(20)

The disciples said to Jesus,
"Tell us what the kingdom of heaven is like."
He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed.
It is the smallest of all seeds.

But when it falls on tilled soil,

it produces a great plant and

becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."

Mark 4:31-32

“It is like a mustard seed; when sown in the ground it is smaller than any other seed, but

once sown, it springs up and grows taller than

any other plant, and forms branches so large

that birds can roost in its shade.”

Matthew 13:31-32

“The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Mustard is smaller than any other seed, but when it has grown it is taller than other plants; it becomes a tree, big enough for the birds to come and roost among its branches.”

also see

Luke 13:18-19

 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.”

Chadogya Upanishad 800 B.C.
"There is a spirit that is mind and life, light, and truth and vast spaces. He enfolds the whole universe and in silence is loving all.  This is the spirit that is in my heart, smaller than a grain of
mustard seed, greater that the earth, greater than the heavens."

The Jesus Seminar's book, The Five Gospels

by Robert W. Funk, et al, has the following interpretation of Saying (20):
"The birds stand for those irritating

'toll collectors and sinners'
(the followers of Jesus)

who are attracted to a noxious plant
(God's domain),

and God's empire thus sprouts up

in Israel’s ordered field

as an unwanted intrusion."

Like a raging fire started with just a spark,

the Kingdom grows from something very small

into something "greater than the heavens".

In his popular book, Richard Carlson, PHD tells us

"Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff",

but sometimes the smallest details do matter. There is another book title by Bruce & Stan

which reads,

"God Is In The Small Stuff

And It All Matters”!

The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self.

–Albert Einstein

Every part of this earth is sacred to my people.

Every shining pine needle,

every sandy shore.

Every mist in the dark woods,

every clearing and

every humming insect

is holy in the memory of my people.

–Chief Seath (letter to the President of USA, 1883)

“The essence of divinity is found in every single thing – nothing but it exists. Since it causes every thing to be, no thing can live by anything else. It enlivens them, its existence exists in each existent.

        Do not attribute duality to God. Let God be solely God. If you suppose that Ain Sof emanates until  a certain point, and that from that point on is outside of it, you have dualized. God forbid! Do not say, ‘This is a stone and not God.’ God forbid! Rather, all existence is God, and the stone is a thing pervaded by divinity.”

- Moses Cordovero (Shiur Komah)

That is the gospel of him whom they seek, which he has revealed to the perfect through the mercies of the Father as the hidden mystery, Jesus the Christ. Through him he enlightened those who were in darkness because of forgetfulness. He enlightened them and gave them a path. And that path is the truth which he taught them. For this reason error was angry with him, so it persecuted him. It was distressed by him, so it made him powerless. He was nailed to a cross. He became a fruit of the knowledge of the Father. He did not, however, destroy them because they ate of it. He rather caused those who ate of it to be joyful because of this discovery.

And as for him, them he found in himself, and him they found in themselves, that illimitable, inconceivable one, that perfect Father who made the all, in whom the All is, and whom the All lacks, since he retained in himself their perfection, which he had not given to the all. The Father was not jealous. What jealousy, indeed, is there between him and his members? For, even if the Aeon had received their perfection, they would not have been able to approach the perfection of the Father, because he retained their perfection in himself, giving it to them as a way to return to him and as a knowledge unique in perfection. He is the one who set the All in order and in whom the All existed and whom the All lacked. As one of whom some have no knowledge, he desires that they know him and that they love him. For what is it that the All lacked, if not the knowledge of the Father?

–Gospel of Truth

“Before anything emanated, there was only Ain Sof. Ain Sof was all that existed. Similarly, after it brought into being that which exists, there is nothing but it. You cannot find anything that exists apart from it. There is nothing that is not pervaded by the power of divinity. If there were, Ain Sof would be limited, subject to duality, God forbid! Rather, God is everything that exists, though everything that exists is not God. It is present in everything, and everything comes into being from it. Nothing is devoid of its divinity. Everything is within it; it is within everything and outside of everything. There is nothing but it.”

- Moses Cordovero (Elimah Rabbati

(19)

Jesus said,
"Blessed is he who came into being

before he came into being.
If you become my disciples

and listen to my words,
these stones will minister to you.
For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall.
Whoever becomes acquainted with them

will not experience death."

