Note from Zoe: Yesterday I had a personal conversation with Jesus who was enlightening my friend and I on taking ‘right action’, particularly in regards to health. Buddha took this further when we ‘spoke’. The capital letters are his.
Conversations with Buddha and Zoe: Right Action for Health
Buddha: Yesterday Zoe, you heard my colleague speak to you about the need for right action and proper rest. Let me recap for everyone.
‘Right action’ is when you are choosing to take a course, undertake the course, when it is right for you. Not right for another, but right for you. Of course nothing that could ever be truly right action for you could involve harming another because that is not how you are designed. Right action is when you choose to truly fulfill yourself and take steps to achieve that. It is through this right action, together with right reason and circumstance, that health and well-being are promoted. Quite simply deep fulfillment makes illness impossible.
Right action makes illness a fleeting guest in the house of the body. You are learning this Zoe. The fulfillment needs to be deep and deeply personal to the individual. Whatever it is! Picking up a needle and thread, climbing a mountain, watching an apple grow, making a deal. It is only through deep fulfillment- unique to every individual- that illness is made a hasty guest.
Rest is important too. However, rest WHEN THE BODY IS TIRED! Many of you today rest when your mind is tired. The body must still be rewarded for giving you a vehicle in which you exist. Move the body during the day till it is tired. If you return from work and you feel tired asked yourself who is tired? Your body? Your mind? Your spirit? This is important. Rest the BODY when tired. Rest the mind when the mind is tired. But do not forget the needs of the body, if actually your body is never tired by your work. This is very important if you wish illness to stay infrequently, if at all.
Now WHEN the body is tired- REST. But the mind will need to facilitate this rest, otherwise all that will be experienced is a temporary cessation of movement without deep regeneration. Practically rest when your body is tired and ENJOY it. Even if it’s the flu- enjoy giving the body what it needs. This mental and emotional willingness to physically rest promotes deep regeneration. And, if the body is tired, this is what it needs. As a course of right action, give it this.
Be mindful though of over inactivity- a problem I see as I look on. The body can’t be tired if not worked, unless ill or undergoing deep regenerative transformation and healing. The body cannot be healthful if its needs are not met- to move. Nor can you if you are not giving yourself fulfillment through right action. This is a process that needs to be relearned to accommodate the shift in lifestyle that has occurred.
Conversations with Zoe and Buddha: Service By BEing not Doing
Buddha: It has been a while since you engaged with me Zoe. Your life has been taken up by self and selfless work and action. As you, and others like you, work to bring yourself into harmony with All that is, it becomes easier for others. Those of you doing this now are like pioneers; trailblazers who walk a path that allows others to walk after you. How does this work? By BEing, you energetically entrain others that coexist/coincide with you physically as well as through the remit of your work. You, and others, need not DO anything other than allow that which is existing in your space and time to BE and eventually flow from you.
There will be others who will read this and recognize this in themselves. This is good. I say to you, you do not need to DO anything with this unless urged from within. You need to worship the sacred, the eternal, the vivacity of life. It is by living and doing that, that you do the same service as others who lift humanity through their physical daily actions and work. So let us be clear on this. There is just you and your honoring of that BEing, that space within. Give it life, honor and respect and you do your spiritual work as you occupy your time on earth whatever your physical deed and action.
Jesus: The time is now to rest your arms against your fellow man. The time for destruction based on separation (you there, me here) is over. Unite.
This isn’t just warring parties but for each individual.
Who carries destruction through separation in his/her mind. End the discrimination. End the bitterness and envy towards others. End this now and you will be freed from the coming wave.
So for today work to see the similarities in one another. Resolve to explore what you share and not desire to withhold apart.
Jesus: There is much talk about “Race” in your culture today. So much associated with this. Your past dictating your social future, etc. In spirit we are all one with no concern over pigment of skin, caste and creed, kith and kin. Unite as one and you shall find peace within. Your skin is temporary. It sheds, renews and eventually will lose its form and you will find yourself with us, without any thought of it. Rejoice for this truth can be yours now. Celebrate the differences in form that you have for so few years. Work today to let go of mind or social based judgements. We are all one. Learn to look for this in those that are “different” and you will move closer to us.
Conversation with Jesus and Zoe: Alleviate Suffering
Jesus: The suffering of many can be greatly alleviated by the few. Ensure the people you place in power represent your desires in relieving the pain of many, either by direct action, lobbying or simply standing up and speaking. The time to take a stand for what is important is now. For those of you without a voice, without faith and hope of relief, understand that your time will come. Your suffering does not go unnoticed and you are never unloved.
