 4 sub-topics:


1. The power of thoughts;


2. How thoughts operate;


3. What to avoid and

4. Let us keep our thoughts pure!

These 4 sub-topics will be treated in the coming essays.

THE ART OF GIVING.

We will be giving in the right way if we are able to give to our neighbour with our being.

This is not about giving only money and material gifts else those who are not money-rich will be excluded from giving.  I am pointing here to giving to our neighbour with our being. This is voluntarily giving respect and understanding to our neighbour. When we do this, we are really helping our neighbour as this type of love inspires our neighbour to change for the better and improve.

One can imagine how tasking it can be to preach to one's spouse, siblings, children etc. They know us too well! What can you then say to these group of neighbors? We can impact on them too by the type of love described above.   The love which we give with our being and which can make the loved one become a better person!

May we be strengthened to be able to love in this way!

HOW DO I TELL SOMEONE WHO IS LIKE MY MOTHER THAT SHE HURTS ME?

An objective heart to heart and frank talk should help here. Demonstrate your love and respect however more from your ways with her. Show your love by the respect you voluntarily offer her, show her understanding. Show you care. Help her. Give to her by your being available, with a listening ear and with getting things done for her even if it is some household chore. Support her. This does not necessarily mean throwing money around her but just give of yourself, of your being. It is this kind of love that can have the effect of changing her or indeed anyone you treat with genuine love. Remember that what you do for another you do indeed for yourself because the fruits of all we think say or do will come back to us without fail!

Let us also bear in mind that all of us young and old are here for a time of schooling in the School of life. An interesting school. We thereby gather experiences which makes us understand the Laws of the Almighty.

In all our interactions we need to put this into consideration. With a deep understanding of the Laws, we will be able to understand why we are going through the experiences we are now compelled to go through and we will be better able to cope. We must be prayerful and seek strength to pass through without committing fresh wrongs that can later burden us.

We also need to take precaution that we do not even allow others to oppress us by being doubly watchful. Where all precautions fail, we should be contented in the knowledge that where the need is greatest the Lord's help is nearest to us. We should however avoid acts of anger, words of resentment and thoughts of hate. Even in the long run if we need to take any inevitable steps then such steps must be taken out of love.

Overall, one should never allow evil to prevail, but we must strive always to use the good in us to conquer evil.

We should draw consciously from the power that streams through us and use it only for the good. We will succeed if we remain alert and act solely out of love and not from hate.

HOW DO WE FORGIVE?

So, how can we be sure that we have truly forgiven a person who has wronged us?  What are the practical steps to take so we can really forgive?

Forgiveness is the act of freeing the person who has offended us. It is freeing them form our resentment, anger and our insistence that they pay back for the wrong or the debt they owe us.

However, forgiveness does not mean that we must pretend that we have not been wronged. We can recognise the wrong but choose not to insist on revenge. However, we need to let the offender know exactly how we feel about their actions without rancor and insults. Where they have been rude to us, we need not be rude in return but tell them firmly that such actions are not welcome by us. No pretenses. We should also not allow others to take undue advantage of us. For example, a person borrows from us, promises to pay back but refuses to pay back eventually. We have every right to demand a repayment. Where they still fail, and keep begging that we forgive the debt, we may forgive such debt but should not feel compelled to lend them money in future. We need to protect ourselves from being maltreated.

Of course, we should be ready to forgive those who are penitent and who show that they are willing to change. Now, how about those who have wronged us and are not ready to apologise? We should not condone the actions of such recalcitrant ones. However, we need to save ourselves from feelings of rash anger and thoughts of revenge. Such things as anger and revenge will only make us incur a fresh debt ourselves and this is not what we desire. Let us leave such wicked ones to the operations of the laws of creation which gives to each according to his works.

In all, let us not allow the sun to go down on our anger but endeavour to forgive. After all, it is beneficial to keep our hearts free of resentment, bitterness and anger. It is good for our health and it keeps us free from doing that which is wrong.

FORGIVENESS

QUESTION:

In a recent Post, you wrote: “Forgive your enemy! If you curse him and he dies, do you realise he can still continue the enmity from the beyond? Free yourself!” I do not understand how a departed soul can continue enmity from the beyond. Can you expand this please? I will appreciate it if you do. Thanks very much.

RESPONSE:

The departed ones are still living human spirits just  like us on earth! The main difference between them and those on earth is that they have discarded their physical bodies.

On leaving the flesh, the departed one simply changes his location from one part of Creation to another part. The departed is held fast to the environment in the beyond which corresponds with the way he has lived his life while on earth. So, there are communities in the beyond for those who relish bearing false witness, for those who are robbers, hoodlums and so on. These areas are dark and each one tries to inflict harm on the other thus creating for themselves spheres of great suffering! These are the regions of the beyond which have come to be recognized as hell.
 
Those who are noble minded will however find themselves in the regions of Light in the beyond and they continue to work with those of like nature for the further maturity of their spirits.

Once we see that life continues after earthly death, then the riddle of how a departed soul can continue enmity from the beyond is solved. A person who has suffered an injury in the hands of another reserves the right to forgive the offender. If this is not done, then the matter remains unresolved until the offender bears the consequences through the workings of the Laws of creation. The matter remains fresh regardless of the departure of one or both parties. The benefit of forgiving others is already made known to us in the Lord’s Prayer that tells us that we will receive forgiveness as we forgive those who trespass against us. So, when we forgive others we are  freed from the invisible bonds imposed by relentlessly pursuing revenge.

We should strive to recognize that Creation is one. The different spheres of existence in Creation can be visualized as different countries belonging to one continent. Therefore, those who depart this earth do not simply cease to exist but have relocated to another part of Creation.