Essays Essays II
Tablet Two
RELATIONSHIPS
<1>There are four beings which each person should consider as the most important people in his life. <2>They are God, spiritual teacher, parents, and spouse.
<3>In a person's relationship with these beings, God is at the top of the hierarchy. Then comes the spiritual teacher who leads a person to God. Next are the parents who are instruments used to allow him to receive a body so that he could come to this world and advance in his spiritual journey. Eventually is the spouse, who is his twin flame and helper in his physical, mental, and spiritual progress.
<4>So if any being in this hierarchy becomes an obstacle for a person to attend to his obligations to the one higher up, that being should be disregarded.
<5>If a spiritual teacher does not help a person to truly know God, he is not a true teacher and should be disregarded. If parents become an obstacle in one's spiritual progress and an obstacle between him and his true spiritual guide, although they should not be disrespected, the person should follow his spiritual teacher rather than them.
<6>Also if a spouse would make the person disrespectful to his parents or spiritual teacher, that spouse should be corrected or disregarded. <7>However, when a man and woman marry, if it is possible, it is better for them to start their independence by separating themselves from their parents and, with all respect to the parents, start their own course of life and only listen to their parents if their advice is sound and will guide them closer to God.
<8>After these four beings, the relationships of a person can be expanded to their children and others in the external world.
<9>Children are the guests of the parents and are beings entrusted to them by God to be helped to progress physically, mentally, and spiritually. Parents are the channels through which children are born. <10>Also they are the co-creators of them, so parents should create a godly love toward them, as God has love toward man.
<11>However, they should always be aware that the children are not theirs and should let them be free when the time comes. Parents should never possess their children nor make them their slaves by their excessive love and emotional webs. <12>Of course, children have great responsibility toward their parents to assist them when it is needed and to give them the highest respect.
<13>In regard to the relationship with others, if a person is living in a Community of Light and is one of the 12 people as the base for selecting the leaders (read Mount Zion and Zion, and Explanation of the System), then his community would be regarded as the second family. <14>Then the person has a great responsibility, first, to become an example for others and a leader, and secondly, to be observant to choose truly the best person as the leader or the judge of the twelve.
<15>It is in this community in which a person learns to live with others and also learns to become a leader. A leader who has not gone through this test of being able to live with others and emerge as a Chosen One, cannot be trusted as a true leader.
<16>If a person does not live in such a community, he should still help the cause of creation and progress physically, mentally, and spiritually and help others in this endeavor also. <17>If he is married and has a family, then the rest of the universe is his second family, and he should treat them as such.
<18>Also in choosing friends, the person should associate with those who would help him in his progress toward the goal of his life -- to be(come) Divine. He should disregard those who would lead him away from this and his responsibilities toward the first four beings described in the beginning (God, spiritual teacher, parents, and spouse).
<19>In regard to work associates and the job environment, a vocation that one respects, enjoys, and is proficient in doing should be chosen. He should be(come) one with it and do it perfectly, and that should be all the requirement necessary in any job.
<20>The associates at work can be accepted as friends if it is possible to be helpful in each other's progress or to create a more spiritual environment there. However, they should not become a channel for satisfaction of unspiritual, unsatisfied psychological or emotional needs. These all would be from the false ego, and the relationships would be based on one ego supporting the other. Such relationships would be shallow and are based on false needs which eventually will end in deep dissatisfaction for both partners. <21>The ego does not have love and compassion and indeed is hungry for these, so two people who do not have these things try to receive them from each other. Then they will both be disappointed when they realize that the other person cannot provide what they long for, because he does not have it either.
<22>However, they take the attention the other person gives to them as Love, or as a true relationship. But in truth that attention is a trick to receive the attention of the other person. This kind of relationship is indeed a business. The translation is, "I give you attention, you give me attention." The base is on ego, not Love, respect, and progress.
<23>So become best in what you do and base your life on God and the establishment of His Kingdom. Any relationship that becomes an obstacle to this ideal should be disregarded and is from false needs and false ego.
PARENTS
<24>Parents have the most profound effect on their children. They shape the future characteristics of the men and women in society. Therefore they have a great responsibility in their chosen careers as parents.
<25>To be a parent does not finish with providing material comfort for children. It is a commitment physically, mentally, and spiritually. <26>In fact the spiritual needs of the human are greater than his mental and physical needs. The human thirst for knowing the truth about his being also is subtler than his other needs.
<27>When spiritual needs are reasonably satisfied, other needs become minimal, because when the thirst of the human Soul for limitlessness is directed toward the finite and a man tries to quench this thirst by material rewards which are limited, then the problems start. He tries to gain as much of the external world as he can, but he will never be satisfied with it. <28>He thirsts for fulfillment of his infinite longing within.
<29>In fact that is one of the reasons children blame their parents for their problems, because they (parents) did not show them how to quench this thirst for knowing God. Therefore they intuitively know their parents did not fulfill their duties as parents.
<30>However, if truly committed parents progress spiritually themselves or at least create enough opportunities for their children to satisfy this part of their being (to have a great spiritual teacher) and also provide them with their mental and physical needs, then a true unit family with satisfied children, spiritually, mentally, and physically, will be created.
<31>Only with such a true family unit can also a great society be created, and only with such a commitment from the parents can they expect their children to be committed to them.
<32>Again this is one of the reasons some children leave their parents when they are old, or put them in nursing homes without feeling much guilt. The message is, "You provided us with our physiological needs when we needed you, and now we will provide you with your physiological needs when you need us."
<33>If their parents were truly committed to them when they were children and were not thinking about how they can enjoy themselves but about how they can be true parents and help their children grow spiritually, mentally, and physically, they would not have been left alone in their old age.
<34>So, it is again another reason that each human should search for the truth himself, and become familiar with the truth behind this universe (creation and history) and the purpose of this life. <35>Therefore not only should they become parents for their children but also the spiritual teacher so that through them their children might realize God.
<36>With this, parents will assume the duties of two beings as parents and spiritual teacher, <37>so that they might become the second most respectful beings, after God, in the life of their children. <38>With such parents, the Kingdom of God will surely be established on earth as it is in heaven.