Chapter 2
This chapter is about the meaning of miracles and Jesus’s response to the greedy merchants in the temple.
Miracles, to me, used to be about deeds that an ordinary human being cannot achieve. According to Beas Mystics or Teachers come into the world with allotted tasks to perform and they may use miracles in order to support delivering their message and tasks. They do not come to the word to simply perform miracles.
I agree, however, that miracles may not be deeds that an everyday human being would not be able to perform. When observing an illusionist he seems to be performing miracles, however, it is only an illusion to the limited vision. It looks that way, though, at the time.
So, I wonder, if Mystics are but human beings with extended consciousness and vision, and us, spectators, we just look in amazement only because we are lost to our learnt limitations.
Thinking about the tasks of Mystics and Teachers, I remember a thought that showed up during a mediation. It went like this: ‘I am not here to show you tricks, I am here to show you the Way.’
Each time I think about the role of a Minister, this sentence comes to mind. I wish to become someone who can show the Way, who has the integrity and the clarity to do so. Each time I doubt my abilities, I hear his reassuring voice: ‘I will lead you there’.
Looking at history, merchandizing the teachings of the Mystics was often about personal gain of power and/or money. Seeing the ‘remains’ of what used to be the true teachings of various Mystics such as Jesus, Moses, Buddha, and Muhamad, they have completely lost their original meaning and became tools to control human consciousness.
I live in a region where religion was banned for over 50 years and where now religions, mostly mains stream Catholicism, are booming and collecting the faithful at an extreme rate. I understand now that socialism was just another religion where God was replaced by Big Brother. So, we never actually stopped looking for someone outside of us to tell us what to think or how to live our lives.
I often find it upsetting how bigotry can lead a person to condemn and crucify another person in the name of Love and God. It also shocks me how our fears of some loss or lack can lead us harming our fellow human beings with any means available to us.
At present I am reading a book about the origins of the separation of the Catholic Church starting in around 330AC, within the Roman Empire. Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great, made Christianity the official religion of the Empire only with one single reason: unification – in order to unite a great amount of people from various aground under one flag.
When it comes to teaching without a living Teacher, there always seem to be a gain to have. So, the teaching becomes philosophy or theosophy and matters of discussion without much personal experience of the Truth that should stem from within us. Therefore, we, followers become merchants of these misinterpreted ideas.
When Jesus angrily threw the merchants out of the temples what he communicated, in my opinion, by saying “…take these things, hence: make not my Father’s house and house of merchandise” , was that God’s business is not about personal gain in the physical. Though, we use such words like ‘prosperity’ or ‘growth’ when we talk about advancement on our spiritual journey, the blossoming is in our relationship with God.
When Jesus rides the merchants out of the temples, he also reminds us that the human body is the temple of the soul. He reminds us that we should not use it for pleasures in the physical but use it or a higher purpose, for our advancement in the spiritual. Our body is the Temple of God with which we can consciously worship God within.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
“”… for ye are the temple of the living God”
“The Lord has given us this human form just for one purpose: to realise Him.”