DICTIONARY & ANECDOTES
FACT, WHAT IS A? Fact is an accurate
observation of reality at a certain time.
FAILURE, WHAT IS? Failure is when one no longer
affirms a belief one still holds. Often, people stop trying to do something
without understanding why and/or what really has gone wrong. In other
words, failure is when one makes a new decision regarding a belief. i.e.
the previous belief has failed.
Often the new decision is really nothing more than adding enough doubt
to the prior decision to keep one from acting upon it. If the belief was
wrong to begin with, it's failure could actually be a good thing. However,
often, the new decision may contain feelings of failure, doubt, or emotion,
which are the root of all pain. One has not failed to attain something
until one changes his or her mind regarding its attainability. Not asserting
100% towards ones goals lowers ones chances of success to the level of
ones effort, thereby setting oneself up for failure.
Trauma creates automatic failure of beliefs since during trauma, ones
behaviors are overruled by the will or force of another. When this happens,
ones beliefs may become unwillingly laced with doubt from the observation
of ones failure to maintain control.
FAILING VS. QUITTING: When someone stops smoking,
they are not failing, they are quitting. It would only be failure if they
wanted to continue to smoke, but stopped anyway. When someone quits doing
something, they know exactly what they are doing and have control at the
time. The idea of failure involves feelings of loss of control. Failure
is akin to no longer trying.
FAITH, WHAT IS? Faith is the belief in something that
cannot be proven for sure at the present time but for which there does
exist at least some reasonable evidence. One who seeks truth finds that
faith, or conjecture, is not always incorrect. It is possible to hold
a valid conclusion without being able to prove the premises to others.
Thomas Edison, for example, had faith and believed in a lightbulb before
actually being able to prove such a thing could be created. Though belief
in something that cannot be proven sounds illogical, it might be noted
that lack of belief in God, for example, is at least equally illogical
to belief in God since a belief that God does not exist is also a faith
belief which cannot be proven to others.
Faith differs from expectation. If someone says that they have faith that
the Sun will rise tomorrow this is often simply expectation. A faith belief
is usually associated with more of an intangible idea. A faith belief
would be more akin to believing that the Sun would not rise tomorrow as
it always has. i.e. where empirical data cannot prove such belief is usually
where such belief becomes a faith belief.
Make ones own decisions regarding ones beliefs; especially those things
one believes that one cannot entirely prove. Any faith one has should
be based on the maximum evidence, information, and thus knowledge, available.
The reason one may have faith, is that ones only hope lies not with oneself,
or this world, but with God. Ones only hope lies not in hoping, but in
faith and trust in God, and that God knows what God is doing. Have faith
in that which liberates one from the desires of this world. Faith in the
truth is like having the truth, knowing the truth, and finding the peace,
rest, and love that the truth brings, without really being able to prove
that one has anything at all. And yet, true faith does indeed have substance,
albeit intangible.
Faith cannot be taught. It is an individual decision each person may make,
if, and when, one is ready. Now, it is certain that there is no reason
to believe in something until one has reason to. However, sometimes one
has to believe first, before one finds the reasons to believe. If one
believes in God against rationality, one may find that the moment one
believes, one finds the rationality, peace, and reasons one was looking
for. I believe this is what is meant by the phrase "the mystery of
faith." Faith is the key to the door of the Kingdom of God, and Christ
is the door.
Faith sometimes is the only way to dispel illusion. Imagine that you saw
several people swimming in a pool and they were all happy telling you
how warm the water was; but to you the water looked ice cold. You felt
the water with your toe and it still felt ice cold to you. They kept saying
"Yes, we know it looks cold, but it's an illusion, as soon as you
jump in you'll see how warm it is!" It would take trust and faith
for you to jump into this pool against your "better" judgement,
but you just might find that they were right when you jump in! Maybe the
water is only cold on the surface. The water may be warm after all beneath!
Sometimes it takes faith to test a belief. "Test the waters"
so to speak before making up your mind about things. Sometimes one receives,
and so then believes: other times, one must believe before one receives.
Faith is the latter. Faith in God renews the body, mind, and spirit. Faith
in God is a channel of living trust with God. Even if one was to fall
into the water of truth one would be renewed.
