The Buddha’s Eight Fold Path appears to be a guide toward ascension into the finer levels of spiritual awareness.  What can you tell me of the next fold in the practice of union – Right Livelihood?

January 23, 2011

The next two folds of the Eight Fold Path are Right Livelihood and Right Speech.  These re-present, if you will, the first two folds (Right Action and Right View) but at a higher turn of the spiral.

We have recognized the Five Orientations as a description of Right View. The third fold, Right Livelihood, might be described as placing oneself in the right position where one may best be able to be poised for the entertaining the outlooks represented in the Five Orientations  (Right View) and also those represented by the Five Dispositions  (Right Action).

The Five Dispositions being recognized as representing Right Action (the first fold) relate at another level to the forth fold or that of Right Speech.  Consider Right Speech as having to do with the control of energy or prana as it flows through your apparatus or form (your physical, emotional and mental bodies).  Such control leads to a greater capacity for fulfilling the first fold, the Five Dispositions which in turn lend greater impetus toward Right View, the second fold, the Five Orientations.

So, one begins the spiritual path with an attempt to make his path straight by disposing himself to right relationship with his fellow man through right action and orienting himself to right relationship with God through correcting his understanding or view of what his relationship to God is, and how to improve that relationship, or his understanding and awareness of that relationship.  As said earlier this is prerequisite to further progress.  This is not to say, however, that a simultaneous effort is not to be made at positioning oneself for a better disposal (Right Livelihood) to the Five Dispositions and also seeking an increased capacity for correct orientation or view in one’s relationship to God (I Am, your true Self) through the control of one’s speech or flow of energy through the systems of manifestation known as our bodies (Right Speech).  In fact, Right Livelihood is represented in the second fold of Right View by Orientation 5. Devotion to I Am, The Love in everything, as you will see in My upcoming elucidation.  Furthermore, the seed of  Right Speech is found in Disposition 2. Truth and Beauty to all Beings. Not much progress, therefore,  may be made with the first two folds without attention to these second two folds of the Eight Fold Path.

Right Action and Right View appear to be prerequisites for the other six aspects of the Eight Fold Path (Right Livelihood, Right Speech, Right Thought, Right Exertion, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration).  These first two form a foundation out of the solid rock (Matthew 7. 24-27) of devotion that love and commitment are.  In spirit we internally sense the intrinsic relationship we have to the source of all things.  In form we are given the arena in which we can demonstrate our understanding of spiritual qualities and relationships through our actions toward each other, toward all things.  In form we come face to face, literally, with the Creator as represented by all and everyone that appears to be outside of ourselves and are challenged to make visible what we know of the invisible; to make manifest what we know of the Unmanifested.  In the arena of form we hammer out and construct in objectivity what we know in spirit, that we may prove to ourselves the truth of that which we have subjectively realized.  It behooves us then to know spirit well, that our life in form may reflect the glory of the heavenly hosts.

It appears however that form has many gradations and levels.  Just as in physical nature there are different levels of manifestation (minerals, plants, animals and humans; subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, organs and bodies; planets, stars, solar systems and galaxies) there are levels of form that are beyond the physical.   In addition to the strictly physical apparatuses there are the emotions, thoughts, intuitions, and willfulness of the human nature.  It is these forms that help us to begin to transcend our strictly physical perception of the world and climb toward finer and finer qualities of manifestation until we find ourselves no longer in the finer gradations of form but rather in the courser gradations of spirit.

I can see from what You have said that the Five Dispositions and Five Orientations have their correspondences to the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. 3-14 and that they are further elucidated by the rest of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5 – 7) as follows:

Disposition 1. Healing and wholeness to all beings –

Thou shall not kill –

Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy – Matthew 5. 7, also related are 5. 21-26 and 7. 1-5.

Disposition 2. Truth and beauty to all beings –

Thou shall not bare false witness –

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied – Matthew 5. 6, also related are 5. 33-37.

Disposition 3. Gratitude and sharing to all beings –

Thou shall not steal –

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the kingdom of heaven – Matthew 5. 3, also related are 6. 1-4.