For those of you with voice, with means or capability, take a stand for your fellow men. Your fate is their fate. Consider that at the day of reckoning your individual lives may be measured against the fate of your peoples as a whole. I say this not to instill fear or guilt but to simply provide you with an opportunity to refocus, make choices and serve the whole rather than the self in isolation of the world around you.
Do what you can with peace, faith and hope as your bastions. My work is through you workings.
Jesus: It is often asked of me why do I need to do this work? Why can’t it be easy? Better? Different!
Work provides a focus for time. It provides challenges, thrills, highs and lows. It means productivity and ultimately civilisation as you understand it.
If everyone let go of work your worlds would become chaos. Without focus, discipline and effort humans do not aspire to greatness.
So work is a way of striving for something better, brighter and bigger than you have.
This does not mean that I condone workaholism or results based efforts. No. I merely bring understanding on the importance of focus, effort, discipline. So why not work?
More importantly learn to love your work. Try this for one week – consciously engaging and positively expecting good things to happen. Focus, effort and discipline can lift you to higher and greater things so do not dampen these talents with negative thinking towards your boss, job or colleagues.
Once you are striving for greater states it will become easier to meet me. And this ultimately is my work for you.
Jesus: Understand there are basically two ways of being: hopeful or pessimistic.
What can seem like a no win situation is only the case at the time. If you stick with a situation long enough all works out in the end. With this knowledge there is no need for pessimism in there?
Quitting on hope leads to pessimism and pessimism isn’t really needed as all things that can seem hopeless end up resolved to some level in the end.
So instead ask for help to remain hopeful. Ask me when hope has gone to help you find the hope and there you will gain freedom and relief once more.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: All Is Impermanent
Buddha: Begin now to look at the world the way we see it. This world is of temporary form- always shifting, always moving out, shifting each of your every lives. This world that you live in is bigger, bolder and greater than the individual life that you currently inhabit.
With this knowledge learn to respect the earth. Learn to keep the earth’s greatness in your mind and with every choice that you make be aware of consequence. I say this to each and every one of you.Yet do not become fixed on the permanence of damage or sustainability or even on life itself.
Think of yourself as in transit. You are always moving from one form into another. Birth, life stages, days, places that you visit- always moving in and out of form. Not just within the lifetime of the soul but within the lifetime even of the day. One moment is always different from the next, yet you remain. So treat your host with respect and dignity, your host the earth. You are traveling through this lifetime and leave it well.
Begin to recognize that there are those that have gone before you who knew and understood this and worked to leave no footprint of themselves upon the earth. Take a step towards this. This will do two things: Firstly this will give the respect to the earth that it deserves. Secondly this will begin to train you in the nature of your reality right now as you sit and read these words. This moment, whilst real now, will be gone in a moment from now. Take from it what you need. Recognize the impermanence of all and become still and settled within that. Great is the suffering of the many who try and fix points through time, through desire.
Whilst great things can be achieved within a lifetime, within a year, within a month, a week, a day, all is just single moments threaded together. All is impermanent.
I taught to think of moments, of actions, of words spoken to others, of thoughts, all of these as beads on string. Each bead represents that thought, that moment, that desire, that action. This will be the legacy that the soul will carry forth from you. You will with you a string of beads and on that string will be your decisions whether you have been conscious of them or not. This is what you will take to what id beyond form. I taught that this is all that is important- a string of beads- and that isn’t even real in form but metaphysical.
Today I will teach you to value the impact of your life, your choices. Delve into your thoughts, your desires to help you become aware of the impact of your life and your choices, conscious or not.
Life is different today. Different in the fact that impact is greater, desire is greater, restlessness and suffering is greater and this happens at a time when many of you have more of that which is in form. Therefore switch your focus from your daytime job to give you things, material forms, and instead focus on your inner world. This is your real job and it matters not what you do in the world of form. What matters is how. Bring conscious awareness into your life, into your moment and learn to keep the focus on your internal world. learn to become aware of when you become out of yourself and learn to hold the moments where you are inside. Inside your body, inside your life, inside what you are doing- this is where you meet the present. This is where you are doing you inner work.
Conversation with Buddha and Zoe: Where are you? An Exercise
Buddha: So reader, with a pen and paper in front of you draw a square and put you name inside the square.