Thus, with regards to the mystery of faith in God, I can only say that
sometimes the ends justifies the means. I find that faith in God does
indeed appear to be subjective within the objective universe. Faith in
God proves God exists to the individual and faith that God does not exist
appears to prove that God does not exist to such other believer. Belief
in God leads to a life of belief, and disbelief leads to a life of disbelief.
From the view of disbelief, believers are irrational, and vice versa.
Believing that there is indeed a God is the seed of faith. From this core
belief, faith grows like a tree in the believer, getting ever stronger
and more deeply rooted in God. Faith is a magnifying glass for those who
seek god. Without it, one cannot see what one is seeking for, and with
it, one finds more than one hoped to find.
FAITH OF A MUSTARD SEED: Jesus said, "...if
ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain;
Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you."- Matthew 17:20
Obviously, he was speaking about faith in God. But perhaps, this does
not mean that ones faith should be as big as a mustard seed. Ask oneself
how much faith a mustard seed has in God! For from that tiny seed a great
tree grows. Love and believe in the truth with all ones heart. As to moving
mountains, in the least, faith will allow one to move spiritual mountains.
i.e. if one had the faith of a mustard seed, one could move mountains
of delusion and error.
FAITH VS. FEAR: One cannot have faith and fear at
the same time, for to have one is not to have the other. Where there is
doubt, there is fear, and where there is no doubt there is faith.
FAME & FORTUNE: Truth is far, far greater than
fame and fortune. Fame and fortune are but temporary illusions. Many people
spend their lives trying to be king of these delusions. But what benefit
is fame and fortune in ones grave?
FATE, WHAT IS? Fate is the sum of the consequences
of ones beliefs, past beliefs, and forces of ones environment which determines
ones future. Fate is also those seemingly unexplainable messages from
God which appear from time to time that others discount as coincidence.
One is the farmer of ones fate. The seeds of fate one sows are ones behaviors
which are based on ones beliefs. This in mind, plan your future as carefully,
as a farmer plants his crop. As you sow, so shall you reap. SEE WAVES
OF FATE/SEE FREE WILL VS. GOD'S WILL
FEAR, WHAT IS? Anticipation or awareness of danger
or guilt. Types of fear include:
ALARM: the sudden onset of danger or guilt.
DREAD: intense reluctance to face something suggesting aversion and/or
anxiety.
PANIC: terror causing erratic and hysterical behavior.
TERROR: the most extreme degree of fear.
WORRY: fear of an unfavorable future.
Fear is a belief, and whatever you believe will seem real to you. Even
aberrant beliefs will justify themselves. Thus, fear of competition creates
competition. Fear of failure, creates failure. Fear of loss, creates loss.
So how can one overcome ones fears? One can overcome ones fears by facing
ones problems, illuminating underlying pain, and by trusting God. Expect
less, and accept more. The truth has nothing to fear. Many ignorant people
wrongly overcome their fear of monsters by becoming monsters themselves.
See fear for what it really is. Fear is an emotion. Fear is an expectation
and symptom of pain. Such an expectation is suffering itself. Fear is
a feeling of loss of control. One would not feel a loss of control if
one wasn't trying to be in control in the first place. When one puts ones
trust in God, one no longer fears. As a famous Biblical psalm goes, "...ye
though I walk in the valley of death, I will fear no evil. Thy rod and
thy staff shall comfort me..."
You may have heard that fear of God is good. This may seem confusing,
but what it means is that if one didn't fear God, then one would be setting
oneself up as God, or denying the existence of God, and might have to
face the terrible consequences of God's judgement. If one is on God's
side, however, one doesn't need to be afraid.
Ironically, it might be said that fear of anything but God is an aberration.
In a way, it might be said that fear of God is the cornerstone of civilization.
To many, the fear of death is the fear of God. After all, if one did not
die, one would never have to face God or be held accountable for ones
actions.
The Bible says, "The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil." (Proverbs
8:13) Thus, when one is told one should "have the fear of the Lord
in oneself", what this means is that one is to have a hatred of evil
in onself.
FEEDING THE 5000: The Bible contains the accounting
of Jesus's feeding of the 5000 with only a few loaves and fishes. As is
the case with all the miracles and parables of Jesus, there is a spiritual
teaching which underlies it. Trust what little you have to Jesus who will
in return give back more than enough to make you full of that which sustains
life. Jesus will fill one spiritually, with spiritual food, when one trusts
what little one has spiritually in him.
