Good Morning Garden

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).

This true, interior soul-peace was known to the mystics as serenity, and they are never tired of telling us that serenity is the grand passport to the Presence of God; the sea as smooth as glass that is round about the Great White Throne. This is not to say that one cannot tackle even the most serious difficulties by prayer without having any serenity at all. But before you can make any true spiritual progress you must achieve serenity; and it is that fundamental tranquility of soul that Jesus refers to by the word peace; the peace that passes all human understanding.

The Peacemakers are those who bring about this peace in their own souls; they surmount limitation and become actually, not merely potentially, the children of God. This condition of mind is the objective at which Jesus aims.

Of course, to be a peacemaker in the usual sense of composing the quarrels of other people is an excellent thing; but, as all practical people know, an excessively difficult role to fill. But once you understand the power of prayer, you will be able to heal many quarrels in the true way; probably without speaking at all. The silent thought of the All-Power of Love and Wisdom will cause trouble to melt away almost imperceptibly. You will become a peacemaker.

As within; so without. When our soul and spirit are at peace, then our universe is at peace. Peace in the spiritual sense is not the absence of conflict. Nor is it the absence of pain, sadness, challenges or injustice. It is a state of mind and spirit in which we overcome all life’s negative’s, including death itself. But how, one may ask, can I be at peace when my life and the world are in turmoil. The answer is that without God, we can’t.

Z gardener

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Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23).

Most people, and learned people especially, have all kinds of knowledge that does not in the least affect or improve their practical lives. Doctors know all about hygiene, but often live in an unhealthy way, notwithstanding; and philosophers, who are acquainted with the accumulated wisdom of the ages, and assent to most of it, continue to do foolish and stupid things in their own personal lives. Now, knowledge such as this is only opinion, or head knowledge, as some people call it. It has to become heart knowledge, or to be incorporated into the subconscious, before it can really change one. The modern psychologists in their efforts to “re-educate the subconscious” have the right idea, though they have not yet discovered the true method of doing so, which is by single-minded prayer, or the Practice of the Presence of God.

Jesus, of course, thoroughly understood all this, and that is why he stresses the fact that we have to be pure in heart.

How many times have we said to ourselves, “I know I should/shouldn’t do this or that, but I can’t make myself act accordingly”? The reason for this is that we are trying to do,or not do,something that is not in truly in our hearts. Every human faces the same problem in one way or another. Most of us know how hard it is to change our fundamental behavior as adults. And on our own, without God, it is nearly impossible. For instance, many smokers find themselves unable to quit until the doctor tells them they are going to die if they don’t. Some are unable or unwilling to stop even then. Those who do stop after a doctors warning have experienced a change in their subconscious that manifested itself in changed behavior.

Walking with God,
Z gardener

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…for they shall see God.

In this wonderful Beautitude we are told exactly how this supreme task is to be accomplished and who they are who shall do it. They are the pure in heart. Purity, in its full and complete sense, is recognizing God alone as the only real Cause, and the only real Power in existence. It is what is called elsewhere in the Sermon “the single eye.”

Note that Jesus speaks of the pure in heart. The word heart in the Bible usually means that part of man’s mentality that modern psychology knows under the name of the ‘subconscious mind.’ This is exceedingly important because it is not sufficient for us to accept the Truth with the conscious mind only. At that stage it is still a mere opinion. It is not until it is accepted by the subconscious mind, and thus assimilated into the whole mentality, that it can make any difference in one’s character or life.

…as he thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

Now this is another seminal message regarding our relationship with God. We must believe that God is the true cause of everything and that the only real power resides with God; no ifs, ands or buts. When we do fully accept these truths, then our “single eye” is opened and all of God’s wisdom and power can then be seen and accessed by humans. Those who do not believe, do not see. They have separated themselves from God and condemen themselves to live in the world of their making instead of the Eden God created for us.

Seeking the face of God,
Z gardener

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Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8).

This is one of those wonderful gnomic sayings in which the Bible is so rich. It is a summing up in a few words of a whole philosophy of religion.

Let us begin by considering what the promise in this Beatitude is. It is nothing less than to see God. To “see” in the sense referred to here, signifies spiritual perception, and spiritual perception is just that capacity to apprehend the true nature of Being that we all so sadly lack.