Now where are you, are you in your body or are you in the square? Are you in both? For those of you who are acquainted with the sensations of energy, are you pulled into the square therefore connected to it or do you simply feel nothing at all?
Now draw a circle under the square, put your name in this. Draw a line connecting the square to the circle. Where are you now? You are in your body, you are in the square, you are also in the circle and you have made a connection.
Now below the circle draw a square and write the name of your sibling or the name of your friend. Where are you now? You are in your body, you are in your square, your circle, the connections between your square and your circle. Are you in this square with your sibling or friends name? No for you can’t. For those of you who are sensitive to energies do you feel attracted or repelled to the square with another name in it? This square, with the other name in it, is a form that is separate to your own yet can you enter that form? No. You can depict that form in letters and shape. This has often been the case with art but can you enter the form of another? No.
So you cannot enter the form of another. But you can enter other forms of yourself. Now I will try not to speak in riddles as this is a subject that I could speak about for many hours.
You, whilst here on earth, have a body yet you are able to put parts of yourself into form that is outside of your body. You do this with your work. You do this with your food when you create a meal. With every creative project you put part of yourself and you become linked to that creative project. So you create a trail whilst living; a trail of essence or, at least those who are working and connected to their essence, create this.
There is a piece of you in everything you will do, in everything you have ever done. And this is deliberately been designed to be the case. You are unbelievably creative and invest you in everything you do. Yet the great experience for most of you is life lives on automatic pilot or with resistance. Would you change what you did and what you do if you knew that part of yourself became invested in it and connected to it?
This is my question for all of you today. You cannot escape your actions, the choices. This is so. At all times you can also change form. This is so. So when you realize that you have been drawing squares through deeds and realize that you do not like the fact that part of you is invested in a square then you can simply start from that point to draw a circle or any other shape you fancy. For whilst you need to reconcile what has been done with what you do, with the present and with where you are, know that you can also use the present to create a new.
Conversation with Master Buddha and TMichael: Gay Marriage
TM: I’ve been reading news accounts of the battle between those who favor gay marriage being sanctioned under law and those who oppose it. Some oppose it on religious grounds and some on biological grounds in that it doesn’t facilitate pro-creation naturally. What is your view on the religious grounds for or against gay marriage?
Master Buddha: If a man and a woman have sexual intercourse, there is a probability pregnancy will result, and a second probability that child birth will follow. This is commonly known and understood in modern society. That wasn’t always the case—many centuries ago it was a mystery how offspring were conceived by the vast majority of human population. There arose from the mystery many superstitions around conception and child birth. Conception and child birth require the engagement of male and female contributing each their part. This is a biologic fact. It doesn’t require a social bond to be successful. As a matter of modern fact, it doesn’t require that they ever physically engage in person (artificial insemination).
TM: Ok, I’m with you so far. Creating babies follows sex between a man and a woman, or by artificial means. A long time ago, and I hope a very long time ago, people didn’t quite make the connection and so developed superstitious beliefs around baby-making.
Master Buddha: So, by biologic fact a gay male marriage cannot produce offspring between the two partners, but can enlist a female outside the marriage to perform that role. The same of course then for two female partners. This means that gay couples are capable of producing offspring by proxy of a third partner if they so desire. This is the same for heterosexual couples who are unable to conceive a child. It merely accommodates the biologic fact.
TM: If it’s a biologic fact, then how does it become a religious issue or even a social concern?
Master Buddha: I’m pulling this apart for you, because it can get very tangled. At some point in human history there was a shift in social belief that the chief role of marriage between a man and woman was to create offspring. To ensure that their offspring would not just be running around in reckless abandon they also created social convention around the single-family household and the early beginnings of property rights. The child belonged to the parents and the household and was subject to their supervision and responsibility, and they together as a household subject to the larger society and community.
TM: You’re saying it was a social evolution, not a religious one. Is that correct?
Master Buddha: It is difficult to separate religion from social, because religion is a social enterprise. This is why this subject is so impossible for some people to intellectually grasp. I will continue now to explain.
Religion is a social enterprise, which means that humans have created religions and formed into social sects in order to propagate their religious beliefs and social tenets.
TM: Hold on a second, almost all religious people will say that religions were created by God, or Gods through prophets or enlightened intermediaries (present company included), and that they are followers of that particular religious teaching. God laid the foundation and they followed his word to build on it.