Disposition 4. Complete self control of the form in mind, emotion and body-

Thou shall not commit adultery –

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth – Matthew 5. 5, also related are 5. 27-28, 5. 31-32.

Disposition 5. Complete satisfaction with the forms given you to work with –

Thou shall not covet –

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted – Matthew 5. 4, also related are 6. 5-18, 25-34.

Matthew 7. 12 summarizes the first 5 beatitudes, the Five Dispositions of man.

Orientation 1. Toward purity and clarity –

Make no graven images –

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God – Matthew 5. 8, also related are 5. 29-30, 7.1-6, 21-23.

Orientation 2. Appreciation for and contentment with what is –

Honor your father and mother –

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God – Matthew 5. 9, also related are 5. 38-42, 6. 25-34.

Orientation 3. Intense inclination toward spiritual awareness and value –

Keep the Sabbath holy –

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven – Matthew 5. 10, also related are 7. 13-14.

Orientation 4. Spiritual interpretation of all things physical –

Thou shall not take the Lord’s name in vain –

Blessed are you when men revile and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.  Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you – Matthew 5. 11-12, also related are 19-20, 6. 19-23, 7. 7-11.

Orientation 5. Devotion to I Am, The Love in everything –

You shall have no other gods before me –

You are the salt of the earth / You are the light of the world – Matthew 5. 13-14, also related are 5. 43-48, 6. 24.

I can see in the Five Dispositions and the Five Orientations correspondences to the Eight Fold Path of the Buddha.  The Five Dispositions appear to delineate Right Action while the Five Orientations constitute Right View.

Right Action has to do with principles for the way people need to treat each other if they aim to be in alignment with loving God, or the One True Self, through the loving of each other and all that is in form.

Right View is about the outlook that needs to be adopted if a person would establish (or should I say re-establish?) in his awareness a direct relationship to God (or the One True Self) through the practice of seeing through form (meditation) in favor of spirit.

Right Action and the Five Dispositions then, have to do with how to be in form in a constructive and healthy manner that treats all other forms with the same respect that one gives one’s own form, because of the recognition that all form holds within it, and is the manifestation of, God- the true Self.

Right View and the Five Orientations are focused on the spiritual side of life and how we might approach a more viable direct personal relationship to Spirit or God.  The one requires a more objective (“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”) approach because it has to do with form, while the other takes a more subjective (love God with everything you’ve got) line of thinking since it has to do with spirit.

Thus it is that My Burden is light and My Yoke is easy in the effort to be only that, that You truly already Are.  Thus you, in form, become the salt of the earth, the light of the world and bring savor and illumination to all in the house.  The goodness that shines through your form is witness to others that heaven abounds all about and the glory of the transcendent that is intrinsic is the truth of Your Being.

From this enlightened, this “saved” state of awareness you have no trouble in loving your “enemies” for you behold them in the same way you have come to know your Self.  You bestow no judgment upon them but that they are as much You (Me) as you are, though they have realized it not.   So as the sun shines without regard equally on all, so also does My (Your) Light shine as love without condition.  You then become a vehicle for My (Our) Purpose: Heaven on Earth, spirit made manifest in form.

You will find that you have mastery over all the earth, all that is in form; instead of form pretending mastery over you as it does all the while you deny the mastery of spirit.  To make spirit your master is to so devote yourself to your true Self that you see your Self in every form, behind every form and beyond every form.

If you put form first it will be the master.  And it is a hard task master, though it may seam pleasant for a time.

Therefore you shall have no other gods before Me, your true Self.  Why?  Because I Am a jealous God?  Because I Am an angry God?  Because I might send you to eternal damnation if you don’t?  No!  Because It can be no other way.  Because I Am You.  Because I Am All that is (and all that is not).  I Am The Totality.  There is nothing else.  You can have no other god but Me because there is no such thing.  To do so is just a lie and it will make you miserable to try.  This is your hellfire and damnation; a lie.

Therefore be still and know the I Am God.  Meditate.  Use devoted prayer to calm and quiet yourself until you can be completely still in My Presence in spirit.  Emerge from meditation back into form bringing My Presence with you as your Self and demonstrate My/Your Existence.  Reveal Our Reality to a parched and thirsty world by realizing Me Your Self.

