Here is the story of the words of Jesus which explains the above headline. The parable illustrates the importance of building one’s life in obedience to the teachings and example of Jesus.
“Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain came down and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain came down and the floods came and the winds blew and it fell and great was its fall.”
These teachings of Jesus are in my opinion based on a very important principle – That we are not who we think we are.
Nobody questions that he (or she) exists. The sense of I is common to all humanity. But since we know no better and have not read philosophy (or theology) we assume that what is called the BMI (Body-Mind-Intellect) is the Self.
Anybody who reads and ponders over two excellent books by Paul Brunton – The Secret Path and The Quest of the Overself – will be forced to intellectually come to the opinion that the BMI is not the Self. In the words of Swami Vivekananda, “We are the spirit and not the Body and the entire Universe with all its relations, all its good and all its evil is like a series of paintings – sketches on a canvas – of which I, the spirit, am the witness.”
We are almost completely preoccupied with what we think to be ourselves, with the welfare of the BMI (Body-Mind-Intellect). This BMI is subject to the wheel of birth and death while we are – on good authority – the immortal Atman. We have a wrong perception of what we really are. We are not who – or what – we think we are. If only we could experience ourselves as we really are – the Atman, one with all of existence – we would free ourselves with preoccupation with the BMI and this would result in our actions being in tune with who and what we truly are.
For a person my age – I am in the mid 50s – it is too difficult to take to spiritual life completely and become a monk. I must leave that task to future lifetimes. Yet there are some spiritual principles that I can put into practice to increase the likelihood of my having a favourable rebirth.
The first is another saying of Jesus, “Judge not that you be not judged.”
According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead it is our habit of judging others which will determine the nature of our next lifetime. In the Bardo of Becoming which follows death (of the physical body) we will again witness the events of our past life. And we will be called upon to judge them. The judgment we form determines the nature and circumstances of our rebirth.
As the English saying goes, “One fact mastered is a thousand enjoyed.” If we practice not judging others but accept them as they are, we will immeasurably benefit in the Bardo of Becoming and will gain a favourable rebirth. And that is as much as almost all people (who are not monks or nuns and who are no longer young) can hope to accomplish.
There is much more that can be said about this subject. I highly recommend that you read Paul Brunton’s books. In The Quest of the Overself he speaks of the possibility of overcoming spiritual ignorance and human weaknesses by practicing mental quiet (or meditation) in as little as 10 to 30 minutes a day. But that is a topic for another day.
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