“Give us wisdom to guide us through temptations”
In the original prayer it is stated, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” In the Re-presented prayer, we wrote: “Give us wisdom to guide us through temptations”. We have examined the first part of the sentence that says,“Lead us not into temptation” in Note VII.
In Note VII when we looked at Temptation, we discovered that all the elements that lead mankind into temptation are contained within our Body. We argued that if we can allow our sense organs to operate unhindered by tradition, culture, beliefs, religion or religiosity, it will gather sufficient materials with which it can cultivate or build up the Mind; that a powerfully built Mind, operating at maximum capacity, will become a palace and the resident of choice for the Soul. We submitted that a Soul in residence would take absolute control of the workings of both the automaton-like Body and the cultivated dynamic Mind.
The Body that has been having problem in harmonising the various activities of all the 50+ trillion conscious cells will become a perfectly well tuned machine/vehicle of locomotion for the Soul, who, as a competent pilot, will make use of the Mind as its control cubicle. With the Soul comfortably in charge of piloting the affairs of the body, the burning fire of temptation or the desire to do evil present in the body is extinguished. If not completely, but it will henceforth be put under the control of reason and the dominion of Wisdom.
At this juncture in the life of an awakened person, excellence in thought and perfection in deeds are achieved, as it were, effortlessly. The awakened ones know that the main attribute of the Soul is wisdom and the effectiveness of the Soul comes from the divine and eternal link it enjoys with the universal Wisdom – Nature, the Creator, The Source, The One and Life (aka God). The Soul has a unique opportunity of an open and unrestricted access to the universal intelligence and library, what Edgar Cayce called Akashic Records or The Book of Life.
Godliness and Spirituality
Mankind can attain godliness, which is the highest ideal of our imagination, through a living and awakened Soul. The dialectics of good and evil is the verbal technicalities or word gymnastics we engaged in to help humanity understand the meaning of life. It is sometimes called philosophising, that is the process of searching and seeking for appropriate words with which to express the inexpressible spiritual matters. Philosophy is simply a tool of logic that helps to convey our inner thoughts and speculations of the interpretations we have made of all the observable physical manifestations of Nature (God) and their probable meaning to the question of life.
Every person itching and stirring to awake must do a lot of introspection, reflection and meditation on the meaning of all things. Each of us is free to borrow from ancient or contemporary thinkers but the materials borrowed must be chewed up, digested and assimilated before it can be understood and useful to the Mind. Every piece of knowledge borrowed or discovered afresh becomes a template and a building block for the construction of a sound Mind. A cultivated Mind in turn becomes a creative being or in short, a small creator. This is the natural trend that we see all around us, Nature begetting Nature and God begetting God. Don’t be squeamish about what you are reading. It is simply stating the truth of existence.
Godliness is that state of being when a person knows (not believes) that he/she is one with Life, Nature, The Source, The Creator, The One and The God with capital G. It is the state when an awakened person no longer sees or perceives differences between self and the universe of other selves. It is the point when there is no longer a separation but only completeness and wholesomeness. It is the point when we can begin to understand there is nothing good or bad because everything in life is now seen, known and understood to be working together as one unified Body.
Deliverance From Evil
Let us not forget, we are looking at the phrase “deliver us from evil”. We are eager to know, who is going to deliver us from evil? Although the prayer is to our father in heaven but in earlier elucidation we have concluded that The Creator of life, which is called father in the prayer, is everywhere and is in everything. We have suggested a mantra in Note I to aid our focus when we engage in spiritual meditation. The Mantra says, “I exist in God and God exist in me. Therefore, God and I are one”. Knowing that each of us is one with God or Nature or The source or The Creator is a very big leap from the fearful, downtrodden, penitent, abused and used article of no worthwhile value to be discarded by the abuser when no longer useable. This is how the Powers That Be (The Abusers) of our world see the mass of humankind that they often derogatorily call “the mere eaters of bread”.