FICTION: Nothing can be imagined that isn't loosely
based on truth. Since imagination itself is based loosely on truth, the
products of imagination, such as fiction, are still based loosely on truth
and/or other perversions of truth. Thus, from a scientific perspective,
there is no such thing as "fiction" for the intentional errors
in ones observations really do exist if only in ones mind, and when communicated,
are imprinted upon the minds of all recipients. Fictional observations
are "real" observations even if they are not congruent with
reality. For better or worse, fictional observations have a direct impact
on the belief structure of the audience.
FINDING GOD: A student went to an enlightened teacher
and asked him, "Teacher, why is it I have not found God?" The
teacher responded, "I did not know God was lost!" Ironically,
it is the seeker of truth that is lost.
FISH, WHY THIRSTS THE? An enlightened priest once said
"Why thirsts the fish?." God is everywhere and yet one may not
even know it. One may thirst for that which one is breathing unknowingly.
It is amazing one does not drown in the well of God one seeks for God
is everywhere. God is omnipresent, everywhere at once. One need only overcome
ones blindness. Ones blindness is everything one takes for granted.
We are creatures which are a part of, and dependent upon, creation for
survival. Just as a fish cannot overcome water, while we live, we cannot
entirely overcome our dependence upon the world for the survival of our
flesh.
FLESH: Flesh is temporary. God is forever. The flesh
is not the life, just as a mantle is not the light or the flame. It is
spirit that animates ones flesh. The flesh is the flute not the music.
The ways of this world, which are the ways of the Devil, are often referred
to as the ways of the flesh. The flesh is but the shadow of the soul.
Thus, the corollary is that where there is only light, there is no shadow.
FOOD, SPIRITUAL: There is much truth to the saying,
"you are what you eat". This is why communion is so important.
Meister Eckehart has said, "The food we eat is changed into ourselves,
but spiritual food changes us into itself." The food one eats becomes
ones flesh, but the truth one consumes aligns ones spirit with truth according
to God's plan. "Eating" of truth is not union, but communion,
with God. Be careful lest one consume spiritual "food" which
has been poisoned by the Devil.
A starving man who sees meat does not care if it has gone bad, but is
eager to consume anything to make himself full. If one eats the food of
the Devil, even inadvertently, it will change one into a devil according
to the Devil's plan. Ones mind may be constipated with misinformation
and bent on distraction from God. Just as ones body can become fat from
eating too much of the wrong foods, ones mind can become equally polluted.
There is another saying that, "He who eats with the Devil should
have a long fork." Herein lies an interesting metaphor regarding
the pitchfork with which the Devil is so often depicted in art. Speaking
of pitchforks, there is a story about Heaven and Hell being the same place:
As everyone arrives, he or she is given a long fork. There is plenty for
everyone to eat for eternity. The problem is that the handle on the forks
are so long that no one can feed oneself. Those who know God spend eternity
feeding each other and are full. Those who only know the Devil are selfish
and spend eternity starving as they attempt in vain to feed themselves.
FOOL AND THE SEA, THE: A fool, wary of the threat of
the sea lapping at the shore of his small island, stood on the shore and
began throwing sand into the ocean so that the ocean might be filled.
Yet the more he filled the ocean with sand, the less ground he had to
stand upon and the more the water would actually seem to rise against
him. Eventually, he ran out of sand and the ocean overtook him. So it
is with those who fear and despise God. While they may think the waters
are rising around them, it is actually they themselves who are sinking
by throwing away what little ground they have to stand upon. Their vain
attempt to save themselves is actually what does them in.
FORCE, WHAT IS A? Active power which brings about
motion or change. A force is any behavior or past behavior against an
environment. A force against an environment never goes away, it can only
be opposed and neutralized by an equal amount of force in the opposite
direction. A potential force is something that may bring about future
motion or change. There is an old saying that "force is a horse and
thought the rider."
FORGIVENESS, WHAT IS? The release of guilt and
giving up of resentment against someone. Forgiveness is letting go of
one's hurt by realization of the truth regarding oneself and/or the behaviors
of others. Forgiveness is understanding. Understanding the person you
have trouble forgiving, understanding their faults and weaknesses, understanding
that they have hurt you out of their own tragically misguided attempts
to find God. Understanding how the person you are having trouble forgiving
became the way they are. Are you a victim of a victim? This understanding
allows one to let go of the pain resentment causes.