Pistis Sophia

“he had not told them in which places

the five trees are spread”

The Works of Philo, Yonge, 1993

from Allegorical Interpretation

“the trees of virtue…he plants in the soul”

“the tree of life is that most general virtue

which some people call goodness; from which

the particular virtues are derived, and of

which they are composed.”

from On Husbandry

“I will implant in those souls which are of

a childlike age, young shoots, whose fruits

shall nourish them…I will implant…

the tree of prudence,

the tree of courage,

the tree of temperance,

the tree of justice,

the tree of every respective virtue.”

Eating the fruit of the tree of good and evil

produced “the fall”, because it brought about

the myth that duality is reality.
The truth is, good and evil are One,

therefore that tree is not
one of these five trees.

from Philo’s Allegorical Interpretation:

“the tree of life…Moses expressly says, that it is placed in the middle of the paradise; but as to the other tree, that namely of the knowledge of good and evil, he has not specified whether it is within or outside of the Paradise.”

I believe the five trees are the five Gnostic rites and may have been associated with actual plants as were the Greek gods and goddesses.

1.) BAPTISM = LILY (WATER) = JUNO
[goddess of childbirth- “born again”]
2.) EUCHARIST = VINE (WINE) = BACCHUS
[another dying and resurrecting god-man]

& WHEAT=DEMETER/MOTHER EARTH

    [Goddess nourishing wheat from below]
3.) CHRISM = OLIVE (OIL) = MINERVA
[goddess of Wisdom/Sophia, “Spirit”]

4.)REDEMPTION = OAK = JUPITER

    [god of the sky]

    [meeting archons in ascent through heavens]
5.)BRIDAL CHAMBER = LINDEN

    = PHILEMON & BAUCIS
[the eternal couple representing mutual love]

In the Pistis Sophia, Jesus augments all twelve of the standard-issue souls in his twelve chosen ones with special supercharged “powers”.

Pistis Sophia: Chapter 7

“when I entered the world I brought twelve powers with me, …which I took from the Twelve saviors of the Treasury of Light, …These now I cast into the wombs of your mothers when I came into the world,

and it is these which are in your bodies today. 

For these powers have been given to you above the whole world, for you are those who are able to save the whole world, so that you should be able to withstand the threat of the archons of the world, …

and all their persecutions which the archons of the height will bring upon you.”

“the power which is within you I have brought from the twelve saviors…For this reason …you are not from the world; I also am not from it. For all men who are in the world have received souls from (the power) of the archon of the aeons. The power, however, which is in you, is from me but you souls belong to the height.”

John 6:68,70

Simon Peter answered him,

“Lord, to whom shall we go?”
Jesus answered,

“Have I not chosen the twelve of you?

Jesus’ choosing of the twelve disciples takes place after being baptized in the Jordan and going into

the desert for forty days and forty nights. This is analogous to Joshua’s choosing of the twelve men to represent the twelve tribes after coming out of the desert for forty years and then crossing the Jordan on dry land.

Joshua 4:2-8

“Choose twelve men from the people, one from each tribe, and order them to take up twelve stones from this place in the middle of the Jordan, …They are to carry the stones across and place them in the camp …

These stones are to stand as a memorial among you.”

I can’t help but picture Jesus standing among these twelve stones, arranged like a zodiac wheel, when he says:

If you become my disciples

and listen to my words,

these stones will minister to you.

The stones represent the power of the 12 tribes,

present within the 12 disciples,

now transformed into 12 saviors

capable of saving “the whole world”.

“Perform your obligatory duty, because action is indeed better than inaction.”

–Bhagavad Gita

“All through the Verba Seniorum [The Sayings of the Desert Fathers] we find a repeated insistence on the primacy of love over everything else in the spiritual life: over knowledge, gnosis, asceticism, contemplation, solitude, prayer. Love in fact is the spiritual life, and without it all the other exercises of the spirit, however lofty, are emptied of content and become mere illusions. The more lofty they are, the more dangerous the illusion.

Love, of course, means something much more then mere sentiment, much more than token favors and perfunctory almsdeeds. Love mean an interior and spiritual identification with one’s neighbor, so that she is not regarded as an “object” to “which” one “does good.” The fact is that good done to another as an object is of little or no spiritual value. Love takes one’s neighbor as one’s other self, and loves him with all the immense humility and discretion and reserve and reverence without which no one can presume to enter into the sanctuary of another’s subjectivity. From such love all authoritarian brutality, all exploitation, domineering and condescension must necessarily be absent. The saints of the desert were enemies of every subtle or gross expedient by which “the spiritual man” contrives to bully those he thinks inferior to himself, thus gratifying his own ego. They had renounced everything that savored of punishment and revenge, however hidden it might be.”

