Sequel 1 to How to Stop Worry and Stress Start Living Productively.

. Say, I am glad you agree substantially that salvation is in the spirit and not in the body. Your response - But the reality is that we are caught in a dualism warp. While on Earth we are the sheep and goat in one body. We are the good spirit and bad spirit in the one body. We are the Adam in us and the Christ in us. - tell me that you are at least awakening to or baptised in the spirit. I also appreciate your quandary But getting your spiritual bearing right does not and should not mean you forsake or alienate your worldly form and your worldly role. And you continue by providing your own answer So as we start to realise that within Christ's heavenly program is a Worldly program, we will start to ask ourselves how can we plan to have a more meaningful and productive and valuable life for us. We start by seeking to create value. We start by seeking to not stay stranded at the bottom of Nobb's Hill but to seek to reach the top. Aiming to reach the top of Nobb's Hill as a worldly pursuit is not contrary and in fact is a parallel objective to reaching the top of spiritual Mount Jerusalem. OF COURSE YOU CREATE THE VALUE FOR THE GLORY OF GOD IN THAT YOU USE IT TO HELP OTHERS AS WELL BUT NOT THE AGENTS OF SATAN. But I detect a hint of slight reservation or reticence as to the spiritual correctness at the tail end. Say, Let me therefore continue with a sequel to How to Stop Worry and Stress and let us call it by adding And Start Living Productively. Let us refresh ourselves where we finished off in the article - How to Stop Worry and Stress. We have (1) an eternal spiritual consciousness and (2) a mortal worldly consciousness. The eternal spiritual consciousness is the eternal awareness in the back drop that is dreaming the mortal worldly consciousnesses *or our worldly human existence+ and even dreaming the dream that our worldly human existence thinks that it is dreaming when it goes to sleep each night. We also note that the spiritual consciousness is selfless or egoless in contrast to the worldly consciousness which is the epitome of the selfish ego of man or son of Adam in Christian terms. What Jesus described as the Parable of You Reap what You Sow is just the same as the Immutable Law of Karma or Cause and Effect preached by the Buddha. What is described in Christianity as Jacobs Dream and the angels going up and down Jacobs Ladder is the same as the concept in Buddhism of rebirth in Samsara due to karmic residue. What this means is that there is no karmic consequences outside Jacobs Dream. Being in heaven after reaching the top of Jacobs ladder and walking through the pearly gates, means that you are no longer entrapped in Jacobs Dream. The word karma means action and its reaction. This means that the spirit consciousness has no action, since by definition, it has no separate identity or self. It is one and all and all in one in the spirit. It is the state metaphorically expressed as The Father, the Son and the Spirit, Loving God with all your heart, body and soul; Love your enemy; Love your neighbour, Love one another as the Page 1 of 5

Father and Jesus love us and When someone hits you on the cheek, you give him the other one. Any action is within the dream and not outside of it. Karma as in action and its consequence is within the dream or the dreaming. No action means no karma. No karma means never being trapped in the World of Samsara; which is just the Buddhist way of describing Jacobs Ladder. When we dream all the action is in the dreaming. The worldly consciousness is asleep and unaware. The spiritual consciousness is aware but is inert and inactive. The dreamer must be outside the dream or by definition it cannot be a dream. Please take some time to take stock of Jacobs Dream and the Parable of You Reap what You Sow and our state as the goat or son of Adam. You do not have to do it the Buddhist way; but as I have explained, it does not matter which path you take, if you are awakened to your spirit consciousness. Spiritual wisdom is above human words, labels and language. Are you ready? Your spiritual consciousness, your spirit son of God is allowed to dream (whether it is the dream of the worldly existence as son of man or the secondary dream being the purported dream of the son of man when the son of man is asleep). Your spiritual consciousness can live its or your dream as or through the worldly son of man but your spiritual consciousness, your spirit son of God must not be absorbed, immersed, entangled or lost in the dream! Otherwise, you have to go back to square one; for that would mean that you fail to understand the most important parable of all The Parable of the Lost Vagrant Wayward Prodigal Son! Do you understand? Check your answer. It means as a worldly being you have to live your worldly existence but (1) you have to make sure you do not create or generate bad karma and (2) you must be egoless in your worldly self. This is what it means by living your life for the glory of God. It means you are seeking your spirit (i.e. the kingdom of God) by not creating bad karma that will leave you stranded on Jacobs Ladder; and you are seeking to be unselfish or selfless or egoless (that is what seeking the righteousness of God is; for unless God is egoless how can he be righteous; for unless a Father loves his son unconditionally how can that love be righteous, as in the right sort of love?). So, if you want to seek good fortune you have to be egoless. In contrast selfishness will always lead to misfortune in this life or the next. There is no inhibition to acquiring wealth or being rich either in Buddhism or in Christianity. It is easier to understand in Buddhism because Buddha was born a Crown Prince. If wealth was objectionable Buddha would not have been rich and royal. Vimalakirti the lay person who epitomises spiritual wisdom surpassing even Manjushri the Bodhisattva of Wisdom was a very wealthy businessman. Anathapindika who donated Jeta Park to the Buddha was a very wealthy man. In anycase, in Buddhism there is no distinction between rich or poor, Zen is about the illusion behind duality, and more particularly about non-attachment to anything especially self or ego. It is the same in Christianity. Joseph of Arimathea who arranged for Jesus body to be dressed and bound and placed in a rich mans tomb was a very rich man. Zacchaeus who Jesus called out Page 2 of 5

Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house was the Chief Tax Collector and was a rich man. But he was not attached to his wealth. When the crowds murmured that he was a sinner, he said to Jesus Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold. If Zacchaeus was not egoless and not attached to his wealth, Jesus would not have then immediately affirmed Today, salvation has come to this house, because he is also a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost. Zacchaeus therefore had awakened to his spirit consciousness. [Refer Luke 19:2-10]. Most people misinterpret the passage about the rich man who asked Jesus what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Remember what Jesus said? Go your way, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross and follow Me. That rich man was sad and grieved as he had great possessions. Jesus then remarked How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God *Mark 10:17-23+. As I have said in How to Stop Worry and Stress - the kingdom of God is among us [Luke 17:21], in you and in me, not outside of you, not in the sky; heaven is in your spiritual consciousness. This passage was about non-attachment to worldly things, not attaching to the worldly consciousness or the worldly consciousness attaching to worldly possessions. That is, be like Zacchaeus. You can be rich, is the king, be the President but do not have an ego or be attached to your worldly wealth, power or possessions. Otherwise you are going beyond living the dream, dreaming the dream; you have become obsessed and lost in the dream! Furthermore, Jesus would not contradict himself. Which is why, my interpretation makes sense because it does equal justice to the Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25:14-29. I would not detail out this parable since it is your favourite and the one you quote often as evidence of Jesus instructing us to value-add and to be rich. What I need to do is to put in perspective several key points you fail to have due regard to (1) that one servant was given five talents, another three talents and the third was given one talent; i.e. to each according to his own ability (2) that even if one had no ability, that one could have had deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. (3) For everyone who has [whatever his ability and use it productively] more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have *use of his ability+ even what he has will be taken away. It is not really about making money or value-adding or that it is alright to endeavour to be rich per se for that would be missing the point about being egoless and not-attached like Zacchaeus. It is about not wasting whatever gifts you have but to use them to get rich, or qualify to be a doctor or be a tradesman or teacher, to help and assist others from their sufferings and entanglements in Samsara; whether it is poverty or sickness or homelessness. In Christian terms Jesus would ask rhetorically for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me. *Matthew 25:4243]. If you have the capacity and ability to make money, do it but do not be obsessed and lost in the pursuit such as to make it your idol and ego. In Buddhism of course the concept of from each according to his capacity and to each according to his need is inherent in the manner of teaching or instruction by or through expedient means. Buddha only taught by expedient means. Therefore his teachings cannot be taken literally! The Bodhisattva practice is based on the Six Paramitas. The 1st four Paramitas (charity, precepts, love and forgiveness and industriousness) are basically what I would group under Morality; and the next two are Meditation and Wisdom. Let us just focus on industriousness or assiduousness. Page 3 of 5

The Zen explanation goes like this. Zen uses nature around us to contemplate in this regard. Water is the essence of life. There is no life without water. Water will always gravitate to its lowest level. That is the principle of gravity. That is why mountain streams all flow to the seas or oceans. Similarly, worldly human mortal self-ego life is like water. Self-ego and the pride that goes with it can only sink mankind. The way men live their selfish lives can only gravitate them into the oceans or depths of despair. History repeats itself because that is the natural path of gravity. Pride goes before a fall. There will be the good and the bad, the happy and the sad and War and Peace. There will be your Shi Huang Ti, Stalin, Hitler and Attila the Hun, and your Einstein, Beethoven and Mother Teresa; and you will have your Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha. But you must not be obsessed by any of these things or them. In Zen we say that your mind must not dwell or abide anywhere but only the immediate moment of the present before you. Anything beyond the immediate moment of the present is not existent anywhere, least of all your mind. The immediate moment of the present is the closest that your dreaming will ever come close to being in any sense reality. Even then it is still an illusion in your mind or your dreaming. The past is water under the bridge and the future depends on present and past karma. I repeat that you must not be obsessed with anything not even Buddha and the like; not even yourself. In Zen we say that you have the kill the Buddha that obsesses or infatuates your mind. In Christianity it is expressed as Thou Shall Have No Idol before Me. If All is One and One is All, even God becomes an Idol if he is expressed as a distinct separate disparate one; instead of being joint and several; as in See God in Everything and Everything in God. It is no wonder that God as a Christian postulant is expressed, the best that we can as humans and in human language, as the Holy Trinity The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. To be egoless requires that you not to be obsessed, lost or entangled in the dreaming. As is said in Hindu Vedanta, Brahma the actor was lost in the plot (Mara) of the play (dream). He began to think that he is the creator. Water has an ego. The way we can lift water out of its ego from the ocean is to condense the water by evaporation so that it rises egolessly to the space up in the atmosphere. But like Jacobs Ladder most will still return through rebirth as raindrops and end up in streams and rivers on a journey gravitating to the seas and oceans again! That is why in life we have to be industrious and hard-working, to defy gravity, to ascend up the mountain, to get up to the peak where we meet the sky; for egolessness is like the air up there in the atmosphere. That is why in the Chinese tradition, children are only taught two values filial piety and to work hard. Remember the rule against being idle or sleeping during the day? We are taught that we can only enjoy and celebrate after a hard days work. We must not enjoy and celebrate as if pleasure were work; for that would be like the lazy water gravitating to the sea. So whether we are industrious making money or farming or teaching we are doing so because we want to make our lives worthwhile and not waste it (since time cannot be stalled or reversed) gravitating to the seas and oceans of our karmic life; for the flow of life is in one direction; before we know it we have reached the ocean. Whatever our capacity, whatever our ability, our industry has no meaning if it does not enable us to ascend the mountain, up to the sky, and away from the sea. For, fortune is not real fortune unless it makes us egoless in the process. When we cling to fortune or are obsessed and are lost in it in idolatry and ego we will end up gravitating to the sea. Love. Page 4 of 5

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