Forgive oneself. "For giving me these problems, I will understand
for-giving." Also, to facilitate someone's forgiveness of you, apologize
first oneself. Even when someone is ready to forgive you, it is not enough
to just reach out your hand. It takes more than just meeting someone half-way.
A person may not be ready to forgive you! They are wounded too! In this
case, make that extra effort to help them understand why you do, or did,
the things you have done. Forgive everyone that you hold things against
or God will hold things against you. To understand is to know what is
under the things people are standing for- namely their foundation.
Forgiveness is reconciliation. Forgiveness is giving someone another chance.
It is not rationalization, or excusing someone. It is the restoration
of trust. Jesus died as a sacrifice to forgive all sins of those that
believe him and accept his sacrifice. This is a spiritual cure which enables
one to be reconciled with God, but like the other cures God has given,
it should not be abused. After all, when you've been playing in the dirt
and you get cleaned up and put on clean clothing, do you immediately run
out and play in the dirt again?
Knowing one can be forgiven is not an excuse to do evil, all of us will
be accountable for our actions, but with the forgiveness of Jesus, at
least one will have someone to speak on ones behalf. Without Jesus, how
would one know God's forgiveness? God's nature is love, and a loving nature
is a forgiving nature. Forgive those who ask one's forgiveness for the
way one forgives others will be the way one is forgiven by God. As George
Herbert once said, "He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over
which he himself must pass."
FOUNTAINS OF BLOOD: Our bodies are fountains of
blood, and everyone's blood is red. God sees us and judges all mankind
not by the color or beauty of our fountains, but by the cleanliness of
our blood. Blood is mostly water, but it is not the water that makes the
blood unclean. It is sin which makes ones blood unclean. If your blood
is unclean, your fountain will be turned off.
Through illumination one may begin to clean ones blood. However, to truly
purify ones entire fountain, join oneself to God's pure fountain and let
the living water wash through your being. Come to the fountain of living
water and get a love transfusion through the blood of Jesus Christ. It
is by the blood of salvation that one is saved. When one accepts the blood
of salvation, one becomes a living sacrifice in truth. Since it is only
by the blood of Christ that one may be saved, one is not to drink any
other blood. The only blood one is to drink is the blood of Christ in
communion.
FRANCHISE WARFARE: Mom & Pop's Widget Store
beware! Your days are numbered. Suppose there is a franchise owner with
fifteen Widget stores. Now let's say that Mom & Pop run the only local
Widget store. Sure enough, here comes the franchise owner who, get this,
builds a Widget store right next to Mom & Pop's Widget Store!
There is hardly enough Widget business to warrant two stores and so Mom
& Pop work hard to keep their store in business. Unfortunately, the
franchise store has fourteen stores making money, and can afford to keep
losing money on the new store until Mom & Pop's widget store goes
out of business. As a matter of fact, the franchise owner can speed the
process by selling their widgets in the new store at or below cost! There
is no way Mom & Pop can keep losing money and so they close down.
However, there is good news! One need not concern oneself with the ways
and possessions of this world. God gives franchises in truth away for
free. Give the truth away for free and it will shut down every factory
of delusion. Truth is the only franchise that matters.
FREE WILL VS. GOD'S WILL: We were not born with God's
will, but with free will. God's will is what God does, it is not what
God demands us to do- for if God demanded us to do something we would
automatically be doing it. We would be slaves to truth, rather than lovers
of truth, with no free will. We have a choice to remain ignorant or liberate
ourselves in truth. When one finds God and becomes enlightened and then
does God's will, one is really an extension of God. Thus, free will exists
for the glory of God. Technically, nothing can happen but by the will
of God, but the difference is that rather than forcing us to do God's
will, God gives us the choice. The ability even to imagine is but by the
gift of free will. SEE TOLERANCE
Now, while one has free choice to do whatever one wants, God already knows
what choices one will make. God knows the outcome of all the decisions
everyone will make till the end of time. God already knows that many will
choose to be ignorant or plainly choose to be defiant. God already knows
how many will be saved through enlightenment, but this amount was not
necessarily God's choice for as many as believe in the truth will be saved.