–Thomas Merton.

He who loves

does not think about his own life;

to love truly,

a man must forget about himself.

If you desires do not accord with your spirit,

sacrifice them,

and you will come to the end of your journey.

If the body of desire obstructs the way,

reject it; then fix your eye

in front and contemplate.

–Attar

Do not seek the truth

Only cease to cherish opinions

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the unfortunate frogs they would never get out. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit.

The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and simply gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and suffering and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs asked him, “Why did you continue jumping. Didn’t you hear us?”

The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

An inch of time is an inch of gold: treasure it.

Appreciate its fleeting nature;

misplaced gold is easily found,

misspent time is lost forever.

–Loy Chin-Yuen

The purpose of life is to live it,

to taste experience to the utmost,

to reach out eagerly without fear

for newer and richer experience.

–Elanor Roosevelt

Haah-nah^‘e ma’heo^‘o, GREAT ONE,

You who bless your entire creation with spiritual life–

With sacred water,

With the sacred light and fire of the sun,

With the sacred sky dome covering of air, and

With the sacred red earth altar, from where I send out my prayers to the four sacred directions.

Ne-a’ese, hear this humble prayer.

I thank you for the Grandfather Spirit Power of the East­Southeast, the place of beginnings.

I pray for the young mother who is bringing new life to the people–bless her and her baby with health and serenity.

I pray for the small child, new to the earth walk on this medicine wheel of earth-bless this new life with all things good and with long life.

I turn in prayer to the Grandfather Spirit Power of the South­ Southwest, the place of continued human growth called youth.

I pray for the young person, both male and female–bless this person with power and awareness to walk as a respectful relative to earth and everything on and in it.

I turn in prayer to the Grandfather Spirit Power of the West­Northwest, the place of adulthood.

I pray for a man and a woman, the humble, two-legged

walker with five fingers.

Bless this person, this parent, this grandparent with spiri­tual knowledge and patience to build a good, stable family and a strong, unified community.

I turn my prayer to the Grandfather Spirit Power of the North­Northwest, the place of wisdom and old age.

I pray for the elder that has walked long on this earth and experienced the wonder and mystery of life.

Bless this beloved grandparent with a generous heart and spirit to wisely and lovingly share the sacred teachings of life.

I turn back to the East and pray that all my relatives be clothed with holiness, with ma’heo’ne-vestse.

Ma^‘heo’ne-vestse all those yet to be born.

Ma^‘heo’ne-vestse animal people, water people. Ma’heo’ne-vestse crawling people, flying people. Ma’heo’ne-vestse rooted people.

Ma^‘heo’ne-vestse human beings,

Who too are spiritually rooted in the good Mother Earth, Who must collectively be prayerful-minded about the sa­credness and interdependence of life.

Bless us with the knowledge and wisdom to live as good relatives, with happy hearts and strong spirits, who can face the next millennium with the courage of love and power of peace.

Hena’haanehe.

Henrietta Mann
Cheyenne, professor of Native American Studies,
University of Montana

A priest was in charge of the garden within a famous Zen temple. He had been given the job because he loved the flowers, shrubs, and trees. Next to the temple there was another, smaller temple where there lived a very old Zen master. One day, when the priest was expecting some special guests, he took extra care in tending to the garden. He pulled the weeds, trimmed the shrubs, combed the moss, and spent a long time meticulously raking up and carefully arranging all the dry autumn leaves. As he worked, the old master watched him with interest from across the wall that separated the temples.

When he had finished, the priest stood back to admire his work. “Isn’t it beautiful,” he called out to the old master. “Yes,” replied the old man, “but there is something missing. Help me over this wall and I’ll put it right for you.”

After hesitating, the priest lifted the old fellow over and set him down. Slowly, the master walked to the tree near the center of the garden, grabbed it by the trunk, and shook it. Leaves showered down all over the garden. “There,” said the old man, “you can put me back now.”

The Miracle is not to fly in the air,

or to walk on the water:

but to walk on the earth.

–Chinese proverb

In the ancient days, when the first quiver of speech came to my lips, I ascended the holy mountain and spoke unto God, saying, “Master, I am thy slave. Thy hidden will is my law and I shall obey thee for ever more.”