Let us recall the allegorical story of the Prodigal Son as told by the Teacher of Galilee. The prodigal son lost his mind for a season and forgot who he was. In his unconscious state, he chose to separate himself from his home, to live the life of the spendthrift and afterwards (which he didn’t plan for) tasted the life of a wretched, poor scavenger. When the needed and necessary experience of both the good life and the bad life was completed, he came into awareness of who he was and remembered the kind of wealth his father possessed. Fortunately, there was no longer pride or ego in him because that was the only thing that could stand between him and repentance that leads to full redemption. He went back home as a sober, humble and reborn person. The story said, his father on seeing him rejoiced with celebration as he welcomed him back into the home where he belonged unconditionally.
The story is worth further reflecting upon. The prodigal son did not see any soothsayer, or witch doctor or shaman or General Overseer, or Super Evangelist, or Grand Imam or Muslim Scholar or Guru. He sat down and considered his pathetic situation and after a serious review, meditation and self-analysis of his unpalatable condition, he had the eureka moment. The awareness dawned on him powerfully and convincingly, “I am a Fool”. That is all it takes to set out on the way to freedom, when each of us come to the true knowledge of who we are; of truly knowing yourself.
Tell most of the people in fine, gorgeous apparel with all the bling-bling of superficial success and high-sounding, self-promoting titles to their names, that friend, “Do you know that you are a slave of a hideous political and economic system?”
“No, I am not” he would reply with arrogance.
He would ask “Do you know who you are talking to? And without much ado, will give a resume of his achievements, “I am this or I am that”.
Dear Friend, “Know Thy Self” is the first step to spiritual freedom.
A Few Words on the Devil
The devil, we are told by theologians, owns a factory where evil is manufactured and dispersed to the four corners of the earth. The Devil is a word and a conceptual symbol. Like every word or symbol, the meaning changes with context or circumstances.
In the context of this discourse, at one point in time or at another, the devil could be you, your neighbour, your friend, your family and even me. Because when we look at all the attributes attached to the devil, like: the accuser, the seducer and the tempter – these are all the attributes found in the character of each and every mankind.
For example, when we desire to subjugate our neighbours, friends and families to our personal will, we seduce them with sweet words; or by the use of material rewards to blackmail and to entice them; or by the use of fear and violence to slander, murder, slaughter and kill, etc . Can’t we see or can we not infer from our lives that the devil is not out there in the fairyland but it is resident within each of us and within those in our neighbourhoods?
The truth is, each of us has what it takes to become a full-fledged devil. The spirit of evil or the devil is within each of us just as the spirit of good or god is equally resident within us.
Spirituality or the development towards godliness is the process of harnessing or of blending these two opposite forces into one formidable entity. It is the spiritual work of finding the balance, the state of equilibrium or harmony or the mean when the positive and the negative energies can join forces together to become One. It is similar to the process of the formation of all living organisms, where the masculine and the feminine forces/energies come together and combine to produce a new life.
This is why the great work ahead of those of us desiring to wake up is, to seek to know at a fundamental level what makes you or qualifies you to be called a living person.
We have said that you need to start your learning by first knowing the composition of your physical body. We carry this Body around 24/7 yet we do not know what is contained therein intimately. We adorned its outside with fine clothes and expensive jewellery, yet we have no clue as regards what lie beneath.
We breathe, we eat, we drink, we digest, we urinate, we fart and we defecate, still we have no figment of understanding how all the complex organs within us work.
Thereby, our ignorance of self has led us into a lot of self-abusing habits of the Body and the ensuing complications and consequences of “dis-ease” – discomfort, imbalance, disharmony etc both physically and spiritually.
Imagine the heavy price we are paying for ignorance at the physical level. Since we don’t even know that we are more of a spirit being than the minor visible physical component, it will be share waste of time to call attention to the most important spiritual aspect of our lives.
However, the lesson of the visible physical being when properly learned and understood will naturally lead to the appreciation of the spiritual self – the real component and the core essence of our being.
