Monday, October 12, 2015

The Dalai Lama on Love, Compassion & Tolerance

“Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” 

By The 14th Dalai Lama

The essence of all religions is love, compassion, and tolerance. Kindness is my true religion. No matter whether you are learned or not, whether you believe in the next life or not, whether you believe in God or Buddha or some other religion or not, in day-to-day life you must be a kind person. When you are motivated by kindness, it doesn’t matter whether you are a practitioner, a lawyer, a politician, an administrator, a worker, or an engineer: whatever your profession or field, deep down you are a kind person. Love, compassion, and tolerance are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance. The clear proof of a person’s love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings.

To have strong consideration for others’ happiness and welfare, we must have a special altruistic attitude in which we take upon ourselves the burden of helping others. To generate such an unusual attitude, we must have great compassion — caring about the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it. To have such a strong force of compassion, we must have a strong sense of love that, upon observing sentient beings, wishes that they have happiness — finding a pleasantness in everyone and wishing happiness for everyone, just as a mother does for her sole sweet child. To have a sense of closeness and dearness for others, use as a model a person in this lifetime who was very kind to you. Then extend this sense of gratitude to all beings.

Deep down we must have real affection for each other, a clear realization or recognition of our shared human status. At the same time, we must openly accept all ideologies and systems as a means of solving humanity’s problems. One country, one nation, one ideology, one system is not sufficient. It is helpful to have a variety of different approaches on the basis of a deep feeling of the basic sameness of humanity. We can then make a joint effort to solve the problems of the whole of humankind.

Every major religion has similar ideas of love, the same goal of benefiting through spiritual practice, and the same effect of making its followers into better human beings. All religions teach moral precepts for perfecting the functions of mind, body, and speech. All teach us not to lie or steal or take others’ lives, and so on. The common goal of all moral precepts laid down by the great teachers of humanity is unselfishness. Those teachers wanted to lead their followers away from the paths of negative deeds caused by ignorance and to introduce them to paths of goodness. All religions can learn from one another; their ultimate goal is to produce better human beings who will be more tolerant, more compassionate, and less selfish.

Human beings need spiritual as well as material sustenance. Without spiritual sustenance, it is difficult to get and maintain peace of mind. The purpose of religion is not to argue which one is the best. Over the past centuries, each great teaching has served humanity, so it’s much better to make friends, understand each other, and make an effort to serve humanity than to criticize or argue. Buddha, Jesus Christ, and all other great teachers created their ideas and teachings with sincere motivation, love, and kindness toward humanity, and they shared it for the benefit of humanity. I do not think those great teachers created differences to make trouble. Our human mind always likes different approaches. There is a richness in the fact that there are so many different presentations of the way.

There are two ways to enter into Buddhism: one through faith and one through reasoning. Faith alone may not be sufficient. Buddha always emphasized a balance of wisdom and compassion: a good brain and a good heart should work together. Placing importance on just the intellect and ignoring the heart can create more problems and more suffering in the world. On the other hand, if we emphasize only the heart, and ignore the brain, then there is not much difference between humans and animals. These two must be developed in balance, and when they are, the result is material progress accompanied by good spiritual development. Heart and mind working in harmony will yield a truly peaceful and friendly human family.

I feel that my mission is, wherever I am, to express my feeling about the importance of kindness, compassion, and the true sense of brotherhood. I practice these things. It gives me more happiness, more success. If I practice anger or jealousy or bitterness, no doubt my smile would disappear.

The real troublemakers are anger, jealousy, impatience, and hatred. With them, problems cannot be solved. Though we may have temporary success, ultimately our hatred or anger will create further difficulties. Anger makes for swift solutions. Yet, when we face problems with compassion, sincerity, and good motivation, our solutions may take longer, but ultimately they are better.

When I meet new people, in my mind there is no barrier, no curtain. As human beings you are my brothers and sisters; there is no difference in substance. I can talk with you as I would to old friends. With this feeling we can communicate without any difficulty and can make heart-to-heart contact. Based on such genuine human relations — real feeling for each other, understanding each other — we can develop mutual trust and respect. From that, we can share other people’s suffering and build harmony in human society.

Excerpted with permission from the book Handbook for the Spirit
© 2008 Edited by Richard Carlson & Benjamin Shield.
Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA.

So Who Are the People Who Have Demons?

This writing is done to get you as a reader to understand that every person (human being) living has Demons until they get delivered from them.  The word of God says in John 10:10 ‘For the thief comes to steal (you), kill (you) & destroy (you)’.  This verse is referring to all humans.