But God made no answer, and like a mighty tempest passed away.

And after a thousand years I ascended the holy mountain and again spoke unto God, saying, “Creator, I am thy creation. Out of clay hast thou fashioned me and to thee I owe mine all.”

And God made no answer, but like a thousand swift wings passed away.

And after a thousand years I climbed the holy mountain and spoke unto God again, saying, “Father, I am thy son. In pity and love thou hast given me birth, and through love and worship I shall inherit thy kingdom.”

And God made no answer, and like the mist that veils the distant hills he passed away.

And after a thousand years I climbed the sacred mountain and gain spoke unto God, saying, “My God, my aim and my fulfilment; I am thy yesterday and thou are my tomorrow. I am thy root in the earth and thou art my flower in the sky, and together we grow before the face of the sun.”

Then God leaned over me, and in my ears whispered words of sweetness, and even as the sea that enfoldeth a brook that runneth down to her, he enfolded me.

And when I descended to the valleys and the plains God was there also.

–Kahlil Gibran

It is my natural state

To be filled with joy,

A joy that knows from whence I came

And who I truly am.

My moods may swing from up to down

But behind this flows

My joy in life.

Depressed emotions draw to me

Only more of the same.

I leave low vibrations behind

As I dance in the warm sun

Of this day.

–Danaan Parry

I’ve been scattered in pieces,

torn by conflict,

mocked by laughter,

washed down in drink.

In alleyways I sweep myself up

out of garbage and broken glass…

It’s here in all the pieces of my shame

that I now find myself again…

I yearn to be held

in the great hands of your heart —

oh let them take me now.

Into them I place these fragments, my life,

and you, God—spend them however you want.

-          Rainer Maria Rilke

The people of the kingdom of Sadik surrounded the palace of their king shouting in rebellion against him. And he came down the steps of the palace carrying his crown in one hand and his sceptre in the other. The majesty of his appearance silenced the multitude, and he stood before them and said, “My friends, who are no longer my subjects, here I yield my crown and sceptre unto you. I would be one of you. I am only one man, but as a man I would work together with you that our lot may be made better. There is no need for king. Let us go therefore to the fields and the vineyards and labour hand with hand. Only you must tell me to what field or vineyard I should go. All of you now are king.”

And the people marvelled, and stillness was upon them, for the king whom they had deemed the source of their discontent now yielding his crown and sceptre to them and became as one of them.

Then each and every one of them went his way, and the king walked with one man to a field.

But the Kingdom of Sadik fared not better without a king, and the mist of discontent was still upon the land. The people cried out in the market places saying that they have a king to rule them. And the elders and the youths said as if with one voice, “We will have our king.”

And they sought the king and found him toiling in the field, and they brought him to his seat, and yielded unto his crown and his sceptre. And they said, “Now rule us, with might and with justice.”

And he said, “I will indeed rule you with might, and may the gods of the heaven and the earth help me that I may also rule with justice.”

Now, there came to his presence men and women and spoke unto him of a baron who mistreated them, and to whom they were but serfs.

And straightway the king brought the baron before him and said, “The life of one man is as weighty in the scales of God as the life of another. And because you know not how to weigh the lives of those who work in your fiends and your vineyards, you are banished, and you shall leave this kingdom forever.”

The following day came another company to the king and spoke of the cruelty of a countess beyond the hills, and how she brought them down to misery. Instantly the countess was brought to court, and the king sentenced her also to banishment, saying, “Those who till our fields and care for our vineyards are nobler than we who eat the bread they prepare and drink the wine of their wine-press. And because you know not this, you shall leave this land and be afar from this kingdom.”

Then came men and women who said that the bishop made them bring stones and hew the stones for the cathedral, yet he gave them naught, though they knew the bishop’s coffer was full of gold and silver while they themselves were empty with hunger.

And the king called for the bishop, and when the bishop came the king spoke and said unto his, “That cross you wear upon your bosom should mean giving life unto life. But you have taken life from life and you have given none. Therefore you shall leave this kingdom never to return.”

Thus each day for a full moon men and women came to the king to tell him of the burdens laid upon them. And each and every day a full moon some oppressor was exiled from the land.

And the people of Sadik were amazed, and there was cheer in their heart.

