BIBLE VERSE question:  What did Jesus mean when he said, "Unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink of his blood, he has no life in you"?

Answer from the Pathwork Guide, in Jill Loree's words: This saying is completely symbolic. The "flesh" refers to our earthly existence that we simply must accept. For we are often unwilling to accept the difficulties of life, with all its obstacles.

We reject matter—we reject the reality that life is difficult—hoping to escape our struggles, by whatever means we can.

Some of these ways we are not even aware of.

Imbibing matter is symbolized by the body of Christ, which came from man. This means saying yes to earthly life and all it stands for.

Think about what Earth life includes—the good and bad—and what must be accepted.

We may want to meditate on what "everything" includes.

Many of us reject various things—even good things—out of fear of sinning. Or we may fear that these good things will lead to more unhappiness.

The blood of Jesus symbolizes pain. We also have to drink pain.

Again, our work is to accept it, not escape from it. We can accept in a healthy way, without fleeing. We can accept pain as part of the package that delivers life, given our current, albeit temporary, imperfect state.

Our life reflects causes we have set in motion. And if we drink the pain instead of turning away from it, we will revive ourselves and release the pain.

Jesus demonstrated this by his death and spiritual resurrection. That is what is being symbolized in these words.

 

BIBLE VERSE question: Please explain the Biblical passage, "The word of God was given to Moses: Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning."

Answer: Humankind has really misunderstood the meaning of these words. We've interpreted it as describing a punishing, cruel God full of retribution.

Of course, this isn't correct. These words were never meant that way.

The real meaning simply affirms that spiritual laws—our inner psychological laws—are utterly just.

The more work we do on this path of self-finding, the more we see how true this is.

We will uncover the fact that there is a cause for all our problems—and we are it.

This not just a theory. The more work we do, the more discover how we cause our hardships. And by seeing this, we gain the key we need to change our lives.

Most of us embark on our self-searching in good faith. But in the beginning, we can barely see how we could possibly be the ones responsible for our misfortunes.

So we can't grasp this notion of a fair and just universe.

It's only when we start reaching deeper levels—after a significant amount of sincere effort—that we get a clearer glimpse of what our precise role is in bringing hardship into our lives.

Until we start to see this, just being told that we are in any way responsible will seem like an injustice.

The sooner we can make these connections, the more quickly we can realize the meaning of self-responsibility and divine justice—without framing it in terms of punishment and retribution.

We'll begin to see that what we put forth, no matter how hidden or subtle, returns to us. Not because of some stiff, rigid law that has no mercy, but because of our own precise inner laws.

In this, we realize the glory of God, full of love and wisdom.

Seeing cause and effect in ourselves allows us to see the marvel of this benign creation of God. That's the meaning behind these words.

Here is the meaning of the individual symbols in this passage.

Eye | This symbolizes our capacity to see—outwardly and inwardly. The inner "vista" refers to understanding. The better we understand ourselves, the better we can understand others.

We all know this.

What's more, the more we understand, the more we will be understood. This truth is revealed to us the more we progress, as the fog in our minds lifts and confusion burns off.

As the fog lifts, our Real Self reveals itself organically. So others perceive us in truth as well. There is no more direct way to discover this is true than through a path of self-seeking and self-knowing.

Once we've had a taste of victory in this way, we will see exactly what is meant here—not as a theory, but as an experience of truth.

Our real seeing and understanding will blossom once we've begun to see and understand ourselves. Then, in equal measure, we will be understood.

That will put a positive spin on these words, rather than their typical punitive interpretation. They're not saying, "Do wrong and you'll be punished."

Rather, the words are encouraging us to open our eyes. It is possible for us to lift the veil—to be seen and understood.

Life | If we resolve our problems by healing ourselves—becoming integrated and whole—we will come vibrantly alive. Once we've done some work to heal our souls, we'll know this to be true, even if only in a temporary way.

We will understand these words more deeply than as just a theory.

When we have moments of truth within ourselves, all of a sudden our weariness lifts. The sense of deadness lifts, and we come to life.

We vibrate. We are life.

And therefore we give life to others.

Life force streams through us as though we are an instrument through which it flows. This can only happen when we are alive—when we are the life force itself.

Then we have a life-giving effect on others.

Life can only co-exist with truth.

If truth gets blurred by our fears, cowardice or wrong thinking that we can survive better by avoiding life, deadness will result.

No matter how hard it may be to stare down the unpleasantness of the temporary truth inside us, facing it will bring us back to life.

