You could be brave in battle, that’s one thing, but to be brave in the battle against your own lower self – that is the real fight that we’re struggling with and winning or losing to some degree or another every single day.

[Mark] Christianity is about selfless service. It’s about going against the status quo. It’s about fighting for truth. It’s about giving up everything you have to do the greatest good. It’s a far braver thing than being a warrior in a normal sense.

And I’m not trying to preach because I don’t presume to have reached that stage myself, but it is an ideal that I aspire to – that level of detachment from society’s expectations, and the fulfilment, in the place of society’s expectations, of the duties that we all owe to God.

Not God as a mythical overlord who will punish us but God as the Divine essence that is literally at the core of our being, and is literally our creator, our father, our mother, and what we are, and what one day we will realize we are.

[Darren] I think in one way that’s a tremendous example of bravery, really. And maybe one reason why it’s the First Freedom – you quoted from The Nine Freedoms earlier.

[Mark] Well, it’s the greatest bravery there is. And I think, really, it’s the only bravery there is. Because you could be brave in battle; probably I wouldn’t be, so I’m not condemning people for being brave in battle, I’m just commenting on the teachings really… You could be brave in battle, that’s one thing, but to be brave in the battle against your own lower self – that is the real fight that we’re struggling with and winning or losing to some degree or another every single day.

[Darren] The Cross is an ancient symbol and one which really depicts that journey that we’re making back to the Godhead. I know there’s a quote in The Twelve Blessings even to that effect that Jesus shares.

[Mark] Absolutely, well let’s share it with the viewers. This is in reference to the cross:

“This, My children, is not the symbol of death. It is the Symbol of Resurrection. It is not the symbol of the terrible death depicted by your foolish priests! It is the lasting Symbol of Resurrection of the Spirit of Man, up to the Mighty Godhead–through Karmic Experience. That is what it is!
Because of such–it is a Holy Symbol.
Treat it as such. Make it known that it is such!”

And I think that’s interesting really on so many levels. Because it was only through dying that he was able to resurrect.

And I think this is the message: it is through crucifixion; it’s through being persecuted; it’s through being ridiculed; it’s through going against the standards of this world, in a positive way, that we will rise and although we may be scorned in all sorts of ways and we may be poor or whatever when we’re alive on this plane on this Earth, it must lead to our own resurrection.

And that is something that Jesus does promise us: our own resurrection. That if we suffer for truth, we will be resurrected in the light.

And of course according to the law of karma that will be in exact proportion to the degree of suffering that we’ve been through.

[Darren] This is really our choice isn’t it? It speaks to the importance of truth above all things, and also the importance of spiritual action, which is the choice we all have before us to make.

Want to join the conversation?

Leave us your comments or a question on YouTube!