So as you are sitting here now reading this blog you are saying “oh come on that is not true”, “your off your rocker”, “oh you’re a whack job”, etc.  Well here is the truth –There are NO (none/zero/zip) Scriptures that say an UNSAVED or SAVED person CAN or CANNOT have demons, or that the demons leave when a person gets saved.  So who has demons? EVERYONE!!  Even Christians professed in Christ Jesus have demons until they get casted out and that is who those of us in the Deliverance ministry who do this to help.

The Bible says in Mark 16:17 ‘THOSE THAT BELIEVE SHALL CAST OUT DEMONS.’  That means ALL Believers - MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN are to cast out demons.  Demons are anything that control, harasses, torments, or drives a person to do things they ought not to do, or wish they didn't do.

Examples of demons would be as follows: temper, depression, fear, sickness, envy, anxiety, lust, greed, pride, suicidal thoughts, mental illnesses (schizophrenia, bi-polar, Tourette’s), homosexuality, rejection, abandonment, hurt, body illnesses, anger, rage, obesity, vanity are just a few of the demons. They are INSIDE of you as well as others!

Human beings are body, soul, and spirit.  The demons (fallen angels) get into our body through sin, ancestral aspects (curses) and other forms of actions.  The demons enter through one of five gates of the body (eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin).  Demons are the reason morbidly obese people cannot keep the weight off in many cases. ONE SIMPLY CANNOT DIET A DEMON AWAY.  These forces must be cast OUT in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

The demons get in the soul (which is your mind, will, and emotions).  Once there they cause the person to think, do, and act in a way they shouldn't and wish they hadn’t.  The Demons CANNOT get into your Spirit though, because this is where the Holy Spirit is found.  This is why Christians CAN and DO have demons.

However, the unsaved are rooted far deeper because Christ Jesus is not present on the inside.  Now these people (who have not accepted Christ Jesus into their hearts) can be wonderful and good people but they still have demons.  The demons surround your spirit area so one cannot do the things they ought to do, like pray, read the Bible and study the word of God as a Christian.

So here is an example to understand.  If you clasp two hands together tightly interlocking your fingers and squeeze hard and run water over your hands what do you notice?  See how nothing can get inside of your palms, not even water or air for a matter of fact.  This is what the demons do to your spirit area, as this is the place where the Holy Spirit reside within the believer.  So the act of deliverance releases these demons, which causes a believer to now grow closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Obviously there are Christians who are not yet totally "clenched" by the demons, but it is the goal of these Fallen Angels to clench them down even further by causing willful sin.

So do demons still possess Christian people even today?   Well not possess but rather have them in control so to speak, meaning in the grasp or grip.  Non-believers are in the grasp further than the Christian.  In the book of Zechariah, an Old Testament prophet, who spoke of the time when Christ Jesus would arrive.  Zechariah said “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness” (Zechariah 13:1).

This fountain was opened when the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross for the sins of the world.  Zechariah said “And it shall come to pass in that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land (13:2).” Following the time when the Lord Jesus Christ would die for our sins, prophets (men who spoke by the Holy Spirit) and unclean spirits (demons) would no longer be in the land (earth).

God provides permission for the demons to possess (be in the grips – not own them for God the Father owns all souls) so to speak.  Certain people in the time of Christ Jesus and the apostles dealt with demonic forces so that HIS power could be seen.  Not only did Christ Jesus have power over nature, disease, and death, but HE also has the power over the spirit world.

The Devil and the demons were proved to be powerless before the Son of God (Colossians 2:15; 1 John 3:8).  Demons still exist and they do pursue sinners (both willfully sinning Christians and the non-believers) to place in them into the grips to this very day. Today, we need to be concerned even more with the Devil, the demons and those messengers of Satan who tempt us to sin (James 1:14; Matthew 4:3; 1 Peter 5:8).

Here is the sad reality so to speak.  Christians, unfortunately, think that just because they have turned their lives over to the Lord and the Holy Spirit has come into their lives, that they are safe from the wiles of the Devil.  WRONG!  Satan loves to hear this and preach this as well. The Devil has a good chance of wrecking that Christian's life, because evil is a powerful force which takes discipline to overcome by resisting sin and the temptation to sin.

Christians are not building their arsenal for warfare properly.  Christians are not “in training” to ensure they are ready to do battle with demons or the devil directly, let alone the non-believer which is far worse.  Sadly, Christians today seem to do just enough to stay on “par or status quo.” Just enough reading and praying that the majority of Christians partake with is just enough to keep their knowledge and battle expertise at some small level as the day they gave their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, one must realize that Satan has a plan for all lives, just as God has a plan too. Both are going to fight for each and every one of us. God is the stronger of the two, which we know this, but HE also tells us what we need to do, how to do it and what will happen if we do what He tells us to do. However, if Satan can interfere with that advice and get the person off track and keep them off track, then Satan will probably win the battle.

So now you understand even more about humans having demons!

Rev. Bradley Luoma