BEING FAITH-FILLED!

ATTITUDES OF BEING

Based Upon

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT

a thematic approach

Background:

            Found in the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 5, 6 & 7, the Sermon covers the essentials of Jesus’ teachings.
            The Beatitudes, verses 3-10 of chapter 5, are not only the introduction but the framework or essence around which the Sermon is developed.  The remaining verses discuss Jesus’ understanding of the “Blessed” state of the Beatitude, “Attitudes of Being”, but the order is reversed. 

UNIVERSAL TRUTH:          

            In the Beatitudes, Jesus parallels a universal theme found in all of the world’s religions.  Direct correlation is found in the Budha’s 8-fold path and the 8-limbs of Raja Yoga from the Hindu tradition.

Session 9: Being Faith Filled – Faith: consciousness of God alone.

Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

SM 36, 38, “To ‘see’ in the sense referred to here, signifies spiritual perception… that capacity to apprehend the true nature of being … purity is recognizing God alone as the only real Cause, and the only real Power in existence.”

DPWY 67, “Don’t let the apparent block the real… what the eyes report is determined by what the mind believes.”

PC 62, “Aligned with the One are those whose lives radiate from a core of love; they shall see God everywhere.”

Matthew 5:27-37, “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart… it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell… anyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery…  Do not swear at all… Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No.’”

SM 64, “What really matters is thought… any outward act is but the sequel to a thought, and that the type of thought which we allow to become habitual will sooner or later find expression…”

8-limbs: Dharna (concentration)

HTKG 173, “…is holding the mind within a center of spiritual consciousness in the body, or fixing it on some divine form, either within the body or outside it.”

8-fold path: Right effort

BP 120, “It is the condition for perseverance with the investigation and study of the reality appearing at the present moment…”

SUGGESTED READING:

SM 36-40, 63-73.  DPWY 67-68, 88-96.  PC 62-64.  HTKG 171-173.  BP 120.

THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT, Emmet Fox. (SM)

DISCOVER THE POWER WITHIN YOU, Eric Butterworth (DPWY)

PRAYERS OF THE COSMOS, Neil Douglas-Klotz (PC)

HOW TO KNOW GOD: The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali,   Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood (HTKG)

THE BUDDHA’S PATH, Nina van Gorkom (BP)

Rev. Matthew E. Long – Peace Unity Network, Box 837, Clarkston, MI 48347 – (248) 891-4365

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