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17 DAYS OF SPIRITUAL WISDOM
Is kindness enough?
What really is kindness – and is kindness enough to change the world?
If you google “kindness” you will see the definition: “friendly, generous, considerate.” When I hear the word “kind,” I picture the smiling face of an honest person – let’s call him Bob – perhaps putting some change into a charity collection box, or picking up his neighbor’s kids from school. Someone who is giving, trustworthy and good-natured.
In other words, someone who goes out of their way to help others without wanting anything back in payment. But on a small scale.
If someone – let’s call him Patrick – sold a luxury property and moved into a small house, donating all the surplus money from the sale to a worthy charity – I wouldn’t use the word “kind,” I would say something like “outstandingly generous virtually to the point of sainthood.”
Bob is kind, but may not be anything like as generous as Patrick. And conversely Patrick may not be kind – at least not on a personal level. He may be stingy with Christmas presents and refuse to do even the simplest of favors for his closest friends and relatives. He may be unfriendly and far less pleasant to be around than Bob, but nevertheless he has demonstrated a degree of spirituality vastly outshining anything that Bob has ever dreamt of doing.
A world in which more people were kind like Bob would definitely be a much nicer world. But the fundamental problems of this plane of existence would still exist. Kindness, as defined above, will not eradicate poverty and will not stop war. It will help – but it is not enough. A dollar or two in a collection box, and a few favors for friends and relatives, cannot possibly be enough to really change the world.
Why? Because Bob, at the end of the day, however nice he is on a personal level, is still fundamentally selfish. Even when he looks after his friends and family – the motive is still essentially his own well-being. He looks after them because he likes them; because he wants them in his life; because he wants their happiness to reflect on him. Naturally looking after those dependent on us is a duty which none of us should shirk, but it is not enough to bring about a fundamental and lasting change to the world as a whole.
Perhaps if literally everyone on Earth were a Bob, the world really would change. But – let’s face it: that isn’t going to happen. A huge proportion of the world’s population is nowhere near as good as Bob.
This being the case, the few Bobs that there are, are going to make little difference to the numerous serious problems which much of the human race on Earth currently faces – dire poverty, wars, unnecessary disease, political tyranny etc.
It is the Patricks of this world who are the heroes of our time – who virtually give their all to help others, at great personal cost. This is real compassion. These are the people who will help to bring about a spiritual revolution – a revolution of peace – upon Earth.
Let’s look at what the Cosmic Masters, speaking through the unique trance mediumship of Dr. George King, say about kindness.
Towards the end of the Fourth Freedom, Mars Sector 6 says this:
The Freedom – ENLIGHTENMENT, is the fruit which can be cultivated in the Spiritual garden of terrestrial man – if he tends it with sufficient care, sufficient kindness, sufficient patience, sufficient tolerance. If he tends it with intelligence; if he tends it by manipulating his Karmic pattern through the right Service, this will grow, blossom and will bear all fruits.
So kindness is definitely on the “to do” list of the path to enlightenment, but it is only one of several things – of which Mars Sector 6 saves the most important until last: “the right service” – which entails personal sacrifice for the sake of the whole world, not just the people you like, as revealed in the words below.
Mars Sector 6:
Judge a man by results.
Judge a man by his detachment.
Judge a man by his love for all.
Judge a man by his acceptance and knowledge of Oneness.
Judge a man by his wisdom.
Judge a man by his Cosmic logic.
Judge a man by his sacrifice – not for himself, not for his wife, not for his family – but for the whole world, YOUR world.
At the end of the Ninth Blessing, the tone of the Master Jesus is rather different. He says this:
Be good, be tolerant, be kind, be merciful, be gentle, be humble and you will be great. Then you will be helping the Sacred Ones…
The “Sacred Ones” refers to the Supreme Lords of Karma – great Cosmic Gods far above our conception, never mind our appreciation. And yet, by being good, tolerant, kind, merciful, gentle, and humble, we can actually help them. What an amazingly inspiring thought!
The question, though, at this point is: what does the Master Jesus mean by being kind? It is safe to deduce that he certainly doesn’t mean that it is enough to be like Bob. His teachings go way beyond the Bob-level of generosity. Here’s an example from the Third Blessing of the themes of complete sacrifice and impersonal, unconditional love:
These Ones possess naught—for they have given it ALL to their brothers.
They can love not themselves, for they have given the very seed of their hearts to those whose hearts are empty. Whose hearts yearn to be filled.
They can think naught of their own Salvation, for even this, these great Ones, these Holy Ones, these Everlasting Ones, have cast at the feet of God.
They have taken from their bowed heads their Crowns of Triumph, their Crowns of Achievement and cast these in Holy sacrifice at the root of the Throne of their own Salvation.
Thrice Blessed—aye and seven times Blessed—and seven again—are these Ones, for such sacrifice as this can only come from the hearts of the Cosmic
Lovers.
They love not any man—because they love ALL.
