Truth by Contrast

2001-6-3 18:55:00

I do agree with you Royce that those with illusionary beliefs may feel insulted, not only by my questions, but by other teachings I have given out. Where one person may relish a challenge to his beliefs (as I do) another may feel highly insulted that others may consider they lack common sense.

There are two basic approaches to teaching available.

(1) Hold your finger in the air and feel everyone's thoughtforms and make sure that what you give out does not disturb any of them.
(2) Search your soul for what needs to be said and then say it as clearly as possible, even if thoughtforms are disturbed.

Just before the days of Jesus there came another Messiah named Jahaha who also had great power to do miracles and knew the mysteries of heaven.

But Jahaha had a different approach. When he realized that his miracles offended the Pharisees he decided to do only little miracles in obscure places to make sure none were offended.

He refused to raise his friend Jobba from the dead, as did Jesus with Lazarus, because he knew the religious leaders would be infuriated.

When he saw that teaching the stark truth in contrast to old illusions offended many he toned down his speech and structured all his teachings around strict obedience to law. He tried to sneak in teachings of love, but found he always had to teach in support of animal sacrifice and strict obedience to be liked.

Once he tried contrasting the law of love with the old emphasis of strict obedience and some were offended because they thought Jahaha was accusing them of being unloving. When Jahaha saw their hurt feelings he never again made the contrast.

Now of course, when we look back on history we see that Jahaha never made his point and is lost and forgotten, but the teachings of Jesus are yet alive and well. Those who were angry at Jesus for contrasting love with strict obedience are now seen as embracing illusion that needed to be dispelled.

(Note Jahaha is fictional, but I assure you there were some like him in those days)

This same principle of contrast applies today. Contrasting truth (or even perceived truth) with error will often enflame some, but to walk on eggshells to avoid contrast is a sure sign of death to most any teaching.

Buddha, Jesus, Ghandi, Abraham Lincoln, Joseph Smith, Mohammed and most other effective teachers and innovators made a large portion of the people angry at them because of the contrasts they made with old belief systems.

For a current example of this look at the two most popular, and most loved, talk show hosts in the United States. On the right we have Rush Limbaugh and on the left we have Howard Stern. Both of these have many listeners who love them to pieces, but both are also hated by many because they present their thoughts clearly with no excuses.

On the other hand, I have seen many sensitive talk show hosts come and go. They are neither loved nor hated. They are just there taking up space and wasting the listener's time.

There are many lists on Spirit Web with over double our membership yet some of them only get a post every couple days. Even though they have the numbers they have few contrasts because everyone is trying to be so nice in their presentation. The trouble is that they become so luke warm that nothing is happening.

I would rather be where life is, in the midst of a dozen than be in staleness among a thousand.