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inherently necessary in the way the material time and space universe is created.
So when do we return good for evil? And when do we act with an eye for an eye?
I have struggled with this at first but now I am convinced that if we wish
to identify with our spirit-led soul in the realm of spiritual values, we must return good for evil, while the eye for an eye approach can be used in applying ourselves to physical and mechanical systems or on the animal level. But as we evolve spiritually, more and more we respond in terms of the spiritual, and less and less we base our reactions on the animal level.
How can we relate this to real life situations? To the daily confrontations with negative energy? To the strife between nations? The little conflicts we face everyday are all about material things, they relate to the comfort of our material shells: our bodies and the attached ego. They are important in their own right, but not more important than the relationships we have with each other's souls and the relationship we have with the Creator. They are not more important than the values by which we spiritually evolve. It is okay to defend our material possessions, but never at the expense of the soul values that we have struggled so hard to attain.
A piece of land is nonspiritual, a car is nonspiritual, a house is nonspiritual, money is nonspiritual. They are all means to an end. The end itself is the relationships between people, between all creatures and our Creator. So why kill ourselves, hurt each other and sacrifice this community, this relationship we are building with each other on this beautiful planet over nonspiritual things?
There are many reasons. Mostly insecurity and the mental poisons of fear, hate, anger, envy, lust and lack of self-esteem, which all stem from being separate from the universal consciousness. Then there is our age-old animal heritage of always wanting to fight and defeat an enemy, to create one if necessary because we are biologically hard wired to kill the latest sabre-tooth tiger in the neighborhood. Some people simply like to fight.
Even intellectual sophistry can lead us away from spiritual thinking. One of my more seductive thoughts was that if we do not respond to an action mechanically, that is, returning tit for tat, that the offending person will not learn that his actions were harmful. "If I don't smack 'em upside the head, they're not gonna learn!" Why should we, as humans, abrogate cause and effect, the teaching method of nature?
I think the answer to that is that the ascending child of God learns an eye for an eye from the physical laws, but that the spiritual laws must be gleaned by being a recipient of good for an evil that we have committed to another. First hand experience of the manifestation of love leads us to grow spiritually. The offending person does not evolve his soul by being retaliated against. The evolution occurs only when his negative act returns as a positive response thereby causing him to reflect on his spirituality, which often creates a desire to make better moral decisions.
However, the purpose of returning good for evil is not to change the actions, the attitude or the morality of our fellow mortals. Its intention should not be to manipulate others into fitting into our agendas, however benign and spiritual we think they are. We return good for evil just because that is the quality of our indwelling divinity which is reflected by our soul. We return good for evil simply because that is the way of the spirit, because it is the right thing to do.
As material beings slowly evolving into spiritual entities, returning good
for evil represents our growth into the higher levels of spirituality, like marks on the wall that record our incipient growth as cosmic children. Upon what fond memories will we reminisce when we have evolved into a much higher state and look down on those old scratch marks on the walls of our first home?
III. Mastery of Environment - Breadth
Personality breadth embraces the domain of 1. Co-ordination, 2. Association, and 3. Selfhood organization: how we work with other people, things and situations. Think of this as the car turning to the side. This is the ability of our body, mind and soul to go out into the world to actualize our spiritual leadings. Moving in the dimension of breadth does not necessarily get a person to the destination quicker, but it will make the quality of the journey better. Breadth is the realm of our activities during the journey, appreciating and enjoying ourselves and the company we keep as well as the quality of our experiences.
1. Coordination
As we evolve, we widen our sphere of influence and consciousness so that we become increasingly better at coordinating things, people, time and space. We start to become adept at arranging events so that we do the right things with the right people at the right time in the right place.
We see a lack of coordination of things, people, time and space very frequently in the world. Some people cannot do the simple act of being at a certain place at a certain time; they are always late. This is a measure of not having a handle on time. Difficulties in relationships is a symptom of a lack of coordination of people. Financial problems stem from a lack of being able to coordinate things and people, while not being aware of one's place, whether it's geographical, social or spiritual is due to the inability to coordinate space. The ability or non-ability to coordinate one's own being also has a bearing on all the above.
Individuals who are unable to coordinate things, people, time and space have something in common. They do not realize its importance and do not care to focus on these things. It is not uncommon for many people to look down on "things" as being too material. There are those who do not value other people and their relationships suffer. People who think that being on time is of small matter may think, "What difference does it make if I'm half an hour late?" But doing this constantly can result in that person being out of synch with life in general. Their timing in the circumstances of life become skewed. And those who disregard the importance of space become more than geographically lost. They become disoriented in the direc
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