This is the Law and the Prophets.  It is the Law of Life.  Try and perpetrate it on others, as all religions and nations have done, and you break My Law.  My Law is not of this world, not of form.  It is one Law: Love.  You cannot tell another you must love or be punished.  It does not work.  That is thinking in terms of form, of separation.  You must simply live the Law yourself, following it best you can, one day at a time, moment by moment.

This is the meaning John was getting at when he wrote his iconic song Imagine.

Because you are not separate (as this world, form, would have you believe) when you accomplish the Law of Life so also is it accomplished for “others”.  And so there is never a need to hold someone else to the Law.  It is enough of a job to hold to It yourself. Your fulfillment of it belongs to all and so is adequate and complete.   Be mindful.  It is in the spirit of mindfulness that the Law, or Key, of Life is delineated into its many precepts.  To stay the course, however, requires you to remain aware that there is but One Law, One Key, (with many forms) and that it is: “I Am That I AM” AUM.

Remember that I Am your Self!  How hard can it be to be completely devoted to One’s Self?  You need merely make the shift in awareness that your self is not the separated egotistical self concept that arises naturally from being in form.  Your Self is the One Self Same Self that is in all form; that is behind all form; that is beyond all form.

Therefore, whatever you are beholding is Your Self.  Treat it with the reverence that It deserves.  These are what the Five Dispositions elucidate.  The Five Orientations, on the other hand, illuminate the most basic steps toward total devotion to Me, Your Self as you contemplate your direct acuity toward your awareness of Me.

Why bother you might ask.  Perhaps your life is relatively easy right now.  You have few really challenging trials and you have some money, a good job and family, and you enjoy spending your down time doing innocuous things like going to the movies, reading books, playing with your kids, taking long walks in the park and the like.  Life is basically good and you don’t really feel motivated to work at being devoted.

Or perhaps life for you is full of excitement; going to parties, eating great food, rocking and rolling, getting high, thrill seeking, the titillation of sex; all fun stuff.  Being devoted to something would get in the way, make you aware of principles or rules that need to be followed that would put a crimp in fulfilling desires for the stimulation of your form.

This is the ploy that form presents to its self and to the indwelling observer that is your true Self patiently watching and attempting Your communication with the form it finds itself in.

This is the first and the last temptation; to eat of the tasty fruit of the knowledge of good and evil.  It is what brought You (Me) into form to begin with.

If you find you are enjoying being in form and relish each new experience that comes your way it is a sign that you have already done some of the work of transforming your consciousness from one that is focused only on lower self preservation.  You have been partially liberated from fear and wanting to hide from Me (Your true Self) which is the initial reaction to awareness of good and evil.

When you first take form knowing the difference of good and evil, up and down and so forth, you realize that spirit is up, so-to-speak, or good, and that form is down, or in contrast to spirit, evil.  And you want to run and hide and deny that you are surrounded by such illness.  So it is that you yourself pull the wool over your eyes and hide from the truth.  Form, the objective world, becomes all you are willing to acknowledge as real and you are lost to spirit.  You compete and strive with the forces of nature and with each other to gain a foothold for survival only to eventually lose your grasp and gasp a last breath.  You find however that you were mistaken; that You are eternal and you come round again and again until little by little the true Self is able to break through the barrier of fear that being in form initially engenders.  You begin to enjoy life in form.

This is a good sign.  Enjoy life in form to the fullest that you can.  You will find however, that certain frustrations will ensue; not the least of which that all that you enjoy in form eventually turns to dust and you become parched.  When this happens seek out My Living Water through the endeavor of total devotion to your true Self which is in spirit.  When you do this you will find that what you enjoy in form has a spiritual reality that far transcends the material fascination and is thus a hundred fold the enjoyment.  (It is only because you have gotten your bearings in form that you are now able to comprehend what is in store for you in spirit; thus you see the necessity of taking on form.  It is an incubator for awareness.)

Orientation 5. Devotion to I Am, The Love in everything.

You can see, perhaps, that all the Law represented by these Five Orientations and the Five Dispositions before them, boil down to this last Orientation that I Would Encourage you to develop.