When each of us discovers the spiritual self in all its glory, we can safely say the goal of spiritual development is achieved. This is the true quest of life that can transfigure each of us into an Overcomer and a Successful human being. In fact, this is what we call a Spiritual Breakthrough that will eventually easily translate into Spiritual Prosperity.
Wisdom is The Answer
Hence, when we say, “Give us wisdom to guide us through temptation” we are acknowledging that temptation is natural and relevant to our spiritual growth and development. It is like the case of a student who detests examination with passion. How would the teacher know if he/she has learnt anything worthwhile throughout the term or semester or year?
Temptation is a form of examination and it is an essential part of life. It is necessary to self-test or self-examine how well each of us is doing in the great journey of life. All the learning that we do is supposed to be geared towards the acquisition of knowledge which can lead eventually to the gaining of wisdom.
Acquisition of wisdom is the testimonial that shows a person is awakened or reborn and it is the confirmation that a Soul has truly been born. It is the certificate of a spiritual accomplishment and of a person who is truly becoming one with God.You can see why spiritual quest is the only goal worthy of pursuit for anyone desiring to be called awakened or alive.
But, Oh No! Each of us has been brainwashed with all kinds of enslaving psychological programming in education, religion and cultures that had given us worthless dross of knowledge for the golden fleece.
Our education that is supposed to educe from us important elements towards becoming “philosopher kings” has turned us into dogmatic slaves of a hellish political and economic system.
Our religion that is supposed to lead us to a rebirth in spirit has turned us into a mere unconscious body with a dead or dying soul that sings or chants, at the drop of a coin, misunderstood memorised passages from the ‘holy books’ like a talking caged parrot.
This is the deplorable state existence that a large proportion of the human race is presently consigned.
Food For Thought
Each of us needs to rethink our present position and our individual understanding of being or life in the cosmic realm. The following questions must arise in the minds of all sane persons:
- What are we here for on this planet?
- Are we here so that a few clever devils can aspire to be called successful in material acquisition, political power, and economic prosperity that inadvertently send the majority of humanity into a hell on earth situation?
- How can we carelessly ignore the fact that there is a definite span of time allotted to each of us on this planet and that regardless of your “successful endeavours” and “laudable achievements” you have to drop everything and depart when your call-up time is announced?
- Does it occur to most humanity that life might be eternal and that it keeps recurring like a wheel that spins forever?
- Have you asked, maybe there are many dimensions of life that we need to pass through before we can emerge into our true potential state as Godlike beings?
- Could it be because of our stupidity and blatant ignorance of the truth of life that we have got ourselves trapped on planet earth ending up in a recycling time machine that keeps churning us up (aka Reincarnation) ever so often in many uncountable lives?
All the questions above are for the wondering and wandering souls eager to wake up from their eternal slumber and ready, like the prodigal son, to begin the process of preparation to go home to the Source (aka God). These questions are not for the happy-go-lucky, contented and carefree persons who have already found the answer to all the questions of life in their religion and belief systems.
There is nothing more to add. It is still my desire to see you, dear reader, take the first tentative step of asking the most important question in your silent meditation (not in your Pharisee-like or Hypocrite-like prayer mode), What is the Truth?
You have a lot of work to do to deprogramme yourself from the mountain of lies that have been piled upon you right from the day you were born. Nobody can give you spiritual freedom or set you free from the “Slavedom” systems into which you were born and for which you were deliberately bred. It is only you who can personally do it.
When you hear the call and the doubts begin to arise in your mind about the filth and the ugliness around you, which you had hitherto called modern civilisation, then you will know it is time to find answer to the question: what is the truth?
And I can tell you, you will find the answer when you seek, search and ask truthfully, diligently and purposefully like a person on a serious mission of life and death.
Dear Friend and Family you will surely find the answer and like the Teacher of Galilee said, then “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free”.
In The Spirit of Truth
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
SAM ABBD ISRAEL 
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