And upon a day the elders and the youths came and surrounded the tower of the king and called for him. And he came down holding his crown with one hand and his sceptre with the other.

And he spoke unto and said, “Now, what would you do of me? Behold, I yield back to you that which you desired me to hold.”

But they cried. “Nay, nay, you are our rightful king. You have made clean the land of vipers, and you have brought the wolves to naught, and we welcome to sing our thanksgiving unto you. The crown is yours in majesty and the sceptre is yours in glory.”

Then the king said, “Not I, not I. You yourselves are king. When you deemed me weak and a misruler, you yourselves were weak and misruling. And now the land fares well because it is in your will. I am but a thought in the mind of you all, and I exist not save in your actions. There is no such person as governor. Only the governed exist to govern themselves.”

And the king re-entered his tower with his crown and his sceptre. And the elders and the youths went their various ways and they were content.

And each and every one thought of himself as king with a crown in one hand and a sceptre in the other.

–Kahlil Gibran

There is no path that leads to Zen.

How can you follow a path to where you are right now?

–Robert Allen

The stunning paradox of human spiritual maturity is that, as we become one with all creation, we also at the same time become completely and uniquely ourselves.

–Thomas Yeomans

A person is born alone and also dies alone. No one else has a share in one’s agony. What is the use of loved ones who create hindrances?

 Just as one who has undertaken a journey takes lodging, so does one who travels in the cycle of existence take lodging in a rebirth.

Until one his hoisted by four men and mourned by the world, one should retire to the forest.

Without intimacy and without conflict, one dwells in physical solitude, and when one is counted as if already dead no one grieves when one actually dies.

There is on one to inflict grief and harm, nor is there any one to distract one from the recollection of the Buddha and so forth.

Thus, I shall always dwell alone in the delightful forest, which creates few problems, good cheer, and the pacification of all distraction.

Free from all other concerns and having a single-pointed mind, I shall apply myself to meditative concentration and to the subjugation of the mind.

–Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way Of Life

I gained nothing at all from supreme enlightenment, and for that very reason it is called supreme enlightenment

- the Buddha

You wander from room to room

Hunting for the diamond necklace

That is already around your neck

–Rumi

The tempest calmed after bending the branches of the trees and leaning heavily upon the grain in the field. The stars appeared as broken remnants of lightning, but now silence prevailed over all, as if Nature’s war had never been fought.

At that hour a young woman entered her chamber and knelt by her bed sobbing bitterly. Her heart flamed with agony but she could finally open her lips and say, “Oh Lord, bring him home safely to me. I have exhausted my tears and can offer no more, oh Lord, full of love and mercy. My patience is drained and calamity is seeking possession of my heart. Save him, oh Lord, from the iron paws of War; deliver him from such unmerciful Death, for he is weak, governed by the strong. Oh Lord, save my beloved, who is Thine own son, from the foe, who is Thy foe. Keep him from the forced pathway to Death’s door; let him see me, or come and take me to him.”

Quietly a young man entered. His head was wrapped in bandage soaked with escaping life.

He approached he with a greeting of tears and laughter, then took her hand and placed against it his flaming lips. And with a voice with bespoke past sorrow, and joy of union, and uncertainty of her reaction, he said, “Fear me not, for I am the object of your plea. Be glad, for Peace has carried me back safely to you, and humanity has restored what greed essayed to take from us. Be not sad, but smile, my beloved. Do not express bewilderment, for Love has power that dispels Death; charm that conquers the enemy. I am your one. Think me not a spectre emerging from the House of Death to visit your Home of Beauty.

“Do not be frightened, for I am now Truth, spared from swords and fire to reveal to the people the triumph of Love over War. I am Word uttering introduction to the play of happiness and peace.”

Then the young man became speechless and his tears spoke the language of the heart; and the angels of Joy hovered about that dwelling, and the two hearts restored the singleness which had been taken from them.

At dawn the two stood in the middle of the field contemplating the beauty of Nature injured by the tempest. After a deep and comforting silence, the soldier said to his sweetheart, “Look at the Darkness, giving birth to the Sun.”

–Kahlil Gibran

It is as if a raindrop fell from heaven into a stream or fountain and became one with the water in it so that never again can the raindrop be separated from the water of the stream; or as if a little brook ran into the sea and there was thenceforward no means of distinguishing its water from the ocean; or as if a brilliant light came into a room through two windows and though it comes in divided between them it forms a single light inside.

–St Teresa