The two greatest commandments

[deosstheguru]

[B]Just one more thing I wanted to share from another one of my chapters. Please add comments. We do need to learn from each other.

Religious leaders, fanatics, churches, denominations have complicated things when Jesus, the person they claim to follow, simplified things for all. Just look at Matthew 22:34-39. This is the famous Love God with all your being and secondly Love your neighbour as you Love yourself.
When you look at 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, it talks about love and how, no matter how many spiritual gifts one possesses, they mean nothing without love.It gives no less than 15 signs or virtues of love, but yet it does not tell us what love is. No one can tell you what love is. You just know it through and through. And each person’s experience of it is as unique as that individual. So when we are told that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, soul and mind, we realize that it is such a tall order. How many of the 15 virtues can we say we actually exhibit? Who is to say that those are the only virtues of love? Who is to say that those are the right virtues of Love? Yet when we use the word, only we as individuals know exactly what we mean. Yes a universal concept exists, but its experience is different from person to person. We must respect that. When we begin to see that then we will truly begin to follow the two greatest commandments.

However, since man is so ‘imperfect’, what chances does he have of ever loving God with all his being? I mean if we are to love God truly, it would mean everything we do, say and think would all have to be centred on God. How many of us would be able to manage it? It is such a tall order for man, isn’t it? Thus, it is easier to follow the other smaller laws and keep following them till we die. Because we have erected barriers, we fail to experience a truly personal relationship with God. We are told we are so inadequate as human beings that we need an intermediary. Thus no one can get to the Father, but by this intermediary. God does not want our money (the famous tithe, or offering which just goes into the church leaders’ pockets for upkeep) or our meaningless words that are spoken often out of habit than real communication with Him which we call prayers; he does not want us to worship Him; he does not want sacrifices, fasting or devotionals. He just wants our love; love for him and love for each other. Nothing more, nothing less.
To love God, we must do so unconditionally. That means the basis for loving God must not be fear, or for the sake of perceived rewards in Heaven or escape from Eternal Damnation in Hell. That is the true meaning of God’s message. To do this successfully, we must accept that God has put no conditions. He wants us to love Him because it feels right to us; not because someone has told us we have to; not because we are afraid to go to Hell; not because we expect that we will be rewarded in Heaven; not because we wish to gain eternal life; not because we want to be prosperous and have abundance.

[Yung Taikun(Wathafuc)]

I always say YHWH gave people the truth in scripture and the devil came along and said let me rearrange and organise it for you and call it religion. With regards to loving YHWH I don't think it's just a matter of saying you love him and then spend the rest of your days singing and dancing as if thats what YHWH wants. Ironically YHWH gives us the pre-conditions for the love we have for him but the most religious zealots say those pre-conditions are useless and done away with and faith is all we need. I think the main problem is the word 'love' itself which in today's religious circles is erroneaosly miscontrued as 'if it feels good to you and seems real then it's okay'. If you look at the word Love in hebrew(ahavah) it has a totally different connotation

[genga]

[QUOTE=deosstheguru;78633]

We are told we are so inadequate as human beings that we need an intermediary.

[QUOTE]


Some one said. the greatest illusion is that you are a nobody

[deosstheguru]

Some one said. the greatest illusion is that you are a nobody

That's right. Religious leaders put the 'fear of God' in all of us to keep us under control. I reached a stage where I said enough was enough. The Creator loves me as I am and the Creator could not have made me any different. All my perceived flaws are what make me beautiful, unique and and adorable in my Creator's presence.

[deosstheguru]

I always say YHWH gave people the truth in scripture and the devil came along and said let me rearrange and organise it for you and call it religion. With regards to loving YHWH I don't think it's just a matter of saying you love him and then spend the rest of your days singing and dancing as if thats what YHWH wants. Ironically YHWH gives us the pre-conditions for the love we have for him but the most religious zealots say those pre-conditions are useless and done away with and faith is all we need. I think the main problem is the word 'love' itself which in today's religious circles is erroneaosly miscontrued as 'if it feels good to you and seems real then it's okay'. If you look at the word Love in hebrew(ahavah) it has a totally different connotation

That's why I believe the scripture is written in our 'Hearts' not in any book. The books are just snippets of individuals sharing what they believe is their scripture. (Thousands of years later I may have my musings considered scripture by the people who will be around then. LOL.)
So the journey must start from inside. How can you love your neighbour as you love yourself when you don't know who you are? When you are simply living other people's lives?