Disposition 1. Healing and wholeness to all beings – for the sake of love’s mercy.

Disposition 2. Truth and beauty to all beings – for the satisfaction of love’s rightful place.

Disposition 3. Gratitude and sharing to all beings – for the expression of love.

Disposition 4. Complete self control of the form in mind, emotion and body – in favor of love’s heaven

Disposition 5. Complete satisfaction with the forms given you to work with – in awareness of love’s universal presence.

Orientation 1. Toward purity and clarity – for seeing the presence of love.

Orientation 2. Appreciation for and contentment with what is – for the cultivation of the peace of love’s presence

Orientation 3. Intense inclination toward spiritual awareness and value – for the joy of love’s presence

Orientation 4. Spiritual interpretation of all things physical – for transmutation into love’s magnetic embrace

Orientation 5. Devotion to I Am, The Love in everything – for complete immersion in love’s intrinsic/transcendent balance in the dance of the unfolding universe.

The Five Dispositions govern your relationship as an individualized form with other individualizations of Me in form.

The Five Orientations work toward total devotion to I Am, the Lord of Love.

Without the adoption of the Five Dispositions, the Five Orientations are not possible.  Thus Jesus taught: “Love your neighbor as thyself”.

But the One Law (or Key) of Life, that all other laws merely delineate the various aspects of, is as Jesus quoted the Old Testament pronouncement: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul and with all your strength”.

This is the epitome of devotion.

It is this that all other laws of life are meant to illuminate.  They are the how to; The Idiot’s Guide if you will.

Your devotion must be complete, absolute, perfect.  Doubt not that you can accomplish this.

A prophet is one who has put My Light on a stand.  Those who have not cleared the window pane of their objective presence in the world will find My Light more or less bitter, glaring and unpleasant.  Depending on just how coated over their psyche is with the dross of material living they will be unable to adjust their I (eyes).

There will be some who are inspired to look more deeply within themselves.  Teach them how.

There will be some who will look to you mistaking your form for Me.  Show them only Me and be not beguiled into making the same mistake they have made.

There will be many that sneer and retreat and others that will hack and bite at you with their words because their single I (Am) is closed tight and they cannot comprehend the Light that can only be witnessed by the single I.  They will try to discredit you and make you feel stupid using many subjective tactics to try to prove how objective and superior they are.  Depending on how closed up your whole society is they may bring charges against you and even torture and slay your form.

For the one who has their I wide open it matters not; for though you be in form you have one foot in heaven already regardless of your circumstances; for you know that I Am in all things and circumstance and that the reality of life is not of the form but behind it upholding it and that I Will Sustain You even though the form suffers and dies.  Blessed are you for you have faced the darkness and walked into it with My Light and though it knew You not, you new that it too was You.  You are blessed even as you have blessed.

So, why “lay up for yourselves treasures on earth” in form as though the form were the reality that upholds their form?  Realize the treasure that is Me and Be Sustained in the abundance of spiritual truth that My Light Bestows on the one with the single I; the I that I Am.

Test the soundness of your I/eye.  Be still, direct your attention to I Am.  Consider an object, be still, direct your attention to Me.  I will reveal My Self to you.  If your window pane is filled with a lot of crust and hardened deposits, be patient.  Keep attempting to be still and hold your attention on Me.  I Will Reveal My Self to you and You will Know Me as Your true Self.

“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.”  You will not receive a “stone” when you have asked Me for “bread”.

The obscuring dirt on your window pane is there from taking My Name in vain.  What is My Name?  I Am Everything!  Regard all as Me for I Am Behind all manifestation upholding it and sustaining it.  When you ignore the least of these or write them off as not worthy of you or curse them or harm them as though they were separate from You, you take My Name in vain.  What church hasn’t done this?  What religion does not do it when they adopt exclusive attitudes?  What nation does not do this when they put their own exclusive interests before that of all other nations?  What politician does not do this when he puts his constituents’ exclusive interests before the others of his country; or the interests of his career ahead of his constituents?  What person does not do this when they regard their own self interest ahead of that of others?