As we do this work, we will find this to be true.

Tooth | What is a tooth?

It's what we need to bite, to chew, to take in nourishment so that our bodies can digest it. The deeper meaning of a tooth is that it represents an instrument for assimilating what we need.

As we properly take in life, we assimilate experiences so that we have a positive effect on others. If we don't do this properly, we will cause more blindness.

This relates to the contagiousness of our inner attitudes and reactions.

If we're blind, on the other hand, others will be blind toward us, as said regarding the eye. But the tooth is what makes it possible to see, by assimilating our experiences. The eye then symbolizes the end result.

We are so puzzled by situations when we can't see the connection to how we've caused them. We can't assimilate them because we have not yet seen how we caused them.

But we can train ourselves to observe things this way. Then we will gain a clearer understanding. Then we'll be able to properly assimilate our life.

Being puzzled is a clue that we haven't properly understood and assimilated an experience. That leads to negative emotions which are bound to affect others.

By living this way, we tackle whatever comes our way with a different spirit than those who see themselves as victims of a cruel fate. People who live by this truth will take any event in their lives and study it from this angle, exposing their real reactions and the hidden trends they contributed.

If we do this with sincerity, we will be astonished by the insights that will flow. We'll see how the negative effect is the only medicine that could get us to change.

It's the remedy for changing an underlying attitude that is not correct.

This is the proper way to assimilate life.

We so often suffer because others don't understand us. That only happens because in some way we are not assimilating life properly—the way we really could.

If we've already done some work on ourselves, we may have seen that others suddenly react differently toward us—even though they are not pursuing such a path.

The mere fact that we're growing and changing makes it possible for others to have a more positive experience of us.

To whatever extent we assimilate our lives better, to that extent we'll affect others and subtly help them, to a degree, to do the same.

Hand | The symbol of the hand stands for giving and taking—and more.

It's the instrument through which we make things and do things to execute an idea. Through our hands, we give, take and receive.

We can also extend friendship.

The hand represents both action and reaction. As we act and react, so will that be given back unto us.

We may know this as a religious concept, as well as from our personal self-healing work. But it is very different from the idea of retribution.

Beyond physical things, our thoughts and feelings are also actions and reactions.

These will inevitably affect others, and then this effect will return to us.

Notice how humankind has chosen to view this teaching through the lens of retaliation. That's a typical human misunderstanding—to not see things in terms of cause and effect.

 

Cause and effect is actually based on wonderfully just laws that are infused with mercy, grace, wisdom and love.

So in Matthew 5:38, when Jesus said: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, that you resist not evil," he was not contradicting the statement.

He was underscoring and extending it.

On this path of purification, we come to see that all evil is self-created.

It's our own lesson—it's our own medicine.

Seeing things this way allows us to liberate ourselves from the inner factors that are responsible for our ills. If we resist evil then, we cringe from the consequences of what we're responsible for—directly or indirectly—and therefore are not learning from life.

So "resisting evil" is our blaming attitude that tries to make God, fate, life or someone else the cause—rather than finding it in us.

It's our withdrawal from life, feeling antagonized by it due to our own failure in understanding the real meaning of life.

If we keep resenting certain happenings in our lives, and shunning responsibility, we can't even begin to get to the truth of the matter.

And hence, we're not in reality.

But if we face ourselves squarely and with courage, we'll find the causes.

The truth of this will set us free.

We don't have to delve into past lives for this. Because the root of any problem is here with us right now.

Jesus' statement, then, was an extension and amplification of this same meaning.

If not taken superficially, such as when Jesus said, "But I say unto you that you resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," the meaning is the opposite of a contradiction.

All sayings in Scripture are like this, with deeper meaning than their surface may at first suggest. By grasping the deeper meaning, one gets an entirely different understanding of Scripture.

In fact, it is really impossible to understand Scripture unless one is doing this work of self-knowing. Then it will have clear meaning for us.

Foot | What is a foot?

Here again, the symbol refers to activity—but of a different kind. With the hand, the activity could take place without a person needing to change their position.

We can make and do things while we stand in place.

So this implies certain inner actions, which are important but which must accumulate to be significant.

It takes a whole series of such actions to add up to an inherent pattern. They reflect an underlying pattern of life. The hand then symbolizes everyday activities—both outer and inner—including seemingly trivial events and our reactions to them.

The feet, on the other hand, symbolize movement of the whole body.

Or lack of movement, if one is standing still.

The latter can be positive if one is taking a firm stance on something and not retreating. It can also be negative if one is stagnating.

