Some Beliefs of a True Mason (continue chapter 14) by jtasher Greetings Everyone! I am hopeful you had a very peaceful and healthy and safe holiday season. My time off from writing was very peaceful as I reflected upon my blessings and spent time with family. During my time off, I had this strange feeling, a feeling I had not experienced in some time; I felt pretty GOOD! Im getting my health and strength back and Im hopeful to keep getting better with no setbacks this year. Enough about me. As we continue Chapter 14, we join Pike as he lectures about the belief system of Masonry. Now, this is not a dogmatic set of instructions as Masons are indeed free to believe as they might. True Masonry would never indict her initiate due to what the initiate believes, or for what truth the initiate is a disciple of. Only man made rules are set out to judge, the pure spirit of freemasonry only wants to seek out MORE LIGHT. So, as we read through the lecture, remember that these words are a guide, and we should judge each others character neither for better or for worse by how closely we adhere to this belief system. And now LETS READ PIKE! The true Mason, sincerely holding that a Supreme God created and governs this world, believes also that He governs it by laws, which, though wise, just, and beneficent, are yet steady, unwavering, inexorable. He believes that his agonies and sorrows are ordained for his chastening, his strengthening, his elaboration and development; because they are the necessary results of the operation of laws, the best that could be devised for the happiness and purification of the species, and to give occasion and opportunity for the practice of all the virtues, from the homeliest and most common, to the noblest and most sublime; or perhaps not even that, but the best adapted to work out the vast, awful, glorious, eternal designs of the Great Spirit of the Universe. He believes that the ordained operations of nature, which have brought misery to him, have, from the very unswerving tranquility of their career, showered blessings and sunshine upon many another path; that the unrelenting chariot of Time, which has crushed or maimed him in its allotted course, is pressing onward to the accomplishment of those serene and mighty purposes, to have contributed to which, even as a victim, is an honor and a recompense. He takes this view of Time and Nature and God, and yet bears his lot without murmur or distrust; because it is a portion of a system, the best possible, because ordained by God. He does not believe that God loses sight of him, while superintending the march of the great harmonies of the Universe; nor that it was not foreseen, when the Universe was created, its laws enacted, and the long succession of its operations pre-ordained, that in the great march of those events, he would suffer pain and undergo calamity. He believes that his individual good entered into Gods consideration, a, well as the great cardinal results to which the course of all things is tending. The universe, instead of a disorderly set circumstances, is governed and orderly by the hand of God, according to this paragraph. There are laws of physics and other principles that keep the universe ever working in an order, and as we have learned in modern times, ever expanding. We also are reminded in this paragraph to find lessons in our personal calamities, for these trying times are also ordained by God, as to help us to learn a lesson we might have otherwise missed in times of plenty. But I will admit, sometimes it is easier to be bitter than to try and find goodness in bad circumstances and become better. It is human nature to shout out WHY ME? And we should be no less understood for having our personal dark moments in dark times. But we should, when the period of personal darkness is over, continue to seek the light, and find out about ourselves what the time of calamity could have taught us. Easier said than done, but we should try. Next Thus believing, he has attained an eminence in virtue, the highest, amid passive excellence, which humanity can reach. He finds his reward and his support in the reflection that he is an unreluctant and self-sacrificing co-operator with the Creator of the Universe; and in the noble consciousness of being worthy and capable of so sublime a conception, yet so sad a destiny. He is then truly p. 229 entitled to be called a Grand Elect, Perfect, and Sublime Mason. He is content to fall early in the battle, if his body may but form a stepping-stone for the future conquests of humanity. And in this paragraph, we read of the reward for our beliefs in the unseen. Pike writes of sacrifice and the willingness to sacrifice in order to build up humanity. We go forward with our works in hopes we touch someone else, but we never know if we are working and living out Masonic principles in vain. Yet we continue on and we hope. Recently, I heard someone say, and I wish I remember his name to give him his due credit for this quote, but he said that it is ok to have blind faith and we should have blind faith because it is this faith that causes us to act not knowing what the end result will be. And I find this to be truth, this study is a result of blind faith, as is The Universal Freemason Research Society, Inc. And both of these projects created in blind faith have rewarded me when many of you have contacted me stating how much this study means to you, or has touched you in some way. This is very humbling to me to know that somehow this work has meaning to someone other than myself, because I am learning a lot, too as Im reading Pikes work. The quote from this person I heard went on to state that it is NOT ok to have false hope, which is when we KNOW the result will be opposite of what we have hoped, yet continue on the bad path wasting time and energy when we could have set out with blind faith for better results. Next It cannot be that God, Who, we are certain, is perfectly good, can choose us to suffer pain, unless either we are ourselves to receive from it an antidote to what is evil in ourselves, or else as such pain is a necessary part in the scheme of the Universe, which as a whole is good. In either case, the Mason receives it with submission. He would not suffer unless it was ordered so. What-ever his creed, if he believes that God is, and that He cares for His creatures, he cannot doubt that; nor that it would not have been so ordered, unless it was either better for himself, or for some other persons, or for some things. To complain and lament is to murmur against Gods will, and worse than unbelief. Does this paragraph reflect blind faith or false hope? Probably blind faith, because the suffering endured with a faith in a supreme being with faith that it might help somebody else even though the end result is less than wed hope for is noble. How do my actions as I suffer help another? Or does it help another at all? Thats the blind faith we must have to cause us to be and do our best. Next The Mason, whose mind is cast in a nobler mould than those of the ignorant and unreflecting, and is instinct with a diviner life,--who loves truth more than rest, and the peace of Heaven rather than the peace of Eden,--to whom a loftier being brings severer cares,--who knows that man does not live by pleasure or content alone, but by the presence of the power of God,--must cast behind him the hope of any other repose or tranquillity, than that which is the last reward of long agonies of thought; he must relinquish all prospect of any Heaven save that of which trouble is the avenue and portal; he must gird up his loins, and trim his lamp, for a work that must be done, and must not be negligently done. If he does not like to live in the furnished lodgings of tradition, he must build his own house, his own system of faith and thought, for himself, The hope of success, and not the hope of reward, should be our stimulating and sustaining power. Our object, and not ourselves, should be our inspiring thought. Selfishness is a sin, when temporary, and for time. Spun out to eternity, it does not become celestial prudence. We should toil and die, not for Heaven or Bliss, but for Duty. We are reminded in these paragraphs to seek out our own truths, and that seeking out our own truths is a never ending work. We are also reminded that our hopes should be for success in our works, and not for reward. We must take time to carefully consider what success means to each of us individually, as we seek out the good we can do for others before we consider what good we can do for ourselves. And this is where we will end for today. Im always hopeful that reading through Pikes works will at least cause us to maybe rethink old ideas we have harbored, and at most maybe change a way of thinking and acting that is not only detrimental to society, but detrimental to ourselves. When we decide to make a change in our attitudes and our actions, which IS hard work, people will notice and maybe that is the inspiration they need to make changes for the better, too. Thank you for taking time on this first weekend of the New Year to join me again. Next week we will continue with Chapter 14! /home/wpcom/public_html/wp-content/blogs.dir/0b7/42925442/files/2015/01/img_0819.jpg jtasher | January 4, 2015 at 11:55 am | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: wp.me/p2U6RQ-iD Comment See all comments
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:02:50 +0000
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