The world of mankind is covered over with the scales of delusion; the delusion perpetuated by the idea of separation .  The whole of delusion is the result of My Name taken in vein!  Therefore I Command you, if you would be free of delusion and Know the Name of God which is beyond the comprehension of the two eyed, then let your eye/I be single and take not My Name in vain.

I See What I Have Made and behold It Is Very Good.  How is it that You can see it any differently?  Only by deluding yourself.

Let this be the way you are oriented: interpret all things physical, emotional, and mental; all things in form as representing that which is spiritual; That Which Is I Am; That Which Is All There Is; the One Unmanifested Transcendent Non-Being that is manifesting intrinsically in all that is.

You must be still to realize My All Encompassing Presence and Know Me.  While you still rely on eyes that are dual you cannot truly See Me as You did in the Garden before duality.  You must learn to see with one eye; one I.

I Am Behind every form.  From the subatomic particle wave to the stars and galaxies, I Am the Jewel in the heart of the lotus.  At the center of every form I Present Myself to you, but veiled I Am that you be not overwhelmed by My Brilliance in contrast to the form you have mistakenly taken to be yourself.

Your liberation from this mistake begins with being still and detached from what you have taken to be yourself and what you have taken to be other than yourself.  In that stillness regard the objects about you, including the objective conclusions or thought forms, with an eye that is single, knowing that I Am at the center of each; knowing that this means that I Am not abolishing objectivity but that I Am Fulfilling it.

With every objective form, be it a physical thing or thought, ask yourself what aspect of the Divine does this veil; for while I Am One and Whole, even so I Am diversified in form.  The single I (eye) can reveal My Presence in any event, which is what every object and the objective represent.

As you uncover Me, My Light shines forth a little at a time in doses you can handle.  As you become accustom to seeing My Light with your single I you can open your I further to comprehend still more.

You become as a clear window pane that had been painted over so that no light came through.  Little by little you scrape away at the hard and crusty obstruction of the delusion that objectivity (form) is alone the source of your good.  Then with crystal clear vision see My Light with the now clear clean glass of the quiescent mind that lets My Light shine though it. The quiescent mind is still objective form.  It is form, but it is cleared by stillness.  Through it you can see the whole world anew, as it is, instead of in the shape you give it through the active, judgmental, desire mind.  Through it you can see Me behind all things, in all things and beyond all things and I Walk with You in the Garden once more.

My Light so shines through you when this occurs that you are a light unto the world.  Hide it not but put it high on a stand.

I do not of course refer to your ego, for your self concept as something separate from Me and from others (in whom I Am also) is not the Light.  It is your self concept as something separate from Me that is what must be swept aside or your glass will go dark for it results from the round-a-bout judgmental nature of differentiation.

Remember that this is a razors edge.  If you identify yourself with Me and My Light but exclude your brother or any form whatsoever as not worthy of you, you have failed to know Me.  Do not put this exclusive attitude on a stand.  Wipe your window pane clear and Know Me once more.

Orientation 4. Spiritual interpretation of all things physical.

It is with empty hands that your approach to Me must be made.  How shall you empty yourself when you are so full of yourself; full of form; full of identification with your body, with your thoughts, with your emotions, with your desires to acquire things, people, jobs, money, etc, etc; full of pain and frozen from looking back and seeing inadequacy and lack or loss.

Forward in awareness you must go leaving attachment to form behind you, but how?

In each present moment you are surrounded by forms; be they body, thought, emotion, pain or desire.  They have circled the wagons and like clothing have long served to protect you from the hazards of being in form.  You are growing however, and require greater freedom; for that which served to protect you in the past is becoming too restrictive for your present and future.  Like tight shoes they must be removed or they will cripple further advance.  How can this be done?

From the beginning of when you saw you were naked I Have Clothed in form all that is, including you, so that You, My Only Begotten Son, might be protected from the extremes of the elements of the knowledge of good and evil.  Here you are in those elements, protected by the forms I have given all things, for without the protection of form all would be laid bare and the extremes of good and evil (that is to say all opposition resulting from duality) would overcome you quickly like an extreme silent scream that would not end; a crushing explosive expansion imploding upon itself.  This is why you hid from me when you saw you were naked.  The opposition was completely overwhelming.