When applied to our lives in psychological terms, the feet represent major changes, decisions and attitudes.

We can break all of life down into these two kinds of actions: big and little. The minor actions aren't part of a pattern—they're fleeting, passing situations that don't affect us the way major activities so.

They tend to be outer events that don't affect our inner beings significantly. This does not mean they have no effect that ricochets back in our direction.

The major actions, which relate to the symbol of the feet, are about decisive change, grand decisions and things that propel us—or fail to propel us—into movement.

These determine where and how we stand on our spiritual path, and our basic approach to major life issues.

The movement of our feet has a greater effect on our whole being and those around us than the movement of our hands.

They establish our position in life.

From here, we build our own fate. And this determines what our minor actions and reactions will be.

Keep in mind that what we think with our conscious mind isn't necessarily the same as what's going on in our real mind, which is underground.

But we will use our mind to determine whether to head in an upward direction. This may require that we become willing to pay the price of overcoming our own resistance.

That kind of overcoming is going to take more movement than just the hands—or minor actions—which would allow us to remain in one place, so to speak.

Burning | This symbolizes the fire of love—a spark that contains sacrifice, purification—everything.

It is a burning spark contained in every organism—in everything that lives.

If we let this spark free so that it becomes a burning flame—instead of trying to bury it in ashes—we will ignite that divine spark in others.

 

BIBLE VERSE question: Another saying of Jesus has been distorted as meaning injustice. From the words in Mark 4:25: "For he that hath, to him shall be given; and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."

Answer: This refers to the principle of the vicious circle. This principle operates wherever a deviation, misconception or conflict exists within us. And they snowball—growing larger and more entrenched so that a difficult situation goes from bad to worse.

The thing that grows worse is whatever we originally want to run away from. We create conflict through our evasions, and that results in more misery than if we hadn't been cowardly.

The bargain we were hoping to make—by defending our wrong inner attitude—has stronger repercussions than we expected.

This is what Jesus was talking about.

Conversely, if we were in health and harmony—whether a little or a lot—no hardship would have come our way. We may have to see this in action to believe it.

But when we start doing the work, we'll come to know this.

Then we will understand the true meaning of these spiritual teachings. We'll see that God is not sitting on a throne arbitrarily handing out reward and punishment—good and bad luck.

In our health, when we're in alignment with reality on all levels of our being, we'll create more and more happiness.

In our fullness, we'll attract more positive experience.

Conversely, in our soul-sickness and error, we're not only filled with fear, pride, arrogance, ignorance and confusion—we compound these things.

We're unhappy and we make everyone around us unhappy.

So from the poor, more will be taken.

The poor are the ones in darkness.

The rich are the ones who see the light—who understand.

 

BIBLE VERSE question: In the traditional Scriptures of Judaism and Islam, the texts are specific regarding the consumption of fish, flesh and fowl. It is commanded that "of their flesh shall we not eat." Christianity, however, has no ban against pork. But then in the fifteenth verse of Matthew, Jesus said, "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth the man, but that which cometh out of the mouth." However, during Lent, dietary restrictions are observed by Christians. Can you explain?

Answer: These dietary laws were given long ago. At that time, scientific and hygienic information was so insufficient that this type of information was disseminated by way of religion.

These laws were based solely on sanitary or health concerns.

Later in history, when the circumstances changed, these laws did as well. Today, it is not necessary for religion to set up such rules. They never pertained to spiritual life but were merely safeguards to protect public health.

Why would we still cling to them as a spiritual necessity?

Doing so shows a gross misunderstanding about what true spirituality is. It also reflects a reluctance to think deeply. This is the superficial approach preferred by many people.

It is possible that scientists today might discover a certain condition that makes it necessary for everyone to observe certain laws—for as long as those conditions prevail.

But when conditions change, those laws can be eliminated.

To continue them without any purpose wouldn't make much sense.

Regarding the symbolic meaning of Lent, this was to give people a time for introspection. To purify their systems physically as well as on other levels—the outer being a symbol of the inner.

To combine the purification of the body and soul is healthy, assuming it is done with the right individual intention and not as a blind adherence to dogma.

When dogma appears, it shows rigidity and a lack of self-responsibility about thinking for ourselves.

When this happens, the practice becomes lifeless.

The breath of life has gone out of it.

In the case of Lent, the original symbolic meaning was about contemplation, purification, introspection and preparing for something new to come in.

This renewal brings new strength to be used for reaching out.

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