BEING FREE:

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 3: Being Free — Release: clarity of consciousness.

Matthew 5:4, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.”

SM 23, 25, “Most people will not undertake the search for God wholeheartedly unless driven thereto by trouble of some kind… by comfort the Bible means the experience of the Presence of God, which is the end of all mourning.”

DPWY 61, “I am grateful for challenges that lead me beyond my extremity to God’s opportunity.”

PC 50, “Healed are those who weep for their frustrated desire; they shall see the face of fulfillment in a new form.”

Matthew 7:1-12, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged… first take the log out of your own eye… do not throw your pearls before swine… everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate… the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

8-limbs Niyama (observances)

HTKG 151, “One achieves purification of the heart, cheerfulness of mind, the power of concentration, control of the passions and fitness for vision of the Atman.”

8-fold path: Right thinking

BP 118, “The object of the Path factor right thinking is an ultimate reality, the reality which appears at the present moment.”

SUGGESTED READING:

SM 23-25, 108-131.  DPWY 60-61, 134-145.  PC 50-52.  HTKG 143-159.  BP 118-119.
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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