Giving to the Needy
6 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honoured by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
What Jesus says here is true of pleasure too. When we perform an activity that leads to pleasure that is our reward. And really what a petty reward. No sooner have we eaten the ice cream the pleasure is fading and soon all memory of it is gone. Perhaps this is good because we can embark on a new activity to bring pleasure. And so we live a busy life.
But at the end of it all, when all our pleasures have faded what is left? Nothing. All our rewards have been delivered.
But if we do not leap into activity to fulfil that desire and get the payment we want. What happens then? We can get angry with whatever is stopping us and throw a childish tantrum. Indeed the brain is very likely to do this. And we will have many thoughts that try to argue in favour of the pleasure. But eventually all these tricks and the lashing of the shape-shifting hydra will slow down and we will be able to see what is going on.
Now we can always gain the pleasure that is never denied us, we can always cash that cheque. But what lies in private if we don't cache the cheque? Ignoring petty pleasures like ice creams leads to a state of mind that is observant and freed from the niggling whims of desires. It is freed. This is not a reward we can demonstrate or buy, it is purely between ourselves and God. Indeed God will reward us handsomely for this because freedom is the highest reward. Indeed this is the reward of the same kind as Heaven. It does not diminish or tarnish like worldly rewards, it keeps us close to God.
I can only wonder that this is the motivation for the ascetic and monastic ways of life. They look austere on the outside but on the inside they are closer to heaven than anything the world can reward us with.
Its a shame that monasteries and priesthoods have been rocked by scandals over the years most recently the Catholic Church and the huge amount of child sex crimes that appear to have been covered up by the church. Such weakness occurs everywhere not just the Catholic church and especially in communities of celibate individuals whose needs are never met. Indeed I've heard Catholics speaking of the dangers of putting young men in celibate life styles without full understanding of what this entails. They grow up extremely confused and probably victims of abuse themselves. It is a terrible and unfortunate state of affairs and one doubly tragic because it obscures even more the difficult path of Godliness. Just as Jesus sat with sinners, you can be sure the Devil wants nothing more than to sit with the holy! Such irony of the most respected and devout turning out to be the lowest sinners is no accident.
But we should remember that the bankrupt Henry VIII played on this stereotype of the debauched, licentious monk to part justify his entirely criminal abolition and theft of the monasteries. Its not a new stereotype. And I hear in India the Muslim run Bollywood casts every Hindu priest as a rapist. There is definite political leverage being gained in all this.
So what to do? Well forcing abstinence is the worst thing to do. It is Hypocritical exactly as Jesus says above. It is a sin in fact! It is dishonest. Just acting out abstinence achieves nothing. If you do not understand the reasons for abstinence then DO NOT DO IT. Freud is not entirely wrong. If you can't get your kicks one way, then your body will learn to get them another way. And that can easily lead to perversions. Abstinence is not just a physical show of not doing stuff. If that is true your reward is in the world.
The goal here is to not just to abstain from particular public outward shows of things like chocolate for Lent, but to understand the nature of abstinence itself. If your mind cannot gain a perspective on pleasure and desire that enables you to privately and honestly appreciate abstinence then you will walk into trouble. Abstinence is a purely private state of mind, something you do before God. When you can observe desires from a higher perspective then you will naturally start to abstain. It is not forced. Altho encouraging yourself in unlimited hedonism is not going to help either.
It is said of alcoholics that they do not give us alcohol, it is the alcohol that gives them up. Ultimately while breaking a horse will require some force at the start, eventually the horse does not fight and accepts the harness and rider. After that it is no longer force. Perhaps not the best example, cos the goal here is more than harnessing desires, it is finding that higher mind that can look at desires as "over there" or "not mine" as things of interest rather than needed treats.
I'm sure critics would say this is not the meaning of the Greek and Jesus there. But I definitely see a parallel here between the private world of the righteous and the praying and the state of mind that seeks abstinence from the messy complexity of the world.
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There is another element here. Abstinence is used as punishment also. Just as dogs are trained with biscuits so children are punished by not getting what they want. Indeed abstinence I realise may cause feelings of guilt as it is associated with wrong doing. Even Hell may be associated with abstinence. How ironic! But this highlights the two types of abstinence.
(1) being deprived of what you want (even self deprived)
(2) remaining aloof to what you want.
(2) is a position of power over desire. (2) is a position of freedom. (2) is a position of peace. From the perspective of (2) satisfying desires actually looks like the prison. This is why Hell is actually the world full of people with strong desires. Heaven is a light and free place where people are simple and without burning ambitions or wishes. Yet they are not lethargic they are bright and alert. In the East the Hungry Ghosts are the people who failed to get satisfied in this world and cannot die properly because those desires won't let them depart. Heaven looks boring to those captured by desire. People committed to endless satisfaction, and driven by fear of restlessness and negativity that arises when they are not satisfied, these people find Heaven intolerable. To paraphrase Hui Neng from Zen Buddhism: Heaven won't have such people anyway, so nothing to worry about. The desires must give you up before Heaven will show up. The desires are keeping you bound and imprisoned! Despite this people struggling to get happy through meeting their needs, like to feel they are the ones in control. But ask our self who chose those needs!
Ok as usual wrote too much...
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