Now you are well acquainted with the imposition of opposition and you long for the peace that passes all understanding because it mends the fabric of awareness that had to be torn in two to make good and evil a reality.  This mending is accomplished by stitching together in consciousness the spiritual reality of oneness that is behind all duality and form.

Fix your attention on an object or a thought form and study it from the perspective of transcendent/intrinsic spirit to discover the spiritual value or truth that its form veils.  It is best to start with well known objects or forms such as “man” for instance: I have said that I created you in My Own Image; so what is it that the form man veils?

Aum, Om, I Am, Amen, Ahoh, Allah, Alleluia, Yahweh, Jehovah, Jesus, Christ, Krishna, Vishnu, Ishvara, Buddha, Emanuel.  What is this Word of God in all its many forms?  What is hidden, there, behind the form, within the form, beyond the form.

I have said that I Am That I Am.  “I Am” is a symbol for what is beyond form, beyond language, beyond conception wrought through the eyes of duality.  What does this symbol veil?

Does it seem like an impossible dream, you being Me?  Remember You are not the form.  I present a rainbow of spiritual value to you that appears elusive, ethereal.  It seems that as you chase after it and grasp for it that it always departs from you or remains the same distance from you.  It seems you can never reach its end for it always moves as you do.  This is because you chase after it with the form as though that were You.  It is not.  The rainbow is You.  You cannot perceive anything that is not You for I Am All.  But when you perceive your body and think this is me and everything else is not me then you break the fundamental law of life that all is one.  And so you are lost.

Chase the “rainbow” of God Consciousness not with your form but with your spirit and you will find a “pot of gold” at its end so precious that you will be willing to give up all identification with form to possess it.  You will make yourself pure.  You will go through any trial.  You will make any sacrifice.  You will climb any mountain.  You will swim any sea.  You will brave any form of suffering.  It is the reason you took form full knowing that you would suffer and “burn in hell” until you remembered again the truth of Your Being; that You are one with Me.  Through the form now you make the ascent; through a consciousness born in form, that you may have the poignant understanding that only can come through the experience of being in form.  You climb that mount and then are born again in spirit making an evolutionary leap by faith into an entirely new species that is beyond human.

Call it the fifth kingdom, for the Kingdom of Heaven is as great a departure from the forth or human kingdom as the human is a departure from the animal or third kingdom of nature.  You will come to a point in awareness where you will no longer need to incarnate in the dense physical form and will continue on your journey to the divine through the higher kingdom.  You will manifest as a type of being that is beyond human in the dense physical and very much more alive and dynamic with wider ranging sensory apparatus and control over your environment.  You will have deeper, more intimate relationships and enhanced cooperation with your fellow inhabitants of this more spiritualized existence.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  The righteous are those who have recognized that they are not the form and are living out that reality even while they remain in form.  Those who are adamant that they are only form have no stomach to tolerate those who understand otherwise and so pointlessly attempt to prove their point by trying to make you uncomfortable and squirm in the form you occupy.  Be that as it may, you have realized the spirit within your Self and continue to be strengthened in your awareness until, born again in spirit, you are free of such perturbations and receive the Kingdom of Heaven.  This is the salvation Jesus came to show you.

Lean into Me.  “Keep the Sabbath” means take time from life in form to focus on spirit; to incline your self toward spiritual awareness and value.  The Sabbath is the time you spend resting in My Grace, My Goodness, My Love.  It is the time you spend in repose, keeping very still so that I May creep up close to your awareness and rub against your heart.  The Sabbath is the seventh day of creation.  All this time, eons, have been spent in bringing form into being and dealing with the consequences.  It has been a very long “week” and now is the time to rest and remember.

Devote all you have at your disposal to remembering who you are.  Make it your task in every endeavor whether it is caring for your children or your spouse, your neighbor or your neighborhood, your city, your country, your enemy, your world.  Thus it is that My Only Begotten saves His brothers and sisters from the destructive activity of those who would try to save themselves through attachment to form.  They but need to incline themselves to Me, stretch out their empty hand and not look back.