Daily Meditation: Monday, May 11, 2009

When they have money, machinery and weapons, humans believe …

05/11/2009

When they have money, machinery and weapons, humans believe themselves to be rich and powerful, and they are indeed powerful all the while these means remain at their disposal. But if they lose them, how weak, feeble and vulnerable they become again! Yes, because none of these means belong to them. The difference between a spiritual person and an ordinary person is that the spiritual person’s wealth and weapons really belong to them. Even if they come to lose all their material possessions, they continue to feel full of light, powerful and fulfilled, because their wealth, their machinery and their weapons are inner ones. All those whose possessions are merely outer ones do not really own anything, because nothing outer belongs to us. They’re like the general who gets saluted on parade because of his medals, but if you came across him at the swimming pool, he’s so feeble and puny, you might even knock into him, because you wouldn’t recognize him! Only spiritual people retain their power and their wealth, because, having worked on their own inner potential, they carry them with them wherever they go. How are we to understand the second verse of the book of Genesis: ‘And the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters’? The movement of the spirit of God over the waters heralds the very process of creation. God did not wish to remain pure spirit; he entered matter, which is symbolized by water, so as to animate it and bring out all its richness. This is why humans, who were created in God’s image, are also called to work on matter through the power of the spirit. Our spirit is of the same quintessence as the spirit of God. So, on high, in the divine world, we are perfect, and our work is to manifest this perfection below, in matter. What is evolution? The process by which matter ‘rises’ as the spirit ‘descends’.