One of the most interesting statements of all about kindness is the following quotation from a Transmission given by The Master Aetherius on August 22nd, 1964:
Let me make this plain, please, and I now speak to humanitarians and students of Truth: if you devote your life in the service of mankind, if you devote your life to the Masters so that you may be used as a tool to help mankind, you are only performing your ordinary duty. You are not being kind. Such an action as this is purely your duty before yourself, your soul, your Spirit, and your Maker.
Devoting our lives to the Masters to help mankind is nothing more than our “ordinary duty.” This is a disturbing thought to most of us, if we are really honest with ourselves; but a concept as inescapable in its logic, as it is profound in its importance.
To the Master Aetherius, a man like Bob doesn’t even come close to being kind, in fact nor even does Patrick.
The fact that my first instinct in describing kindness as being “friendly, generous and considerate” on a small scale – says more about me than it does about kindness. It is very revealing about the way I, as an ignorant terrestrial, think about things – compared to how a great Master like Aetherius thinks about things. To the Master Aetherius, complete dedication to humanitarianism is the minimum – the lowest level of the ladder – for any decent sentient being. Being kind – is something above that.
This in turn could make us re-evaluate what Mars Sector 6 and the Master Jesus may have meant by being “kind,” as per the quotations above.
* * *
In conclusion, I will try to answer the question: “Is kindness enough?”
As far as normal terrestrial conceptions of kindness are concerned the answer is definitely: no – kindness is not enough; it is better than nothing, but it is not enough.
It is not enough to be a Bob. And in fact to the Master Aetherius a man like Bob is not kind – on the contrary, he is a man who is not even performing his “ordinary duty.”
This outstanding teaching gives us the opportunity to raise the bar of our understanding of what kindness really is; to see it as a stage above even dedicating our whole lives to humanitarianism; to see it, in its highest sense, as the ultimate path to evolving to God-consciousness.
As we, flawed and self-centered beings that we are, struggle even to perform our basic duty, let us marvel – in loving, reverent awe – at the Cosmic Masters to whom kindness is something so great that to us it is literally an alien concept! And yet, a concept which one day each and every one of us will fully understand – and truly live.
About the author
Mark Bennett is the co-author of two books, both of which he wrote with international bestselling author Richard Lawrence, namely Prayer Energy and Gods, Guides and Guardian Angels, which was voted “best book on spirituality 2007” by readers of Kindred Spirit magazine. He is the youngest International Director of The Aetherius Society, whose teachings he chose as his spiritual path at an early age.
All the blogposts written for aetherius.org are written by experienced Aetherius Society personnel and approach themes relating to the teachings, practices and ideals of the Society. However, they also contain personal opinions, insights and interpretations that are not necessarily representative of the Society as a whole, or all of its Members as individuals.
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Kindness endures for ever. Thank you for words of wisdom.
Brilliant could not agree more. I think “kind” fits in with another word that is bandied about as something to aspire too: “nice”. Well done Mark and thank you.
I am kind
Mark am touched by your exposition on kindness.We definitely must lift the bar,if we have to take our rightful place in the kingdom of God.
We had a pattern set before us in the person of His Eminence Sir George King.We must try as much as possible in this incarnation to get a little bit closer.
Thank you for the wonderful work you are doing.
Elizabeth.
i love your comment !
To follow the path of truth is easier when you know what truth is…
Truth is a straight line that runs through time
We instinctively know its there,drawn like moths to a flame
Thank you Mark
It’s sometimes easy to think we’ve been kind by actions that we can easily perform but it’s the next level which you’ve reminded me of.
We set our own limitations
I’m grateful for your writings and it’s shifting some of my thought patterns.
Kindness is all well and good but in todays world I feel that one needs to be more proactive when ‘help’ is needed…Helpful is a much better word which together with solid advice, sympathy, love and understanding will probably be “kindness” in most situations.
(Prayer would also not come amiss)…Blessings to you
Thankyou for bringing this subject to our attention, and also the quote from the Master Aetherius which I personally have read before, but haven’t spent time to really understand it.
“if you devote your life in the service of mankind, if you devote your life to the Masters so that you may be used as a tool to help mankind, you are only performing your ordinary duty. You are not being kind.” I think what the Master Aetherius may also be meaning is that humans are in such a position that what we think of as kindness, is not kindness when we perform it. This is because we are in such a lowly – shall we say, indebted – position, that we cannot actually be kind, from the metaphysical viewpoint. Our ordinary understanding of kindness is possibly a deed performed that is extra to what the protagonist needs to do – in whatever context. [We do need to be kind, though!] But, appreciating the real position of humans, we actually need (i.e it is totally necessary) to do what would otherwise be termed kind, and there is nothing extra about it. This may not be good for the ego, that we are not in a position to be kind – but of course the ego needs to hear this from a Source Who is in a position to know. It also obliges us to act ‘kindly’ whether we want to or not. So, perhaps this implies something about freewill? Sorry, this has got a little long.
kindness is all we need…. i am privileged to be here , i love the aetherius society
An outstanding and succinct mini-dissertation to remind, inspire and help us all to go many miles beyond the minimum requirement. Rocking one’s boat with truth can either make one fall off and drown or hang on with determination and resolve. Thank you Mark for yet another brilliant call to arms.
