Three kinds of people
I was invited to a dinner party recently. The hosting family is from India. He is a consultant at the World Bank, and has a private practice teaching Yoga; she has her own business selling some wares, I don’t remember what. They are living very comfortably, and seem the perfect example of prosperity in America and its amazing social arrangement to provide upward mobility and to get wealth that wasn’t inherited. While they may disagree with me, they have graduated to society’s upper-crust.
So we sat around their lush living room introducing ourselves, beginning with my friend, who invited me, introducing the host and hostess. Each person followed suit introducing themselves. Everyone did so by trying to sound humble while telling of what they do, what they accomplish, how they prosper financially and have made their way up the social ladder.
I was very tempted to get nervous at all their accomplishments and endorsements of each other, since mine were nothing by comparison, “I’m working on my sister’s house.” Earlier in life I would have froze up in intimidation and tried to be a mouse until I could escape the presence of the shame-filled atmosphere. But I was reminded of a thought that held me steady and enabled me to enjoy myself and even add to the social gathering.
This lesson I had learned many years ago, but it had remained only a mental precept until that gathering a couple of weeks ago. It is simply based upon something God told Rebecca when she was pregnant with twins, Esau and Jacob. “And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gen. 25:23). The vain and profane Esau and progeny would serve the clever and one-day spiritual Jacob and his descendents. This is a wonderful hope and a powerful principle.
There exist three kinds of people in the world: those who live on the physical plane, those in the intellectual domain, and those of the spiritual. The folks in the physical realm focus their attention on looks and sensation. He wants the muscular physique, she desire to look dainty and pretty. He wants to be tough, she to be comfortable. He wants the car that roars to everyone around that he’s coming or has arrived, she that dream house that helps prop her up in the eyes of others who are predisposed to love the same things. This kind doesn’t go beyond the five senses; their appetites are in the senses; their satisfactions are found here. These qualities seem harmless in themselves, but they produce cowards in the presence of their superiors, the intellectual.
Those who have the mental faculties to concentrate their talents in the intellect will always be in charge of those whose talents don’t go beyond the physical. That nation that excels in education and technology will rule those nations with less emphasis or opportunity in learning. The intelligent ones will always be the boss of the physically strong. The brain will always control the brawn, and cleverness will outdo the cleavage.
But the highest level we have yet to speak of. The spiritual person will always rule over the intellectual and the sensual person. The spiritual has a peace in the storms of life that are incomprehensible to the others who suffer a bitter and unshakable self-centered nature that goads the soul. They labor under a torment that nothing on earth can quell, not even intellectual attainment and accolades. Recognition and praise, discovery and the satisfaction of curiosity, resolution of nature’s mysteries, all fail of gaining peace of mind, which can only come through bowing to God’s love. God speaks His mysteries to those who seek Him because the mind of the finite has connected with the mind of the Infinite, and those who live otherwise vainly seek to discover the reason of things in life, which the humble child of God has learned in the service of the Master Teacher. The two lesser groups, who have mastered the body and the mind, but not self, envy and vainly compete with the sanctified ones who, having surrendered to God and who being converted and made like a little child, become His channel to bless the world.
The converted and surrendered ones, who have learned spirituality through hardship and loneliness, are the true masters of the human race. It’s not enough to wear the religious garb or promulgate the popular theology; those who do this are only the sensual and intellectual trying to be the spiritual person without having suffered under the difficult lessons of life in order to obtain peace with God. While it is true, that the priesthood has, from the beginning of recorded history, been aloof and held in highest esteem, it has only been the biggest scam producing of the worst evils. It was a false priesthood, and in reality it was again only intellectuals ruling the weaker-minded.
The heart is the source of true spirituality. Mercy, faith, love, godliness, freedom, joy—hardly what appears can make world leadership, yet truly what has moved the world to real excellence. The heart, the spring of every right impulse, the seat of self-sacrificing love, humility, and honesty with self, which are the condition of all true learning, prepares its students to receive the lessons that not even the intellectuals can grasp, who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7). Those who discover firm reliance on God and His love discover the narrow gate to true success that so few enter into, much less ever find. Those who learn faith stumble upon truth, which weaving like a thin vein of gold its way through every right principle and action, leads on as a guide through all the temptations and resultant miseries that plague the intellectual and sensuous world.
They are not usually looked upon as great, yet they are sought out for answers. They usually tread among the lowly, but do not fear to mingle with the well to do. Their only purpose is to serve God first and others next, to be a blessing to the world. And their self-forgetful wisdom goes uncontested and is greatly appreciated by the whole world. And thus, God succeeds in blessing our race, and is satisfied.