We live in God’s world, but we do not in the least know it as it is. Heaven, lies all about us, but because we are lacking in spiritual perception, we are unable to recognize it, to experience it, and, therefore, so far as we are concerned, we may be said to be shut out of Heaven.

We are very much in the position of a color-blind man in a beautiful flower garden. All around him are glorious colors; but he sees only blacks, whites, and grays. If we suppose him to be also devoid of the sense of smell, we shall see what a very small part of the glory of the garden exists for him. Yet it is all there, if he could but sense it.

Our task is to surmount these limitations as rapidly as may be, until we reach the point where we can know things as they really are—experience Heaven as it really is. That is what is meant by “seeing God.” To see God is to apprehend Truth as it really is, and this is infinite freedom and perfect bliss.

Today’s message inspired the Good Morning Garden’s premise; that God gave us an Eden (heaven on earth) in which to live, and that we are the only thing that can keep us from living there. The garden God created for us is not free from the world’s problems; it simply frees us from them. We see this world and are able to live in it when our eyes have been opened by our hearts. That is, when we have accepted God’s truth, believe in God’s truth and submit our will to God’s will. It is then that we become pure in heart.

Seeking a purer heart,
Z gardener

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Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled (Matthew 5:6).

Righteousness is another of the key words of the Bible, one of those keys that the reader must have in his possession if he is to get at the true meaning of the book. Like earth and meek and comfort, it is used in a special and definite sense. Righteousness means not merely right conduct, but right thinking. In the Sermon on the Mount, every clause reiterates the truth that outer things are but consequences. As within, so without.

When people awaken to a knowledge of these truths, they naturally begin to apply them in their own lives. Realizing at last the vital importance of “righteousness” they begin immediately to try to put their house in order. The principle involved is simple, but unfortunately the exemplifying of it is anything but easy. Now, why should this be so? The answer lies in the potency of habit; and habits of thinking are at once the most subtle and the most difficult to break.

Perhaps failure to achieve righteousness is the failure of half-heartedness; you long but not too deeply. Your hunger and thirst do not rise from a sense of total need. Have a mental stocktaking or a review of your life. It could not happen that a wholehearted search for truth and righteousness, if persevered in, should not be crowned with success. God is not mocked, nor does He mock His children.

Although righteousness begins within, it must manifest itself without. In other words, we must long and hunger for righteousness so deeply that we are willing to change not only our minds, but also our habits and actions. Now this is so difficult that we are unable to accomplish it alone. However, with God’s help we can and will overcome our self-centered habits and desires in order to achieve righteousness.

In hunger,
Z gardener

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Moses, who overcame the old age belief to the extent of manifesting the physical body of a young man in the prime of life when, according to the calendar, he was one hundred and twenty years old, and then transcended matter altogether, or “dematerialized” without dying; was known preeminently for this quality; “as meek as Moses.” Apart from his own personal demonstration, Moses also did a marvelous work for his whole nation, getting it out of Egyptian bondage in the face of incredible difficulties. Moses had an open mind, ready to be taught new things and new ways of thinking and working. He was not, in the beginning at least, free from serious faults of character, but he gradually rose above these defects as the new truth worked in his soul.

Moses thoroughly understood that to conform oneself rigorously to the will of God, far from involving the loss of any good, could only mean a better and more splendid life. He did not, therefore, think of his task as self-sacrifice, for he knew it to be the highest form of self-glorification; the glorification of God.

…the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. I am in the Father, and the Father is in me (John 14:10-11).

There is a marvelous Oriental saying that “meekness compels God himself.”

The bottom line is that we must choose whether to conform ourselves to the will of God or to our own will. We will surrender to God or will surrender to that which plagues us. We will rise above the self-centered human will to claim our freedom and joy, or will sink into the self and lose our inheritance of love, hope and faith.

In surrender,
Z gardener

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Let us see how we are to go about inheriting the earth. This Beatitude says that dominion, that is, power over the conditions of our lives, is to be obtained in a certain way, by nothing less than meekness.

The word meek in the Bible connotes a mental attitude for which there is no other single word available. It is a combination of open-mindedness, faith in God, and the realization that the will of God for us is always something joyous and interesting and vital. This state of mind also includes a perfect willingness to allow this will of God to come about in whatever way divine Wisdom considers to be best, rather than in some particular way that we have chosen for ourselves.