Just a bit more clarification! Will try to be succinct. One way of expressing the significance of duty rather than kindness, is that if we do our duty we accrue the karma of doing our duty rather than the karma of being kind. This helps to delineate the difference between duty and kindness.
The Master Aetherius made the point that we were only doing our duty on p14 of Join Your Ship because, as He went on to say, many of us were looking for praise rather than working in the right manner.
If we try to appreciate our true position in the Solar System, including our past history, as the Cosmic Masters do, I suggest the comment by the Master Aetherius has even more meaning. The Cosmic Masters are concerned that we manipulate our karma in the right way by our motivations and actions – not in a delusional way. And as we are deeply indebted to the Cosmic Masters and the Mother Earth, we do have a lot of duty to perform.
The more we help the Cosmic Plan, the better karma we create for TAS and the world. As our Master did when he created the ginormous karma that allowed the Missions to take place – but of course, in an entirely different way than we do – and most of it I know nothing about! And he always urged us on to do more. And this is our duty… it is realism. With the world still on a knife edge in so many ways, and with, for instance, our debt to the Adepts still as keen, I suggest this is as relevant as ever.
Suggest that if we as humans were not so indebted/obliged, our karma would not be on such a knife edge… So duty is central to the current human situation.
This is making a different point than was made in the blog, but I think it’s worth making. It doesn’t mean that we regard our work as a burden – ideally we regard it as essential and do it with joy.
Thank you Sandra for your thoughtful response. To your closing point, we have just published another post today that you may appreciate(!): Service-Oneness-Joy
I personally do like the word ‘kind’.
When I think of this word I think of a feeling, an overall energy pattern, a state of radiating of energy.
I don’t think of small acts. I think of the overall spiritual propensity of a person in inter-personal matters I.e in energy exchange.
A state of giving not taking.
‘Kind’ regards,
Sanjay 😉
When I think of the word Love, I think of many things but first thing that comes to mind spiritually is that first and foremost you have to Love yourself on a level higher than a place those broken in sprit cannot see yet which is a Love so awesome that I come first! If I cannot Love myself and do everything I want for me, how can I possibly do for others? You must Love the body, which is important spiritually, also, love the things you did that were against spirituality because it brought you here! Without love of those things, then I would have never seen truth! Truth being, loving on yourself from a plane of enlightenment and indulgence reinforcing the spiritual essence of loving yourself correctly first before going out to love another is key to raising above the 8th pole smoked in blissful fiery heat.
I am not saying to go back to those things against you’re spirituality but respect them in a love to where you visit them from time to time as I do and partake knowing that this spiritual partake of that which hath kept you from, hath also brought you to truth.. It is always good and spiritual to remind yourself where you came from in order to know where you are going! I personally partaketh in that which was holding me back on Saturdays and Wednesdays to always be reminded how I got to this point! I am not on the Ship of the enlightened cunning linguist of all things above perfect spirituality for nothing!
I have another point too. Spirituality is more than just saying, I want to help people. Want, the word, in it of itself is a selfish word that detracts from spirituality and therefor be scalded by the mighty lizard king of selfish deconimutionalism. Detach that which is detachable but hath not selfish desire, yet, embrace the desire as being selfish. Be aware, and once aware, you can then while still in the spiritual embrace of the desire being of the selfish partake in the desire whole heartedly with the knowledge that you know that you are doing good unto yourself by simply being aware… Forget the desire and embrace the aware. Know! Know, Knowledge, Desires, Embrace, Love, Partake, in Spirituality…
Thanks Harry for writing and sharing your response.
I agree that spirituality is more than just saying “I want to help people”. True selfless service is an expression of the unconditional love that we feel for all life. And in my own experience, yes, it helps to love and accept ourselves and feel loved by others first before we can begin to really love and serve others unconditionally.
But I don’t believe we can make it a pre-requisite. If everyone feels unloved, someone has to take the first step and start to practice(!) unconditional love towards others, or nothing will ever change.
Love, Service and God-realisation are all inter-related with one another. If we cultivate a deeper realisation of our oneness with all life, this will lead, naturally, to unconditional love and service. If we try to love and serve others as best we can today, even if our motives are mixed in the beginning (e.g. obligation vs unconditional love is a common one) we will advance towards God-realisation and a greater experience of love. Mark wrote a good post on this you may enjoy.
I agree that we should accept and give thanks (as much as we can) for every aspect of experience which has brought us to the point we are today. We are making mistakes. We are learning. Experience affords us wisdom. Mars Sector 6 tells us in The Nine Freedoms that Ascension, the ultimate Initiation on Earth, is the sum total of all our experiences, not just the result of those experiences in our last 10 lives when we began in earnest to serve others, for example. Gratitude for all experience, and to those great and mighty beings who afford this to us (e.g. the Mother Earth), is also a prominent theme of The Twelve Blessings. The sacrifice they are making is truly beyond our conception and I can only try to appreciate it. Even so I find it deeply moving…and it inspires me to give service to others in the ways that I can.
Blessings,
Darren