“That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:31)
So we sat around their lush living room introducing ourselves, beginning with my friend, who invited me, introducing the host and hostess. Each person followed suit introducing themselves. Everyone did so by trying to sound humble while telling of what they do, what they accomplish, how they prosper financially and have made their way up the social ladder.
I was very tempted to get nervous at all their accomplishments and endorsements of each other, since mine were nothing by comparison, “I’m working on my sister’s house.” Earlier in life I would have froze up in intimidation and tried to be a mouse until I could escape the presence of the shame-filled atmosphere. But I was reminded of a thought that held me steady and enabled me to enjoy myself and even add to the social gathering.
This lesson I had learned many years ago, but it had remained only a mental precept until that gathering a couple of weeks ago. It is simply based upon something God told Rebecca when she was pregnant with twins, Esau and Jacob. “And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.” (Gen. 25:23). The vain and profane Esau and progeny would serve the clever and one-day spiritual Jacob and his descendents. This is a wonderful hope and a powerful principle.
There exist three kinds of people in the world: those who live on the physical plane, those in the intellectual domain, and those of the spiritual. The folks in the physical realm focus their attention on looks and sensation. He wants the muscular physique, she desire to look dainty and pretty. He wants to be tough, she to be comfortable. He wants the car that roars to everyone around that he’s coming or has arrived, she that dream house that helps prop her up in the eyes of others who are predisposed to love the same things. This kind doesn’t go beyond the five senses; their appetites are in the senses; their satisfactions are found here. These qualities seem harmless in themselves, but they produce cowards in the presence of their superiors, the intellectual.
Those who have the mental faculties to concentrate their talents in the intellect will always be in charge of those whose talents don’t go beyond the physical. That nation that excels in education and technology will rule those nations with less emphasis or opportunity in learning. The intelligent ones will always be the boss of the physically strong. The brain will always control the brawn, and cleverness will outdo the cleavage.
But the highest level we have yet to speak of. The spiritual person will always rule over the intellectual and the sensual person. The spiritual has a peace in the storms of life that are incomprehensible to the others who suffer a bitter and unshakable self-centered nature that goads the soul. They labor under a torment that nothing on earth can quell, not even intellectual attainment and accolades. Recognition and praise, discovery and the satisfaction of curiosity, resolution of nature’s mysteries, all fail of gaining peace of mind, which can only come through bowing to God’s love. God speaks His mysteries to those who seek Him because the mind of the finite has connected with the mind of the Infinite, and those who live otherwise vainly seek to discover the reason of things in life, which the humble child of God has learned in the service of the Master Teacher. The two lesser groups, who have mastered the body and the mind, but not self, envy and vainly compete with the sanctified ones who, having surrendered to God and who being converted and made like a little child, become His channel to bless the world.
The converted and surrendered ones, who have learned spirituality through hardship and loneliness, are the true masters of the human race. It’s not enough to wear the religious garb or promulgate the popular theology; those who do this are only the sensual and intellectual trying to be the spiritual person without having suffered under the difficult lessons of life in order to obtain peace with God. While it is true, that the priesthood has, from the beginning of recorded history, been aloof and held in highest esteem, it has only been the biggest scam producing of the worst evils. It was a false priesthood, and in reality it was again only intellectuals ruling the weaker-minded.
The heart is the source of true spirituality. Mercy, faith, love, godliness, freedom, joy—hardly what appears can make world leadership, yet truly what has moved the world to real excellence. The heart, the spring of every right impulse, the seat of self-sacrificing love, humility, and honesty with self, which are the condition of all true learning, prepares its students to receive the lessons that not even the intellectuals can grasp, who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:7). Those who discover firm reliance on God and His love discover the narrow gate to true success that so few enter into, much less ever find. Those who learn faith stumble upon truth, which weaving like a thin vein of gold its way through every right principle and action, leads on as a guide through all the temptations and resultant miseries that plague the intellectual and sensuous world.
They are not usually looked upon as great, yet they are sought out for answers. They usually tread among the lowly, but do not fear to mingle with the well to do. Their only purpose is to serve God first and others next, to be a blessing to the world. And their self-forgetful wisdom goes uncontested and is greatly appreciated by the whole world. And thus, God succeeds in blessing our race, and is satisfied.
“That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:31)
posted by David | 5:05 AM
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