If You HAVE to Ask, You Will NEVER Know

% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.

In a Capitalistic society, the Bible is often interpreted from a Capitalistic point of view.  A case in point is where Jesus says, “Seek and you will find.”  So, in a Capitalistic society, we tend to think that Jesus is talking about money that can buy us things.  Jesus was saying no such thing.  In fact, I would go so far to say that if you have to ask about some things in life, it’s because you will NEVER know if you have to ask.  There is only one thing that Jesus was talking about here.  It is the basic element of life itself.  Jesus says too that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one can come to the Father except by Him.”  I like what He has to say about Life.  He is the embodiment of all that is good in this world.

What is Jesus talking about?  Jesus is talking about a Life of Peace.  We live not only in Peace with others, but that we have a perfect Peace within ourselves.  A Buddhist would say that if one has to ask how to have Peace, one wouldn’t find it by asking.  What matters to Jesus is that we live in Peace with ourselves and with others.  Some biblical scholars seem to think that Jesus may have belonged to a sect called the Essenes.  They lived apart from society, as a whole, and preferred lives of peaceful existence to that of living in a world of chaos.  Jesus might have been referring to the fact that if we WANT to live in Peace we have to ask to belong to people of Peace.  I would suggest too that a life of Peace and an invitation to others is for them to live in Peace as you live your life in Peace.  People of peace often will not associate themselves with people of war, unless those of war ask to belong to such people.  The Apostles were very careful about accepting such people into their fellowship, which is why they believed in the confession of sins.

I am going out on a limb by suggesting that if ANYONE had purposely taken a Human Life, it was the ONLY reason to reject one from the fellowship of believers.  No one could be admitted who had ever taken a Human Life.  I pray constantly that the world will find Peace.  There are people of Peace in this world who live austere lives apart from society as a whole.  It is in some ways the ONLY way to live a life of Peace in an otherwise often very violent world.  I see anger, hatred, and fear in the lives of people around me.  So, I choose to shut myself off from the world as much as possible spending my time in quiet meditation.  Some might suggest there is no money to be made without contact with people.  This is the choice that people of Peace HAVE to make.  It’s why we have to ask to join such fellowship because our fellowship is often more exclusive than that of the most exclusive country clubs.

Jesus is saying that if you WANT to join such a fellowship you HAVE to ask, but then as a Buddhist, I would say that the path to Peace is to seek it and NOT ask how to have it.  No one can tell you how to live a life of Peace.  It is something we ask of ourselves for there is no other way to find it.  A life of Peace is simply a desire we have to have Peace.  A life of Peace is a life that is desired.  It is a conscious decision to leave the world of hatred, anger, and fear and to enter into a world of quiet contemplation.  I have said that I belong in ANY church in the world.  I can meditate in any sanctuary alone and worship God.  I have been in many sanctuaries throughout the world, but once people arrive to worship together, I have to leave.  I really do NOT want to be around people that much at all.  I choose a life of austerity because this is the way I have found Peace; it is Peace with God and Peace with myself.  Seek and you will find.  If it is Peace you seek, you will find it.  Peace is not something you ask for.  It is something you can only find within yourself.  If you don’t find it, then it’s because you aren’t worthy of it, or you don’t want to find it.  The choice is yours to make.   Peace.  Brother Ralphie for The Angels of Life Institute