Master Buddha: Please refer to other conversations we’ve had on the subject of truth and how it is convoluted with faith and a state of not knowing everything. Humans will posit truth on a great many things, but that doesn’t make it true. It is merely their belief in what is true. Let’s assume for a moment that religions were founded on direct expression of truth from God or Gods. Humans, as you suggest, interpret that and build on it to make it a social belief system. The filter applied is still of human origin, and therefore subject to the ignorance of humanity.
TM: I don’t mean to stray from our topic, but this seems important to clear up, because so much of what follows is dependent upon this point. You’re saying that religions are social institutions and are birthed and propagated as social tenets, not the word of God.
Master Buddha: I don’t wish to belabor the point of origin of religious beliefs, and so for our discussion I said we could assume that religions spring from the word of God or Gods. Humans the take that word and add to it their interpretations and filter it into social conventions by which they live. That means that religions become social entities imbued with human constructs of socialized behavior. May we continue?
TM: Yes, but maybe we have to come back to this at some point.
Master Buddha: The great problem for humanity in building laws that govern society is that they cannot separate social convention from religious teachings. Gay marriage as it relates to law must pass through the filters of social convention, which is conditioned by religious beliefs. So you can easily see the conundrum. And this provokes a challenge to the truths held by those who believe that the word of God prohibits such human relations.
For them the syllogism flows like this:
God has said that the purpose of a man|woman relationship is to create babies and form single-family households and rear their offspring.
Gay couples cannot create babies directly.
Therefore, gay marriage is not sanctioned by God, and must be excluded from human options.
For religious believers, denying this logic is tantamount to denying the word of God. It will then undermine a society based upon the word of God and eventually lead to the ruin of society. How it reconciles with many other words of God in which it produces conflict and contradiction is inconvenient, but doesn’t cause their belief to waver. They must default to the only intellectual escape possible, which is that God is mysterious and knows more than humankind, and so it isn’t the place of humanity to question this contradiction. It is for humanity to follow the things that are clear as well as the things that aren’t without fail. God will sort it out later.
TM: Yes, I believe you’ve stated that correctly according to what they believe. But is that correct?
Master Buddha: The question is presented incorrectly. Let me re-frame it. What is the role of religion for humanity and what is the role of social convention in creating laws that govern human behavior?
TM: So, you won’t just come right out with an answer to settle the question will you?
Master Buddha: I’m taking an approach that will help you understand the issue and formulate an answer. As we have stated previously in these conversations, the role of religion is to represent spiritual theories for individuals to ponder in an effort to expand their imaginations and range of possibilities for living a better life. Religions form from spiritual ideas and concepts, that in the pure state apply to an individual. Religions become social institutions because they are comprised of like-minded individuals. The purpose of which is to share and discuss the spiritual idea and concepts.
Humans have taken religions in this social form and expanded them into governance entities. Therein lies the problem. It sets up massive conflicts between different religions and between members of society who subscribe to those different religious beliefs. The only way for a system of religious-dominant laws to work without constant and violent conflict is too segregate inhabitants by religion and assign each to their own geographic place. Since that isn’t practical today, you must have a different way. Democratic societies have created a separation of religion and government. Ideally, this should work in a pluralistic religious society. But, it doesn’t work as perfectly as intended, because those who are aligned with religious beliefs that have been interpreted to guide their daily lives in an integrated society, immediately come in conflict with behaviors they find inconsistent with their beliefs. The resulting dissonance cries for resolution. They seek to alter laws to remove the dissonance.
TM: I can see why you’re not so popular with Christians and Muslims. From what I observe both religious groups would love for everyone to line up with them to rule the world according to their beliefs. In that scenario they could outlaw all the behaviors inconsistent with their beliefs and presumably find the harmony in governance.
Master Buddha: Well, secretly all religious groups wish for that scenario, but some are more vocal than others.
TM: Years ago when I visited Nepal and spent some time in Kathmandu, I noticed the incredible non-hostile melding of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and Christians. But back to our topic. How do we bring this conversation to a conclusion?
Master Buddha: Gay marriage could only be subject to religious scrutiny within a purely religious context. Religious context is confined to individuals and their peers for introspection. Social institutions that are erected for governance must take into consideration that there are many types of life styles and it is the responsibility of government to create laws that promote harmony among the differences while removing violence. The fact that gays must seek legal sanction within your laws informs us that the separation between government and religion is not yet a reality.
TM: Will it ever be?
Master Buddha: It’s possible of course, but only when people representing religions surrender to living peacefully with others with different beliefs and abstain from their agendas of hegemony in thought and behavior.