This mental attitude of teachableness, willingness to be led, is the key to dominion, or success in demonstration. There is no word for it in common speech, because the thing does not exist except for those who are up on the spiritual basis of the teaching of Jesus Christ. If we desire to inherit the earth we must absolutely acquire this ‘meekness.’

The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice…(Psalm 97:1).

As with so many things Jesus taught us, this teaching appears on its face to contradict that which we experience in our daily lives. How can meekness lead to dominion? And, as with most all of Jesus’ teachings, the surface perception based on our senses is what contradicts the truth.

Seeking meekness,
Z gardener

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Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5).

On the surface, this Beatitude seems to be contradicted by the facts of everyday life. But either Jesus knew what he was talking about, and is to be taken seriously, or his teaching should be dropped altogether. If he is to be relied upon, then let us pay him the compliment of assuming that he knew best about the art of living.

The fact is that when correctly understood, the teaching of Jesus is found to be the most practicable of all doctrines; and the whole essence of his teaching and of its application is summed up in this text. When you possess the spiritual meaning of this text you have the secret of dominion; the secret of overcoming every kind of difficulty.

We notice that there are two polar words in the text; meek and earth. First of all, the word earth in the Bible really means the whole of your outer experience, and to “inherit the earth” means to have dominion over that outer experience. So we see that when the Bible talks about possessing the earth, governing the earth, making the earth glorious, it is referring to the conditions of our lives, from our bodily health outward to the farthest point in our affairs. So this text undertakes to tell us how we may possess, or govern, or be masters of our environment.

To master the outer world, we must first master the inner world. The journey to Eden begins within. The first step is to assume that Jesus’ and God’s words are correct and true. Be sure of this , they are all correct or it is all nonsense. To accept this truth is the first step to meekness and to living into our true inheritance. When we accept this reality, our meekness has taken root and we have begun to shed our human spirits and carnal selves so as to take up our spiritual selves. So, the first step toward meekness is rising above the self to manifest God’s will for our nature.

In submission,
Z gardener

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Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4).

Mourning or sorrow is not in itself a good thing, for the will of God is that everyone should experience happiness and joyous success. Jesus says:
…
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Nevertheless, trouble and suffering are often extremely useful, because many people will not bother to learn the Truth until driven to do so by sorrow and failure. Sorrow then becomes relatively a good thing. Sooner or later every human being will have to discover the truth about God, and make his own contact with Him at first hand. He will have to acquire the understanding of Truth, which will set him free, once and for all, from our three-dimensional limitations and their concomitant sin, sickness, and death. There is really no need for man to have trouble, because if he will only seek God first, the trouble need never come. He always has the choice of learning by spiritual unfoldment or of learning by painful experience. Family troubles, quarrels and estrangements, sin and remorse, need never come at all if we seek first the Kingdom of God and Right Understanding; but if we will not do so, then come they must, and for us this mourning will be a blessing in disguise, for through it we shall be comforted.” And by comfort the Bible means the experience of the Presence of God, which is the end of all mourning.

If we would seek God first, every other effort would be easier, happier and less troublesome. Try this; the next time a concern raises itself, first think of how God instructs us to respond or be proactive. Then do what God directs and see how it goes. Whatever the issue, you will find its best resolution in this formula. The results will amaze.

Mourning and celebrating with God,
Z gardener

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One of the saddest passages in all literature is the story of the Rich Young Man who missed one of the great opportunities of history, and

…went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions (Matthew 19:22).

This is really the story of mankind in general. We reject the salvation that Jesus offers us “our chance of finding God” because we ” have great possessions,”; not so much that we are very rich in terms of money, for indeed most people are not, but because we have great possessions in the way of preconceived ideas; confidence in our own judgment, and in the ideas with which we happen to be familiar. We have pride, born of academic distinction; sentimental or material attachment to institutions and organizations; habits of life that we have no desire to renounce; concern for human respect; or perhaps fear of public ridicule. And these possessions keep us chained to the rock of suffering that is our exile from God.

The poor in spirit suffer from none of these embarrassments, either because they never had them, or because they have risen above them on the tide of spiritual understanding.

What “possessions” are keeping us from “finding God”? What attitudes, desires, actions or positions are locking us out of God’s garden? Are they worth the loss of true communion with God? Would we trade peace on this plane and eternal salvation in the next plane to protect and pursue the “possessions” in which we place so much value?

Shedding possessions,
Z gardener

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