The concept of predestination does not mean that one is without choice
or that one is destined against ones will, it only means that God already
knows the choice one will make regarding salvation. The mystery is that
God knows how many will seek truth, and yet, no one really seeks truth
except by God's predestination. i.e. the gift of the Holy Spirit which
leads one to seek truth. Nevertheless, as many as seek will find, as many
as ask, will receive.
The gift of free will is why God might be called a "jealous"
God. God would rather mankind worship God, rather than idols, yet God
offers each of us this choice.
FREUD'S ATHEISM, ON: Freud says religion is just longing
for a father figure and that religion is just consolation in reconciling
oneself with death. However, if religion should fulfill even these two
needs that would be proof alone of its goodness. Freud said that belief
in God was a neurosis, but it seems pretty clear that there is more neurosis
in hopelessness than bliss. Anyone who has found God through enlightenment
will tell you that atheism is ignorance. After all, atheism fails to explain
where the Universe came from, and fails to explain the objective goodness
from which moral values come.
FROG IN A POT: If you put a frog into a pot filled
with hot water to cook it, the frog will jump out of the pot. However,
if you slowly increase the heat of the water, the frog will be too weak
by the time it realizes it should jump out. Do not be like the frog in
the pot allowing the evil of the world to cook one gradually until one
is too weak to take a stand against it. Likewise, the devil is busy creating
a lid to cover the pot and when it is finished you can bet that even if
the water is cool, it will be too late for the frog to jump out. If one
seeks the truth, and asks for help, one may find the strength to jump
out of the pot before it is too late.
FRUIT, WHAT ABOUT? God truly knows and rewards ones
fruit; the fruit one picks, the fruit one eats, the fruit one bears, the
fruit one is, and the fruit one gives to the world. This fruit is the
message one believes and the message one leaves behind. The fruit is the
works which are the result of ones faith. One cannot bear good fruit if
one has not grafted oneself to the good tree. If one is indeed grafted
to the good tree, one will indeed bear good fruit, for no good fruit can
be borne without such a graft.
You may have heard the expression, "you are what you eat," but
there is more to fruit than meets the eye. The fruit lives on after it
has been eaten, for inside the fruit is the seed. To bear good fruit,
find the good seed which is called "truth" and nourish it within
oneself.
Be careful of the fruit one gives to the world and the fruit one takes
for oneself. One may have taken bad fruit in the past. Rid oneself not
only of the flesh of this bad fruit but of the seed as well. As one discards
this bad fruit, remember not to discard this bad fruit on fertile ground
for the seeds will surely take root.
Also, ones fruit should not only be good, but fresh as well. Even good
fruit perishes in time. Bear good fruit continually so that ones fruit
is always ripe and ready. It is fresh fruit that is so pleasing.
Bear fruit in abundance. Just as the squirrels store up nuts for winter,
bear fruit in abundance while one may for hard times ahead are certain.
Do not eat all the good fruit one bears for what then will one give to
the Lord? Ones fruit should have substance. Ones fruit should not only
be skin and seed, but pulp. It is the pulp wherein is the wine.
We ourselves are God's fruit unworthy to be living in God's garden. We
may be fruit, but never root. Jesus said, "I am the vine, ye are
the branches; He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit; for without me ye are nothing."-John 15:5. Jesus said
he is "the vine" and that we should be like branches which graft
ourselves to the good tree through him or we will not be able to bear
good fruit. We are simply branches, we cannot be divine. (Sorry for the
pun.) The truth is the vine. God is the root of the vine. If one has lived
a good life, and grafted oneself to the truth, then one will have produced
good and healthy fruit during ones life, and perhaps the seed within one
will be sown in God's spiritual soil, Heaven, when one dies. If one has
lived a corrupt and wild life, one is withered and undeveloped, having
consumed what little life one was given. Plant a raisin or prune and what
have you? Not all fruit is picked.
The evil vine dresser attempts to graft evil to the good tree but cannot.
Thus, the Evil One steals what fruit it can. It knows that good fruit
does not fall far from the good tree. Guard ones good fruit within the
thorns of truth. The Devil cannot reach the good fruit that is protected
by truth.