Thats why I say a universal concept exists, but no one can tell you what it is, but when it hits you, you will know. Not the infatuation we are so used to calling love. To truly love YHWH or the Creator as I prefer to call the Supreme Being, we must want to, not have to or need to. That then is not love. It is a marriage of convenience.
The connotations of ahavah you are talking about are those the ones that are linked to the Echad (oneness or unity, or union) as the love that seeks union with Havayah?(My little exposure to Kabbalah!) If so that in essence is what the true message behind the Yoga Sutra is. Seek Union with the Supreme Being, but several methods are prescribed so as to suit the uniqueness of individuals.
Union (love) with the Supreme Being is a unique experience which no book can ever tell you. You have to experience it to know it. There are no two ways about it. Reading of scripture will not help unless you are willing to apply the prescriptions. Knowing the path and walking the path are two different things.

[genga]

Some one said. the greatest illusion is that you are a nobody

That's right. Religious leaders put the 'fear of God' in all of us to keep us under control. I reached a stage where I said enough was enough. The Creator loves me as I am and the Creator could not have made me any different. All my perceived flaws are what make me beautiful, unique and and adorable in my Creator's presence.

that must have been quite a realization for you to strip away the fear factors; fear of unknown, death, judgments, hell, insecurities, that keep and have kept man in chains for so long, and allow yourself to be

[genga]

maybe I should have said, strip away the garments of fear instead of "fear factors", to make it more picturesque

[genga]

I am on a roll .... seconds upon my last post I came across this lyric from a Jim Morrison song on a different forum:

I tell you this,
No eternal reward will forgive us now
For wasting the dawn.

Back in those days,
Everything was simpler and more confused.
One summer night, going to the pier,
I ran into two young girls.
The blonde was called Freedom,
The dark one, Enterprise.
We talked and they told me this story:

Now listen to this,
I'll tell you about Texas Radio and the Big Beat.
Soft driven slow and mad,
Like some new language.

Reaching your head
With the cold, sudden fury
Of a divine messenger.
Let me tell you about heartache
And the loss of god.
Wondering, wondering
In hopeless night.
Out here in the perimeter
There are no stars,
Out here we is stoned
Immaculate.


I dont know what it means will need an injection of herb to grasp what this guy wrote but I felt it tying in a little with the talk here or maybe just the first line hmm i dont know

[deosstheguru]

that must have been quite a realization for you to strip away the fear factors; fear of unknown, death, judgments, hell, insecurities, that keep and have kept man in chains for so long, and allow yourself to be

It was not easy. It is a journey I truly began in 1996 at the ripe old age of 21. I made a point to understand as many of the world religions as I could. There I found a commonality, as well as major focal differences. It then hit me that it was all a matter of interpretation and personal experience. Thus though I respect insitutionalised religion, I reject it totally. I consider myself as having all religion, but no religion, for I know that great wisdom is to be found in the Bible, Koran, Gita, Sutras, Vedas, Tao Te Ching, Chaos etc, but at the same time traditions and cultural specific ideas are also infused. It is these that often dilute the true messages contained in these marvelous texts. That is why personal experience is such an important factor. The Kabbalah, by far presents the closest view that i hold for it encourages reason and the rejection of absurd suppositions, however well written they may be.

[genga]

It was not easy. It is a journey I truly began in 1996 at the ripe old age of 21. I made a point to understand as many of the world religions as I could. There I found a commonality, as well as major focal differences. It then hit me that it was all a matter of interpretation and personal experience. Thus though I respect insitutionalised religion, I reject it totally. I consider myself as having all religion, but no religion, for I know that great wisdom is to be found in the Bible, Koran, Gita, Sutras, Vedas, Tao Te Ching, Chaos etc, but at the same time traditions and cultural specific ideas are also infused. It is these that often dilute the true messages contained in these marvelous texts. That is why personal experience is such an important factor. The Kabbalah, by far presents the closest view that i hold for it encourages reason and the rejection of absurd suppositions, however well written they may be.

In your posts there seem to be a stress on having a 'personal experience' with God, with Love. How do you mean? I am supposing people are interpreting it differently. The first time I read it I thought of the time I got saved (ha how funny that now sounds). It was a feeling that can be described in those words, an 'experience' with God,.. the holy spirit touched me yali yali, or having a "personal relationship with my Father" ha ... . Is that what you mean?