"Love, Fear and Armageddon, Part 1"
(An Excerpt from “The Wisdom of Solomon”
compiled by Grace de Rond) . . .Everything in existence on this planet is performing naturally, according to its nature. It is the nature of all things existing on Earth to participate in recycling. Humans, animals, plants and minerals all grow through the death of other things. Death is not the end of life. It is the recycling of life energies through new forms.
Humans may be repulsed by the mental image of a dead carcass that is beginning to bloat and stink. However, to a vulture or a maggot, dead meat looks like a banquet. It is their nature to jump into rotting, decaying flesh and gorge happily. There is absolute perfection in the creation of the maggot, the house fly and the buzzard. Earth was perfectly designed to renew itself continuously by cleaning up its waste. Thus, the lowly earthworm is one of the most useful beings on the planet. It may even be one of God’s favorites for that reason.
As part of this grand recycling system, it is the nature of some animals to be predators. There is absolute perfection in the creation of predators. Built into our human nature as well is the predator instinct of killing and eating, causing death and recycling life. It is our natural way of participating in the life and death cycle of Earth.
It is also the nature of all things existing on Earth to participate in reproduction. There is absolute perfection in the sexual expression of each species. It is instinctive for everything on this planet to want to express sexually and to reproduce. Nothing could be more natural.
Everything about the nature of Earth and its inhabitants is natural and is an expression of its creator. It is absurd to suggest that God did a poor job with his creation.
Humans, by nature, are capable of more thoughts, moods, emotions, feelings and appetites for good and bad than any other living being on this planet. Included in who you are is the ability to express a range of so-called negative emotions including fear, resentment, anger, jealousy, hurt and hate. All these expressions are perfectly natural.
It is natural for you to feel, think and to do all the things that you feel, think and do. It is natural for you to feel angry and vengeful. It is natural for you to fantasize killing someone. It is even natural for you to kill, given the right circumstances. It is natural for you to have sexual urges and fantasies. All these expressions are natural, and each is alright to experience. None of them is “wrong.” You cannot express incorrectly.
You can only express what is in your nature. You did not make that nature. That nature is an aspect of this planet, Earth. It is an aspect of the living beast that occupies this planet and lives within its inhabitants. You can only express what is the nature of the beast within you. The beast within you can and does experience the complete range of emotions and feelings that God ever created and put on this planet.
Here is an important key to understanding this point: outside of this planet, you would not experience the nature of this earthly beast. As a consequence of living on this planet, you have a beast nature within you, and it is ruled by the beast nature of this planet. The king or ruler of the beast nature of this planet, is called Satan. His kingdom is the kingdom of Earth.
All of that is natural and alright. It is natural for the beast to do what the beast does. It is an aspect of participation in the life and death cycle of this planet. It is important that you understand that your personal beastly expressions are natural and alright. Those who do not will experience inner turmoil and cause needless harm to themselves and others. It is necessary that you accept the beast nature within you -- all of its nature.
Confusion arises when we start trying to be "religious," believing that everything about us is supposed to behave in a religiously "good" way. It is impossible to force the beast to act like it is not a beast. The beast will think what it will think and feel what it will feel. It will do what it does naturally. It will do the things that a beast does. It will act according to its beastly nature. That is its proper participation in the scheme of nature. The only way you can stop the beast from doing what
it is created to do is to take it off, like any other piece of clothing.
How do you do that? First, you need to know that there is another nature as well. This other nature is not a participant in the life and death cycle of this planet. Rather, this other nature is the creator of that cycle. It is a continuous, sustaining, creative consciousness. This other nature does not grow through the death of other things. It has no natural instinct to kill and eat, to cause death and recycle life. It has no appetite for reproduction. That which does not die does not need to reproduce. This other nature can only create. It only grows. It is a creative, everlasting nature, and it is yours -- your true, divine nature.
When the beast that inhabits Earth was created in the beginning of time, God suggested that humankind participate in this divine occurrence called life. God suggested that we rule over every beast in the garden, that we give them names, and that we train them to behave as we wished.
From the beginning of time, we have done that. All the beasts in the garden do what we command them to do -- except when we do not take charge of them.
When we do not take charge, the beasts run amok. Then, the beast in man rules man, to the point that man forgets he is the creator and believes he is the beast. Obviously, the question that arises on a personal level is, “Who’s in charge?” Who is making the decisions in your life -- your beast or your divine nature?
There is a battle raging within you at any given time between these two natures. That is where the real battles of life are being fought. The bumps and nicks, the scars occurring on the skin, are the result of what is playing out inside you as you struggle to regain control of a beast that has grown seemingly insurmountable, lifetime over lifetime. That is where the madness is. That is where heaven and hell lie. That is where God and the devil meet. You may have been convinced that God lives in a peaceful paradise above the clouds and that Satan rules a fiery pit down below. You can continue to believe they exist out there, outside yourself. Maybe they do. But they are not the ones who are going to influence every single thought, feeling, mood, interaction and circumstance of your practical daily life.
The God that lives within you causes you to feel uplifted as you respond to his presence. That God is alive, and there is no need to debate it. Serious theological debates concerning the existence of God and Satan are not necessary. You only have to ask yourself if there is a force at work in your mind that makes you feel good about yourself and about life, that makes you respond with hope and healing, when you see particular images, when you hear particular music, when you encounter particular people, when you experience particular events, or when you just pay attention and appreciate life for what it is. You have experienced a force coming from within you that inspires you to know that you are alright. When you commune with that force, when you talk with it, you feel good. That force causes you to feel alive, without regret for the past, without fear of the future. You are alive to the present. That creative, life-giving force is God within you.
There is as well another force living within you. You cannot deny it, and it would be ridiculous to try. There is a force in you that sometimes dreads, fears, worries, judges, condemns, hates, and becomes melancholy and depressed. That force causes you to feel bad, low, not alright. You can call that force Satan, the devil, the lower self, the beast nature, or any other name you prefer. The truth is that it exists. When you talk with that force, you feel worse. And that is the definition
of evil.
How poetically and ironically beautiful that the English language provides us two words that are mirror opposites: “live” and “evil.” Evil is live spelled backwards and could not be more appropriate. Whatever makes you dead is evil -- whatever makes you hurt, whatever makes you guilty, whatever makes you fearful. Whatever makes you less alive is evil. All the studied categorizations of morality and sin provided by traditional religion -- this is bad, that is bad, that is acceptable, this is bad -- are unnecessary. The definition of evil is very simple. Anything that makes
you feel worse is evil. It is the opposite of life. It does not enliven you; it “un-livens” you.
Whatever takes your life away makes you more dead, and that is the nature of evil. Anything that gives you liveliness, making you more alive, is life and God. Scripture tells us that when asked to identify himself to Moses, God said, “I am that I am.” (Exodus 3:14) “I am that which lives. I am life. I am the living one. I am what makes life live.” Let that be your definition of God. . . .
© Paul Solomon Foundation 1994 “The Wisdom of Solomon” is a book being edited and organized by Grace de Rond.
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