The Secret to Life is in Response
Part 2

by Roland Trujillo

        Think about it this way. Plants respond to the sun; and when they respond, they take in the sunlight and then use that sunlight to make living substance and food. The living plant is an instrument of translation of the sunlight into tangible goods.

   But for this wonderful miracle to happen, the plant must respond. A dead plant is incapable of responding; and so, nothing happens.

   The lesson is quite clear: only a living plant can respond and make the good substance. A dead plant cannot respond.

   Can you now see what Christ meant when He told people that they were dead in their sins? Somehow sin had rendered them incapable of responding to the Light of Truth.  For all intents and purposes, they were dead.

   Fortunately, some people were not completely dead. A part of them was still alive; and that part, upon hearing the words of truth from Christ, was able to respond. And in responding, they came back to life.

   I suppose the living plant must respond to the sun. It is its nature to respond to the light. Responding to light comes naturally to the plant.

   Humans have a choice factor. It is hidden deep within the soul. And because of this choice factor, even those who are dead in their sins, should they hear the words of Truth and respond with belief and joy to the spirit behind the words, they awaken. They change over from death to life, and begin to recover.

  There is beautiful fairy tale about Sleeping Beauty who awaited the kiss from the prince. And so, many people sleep in their sins awaiting the kiss of the Prince of Peace.

   I once heard of a holy church father who was found perfectly preserved over a hundred years after he had died. It was as if he were asleep, awaiting the call to wake him up.

   Dear reader, for those of you who have begun to wake up, you will rush out into the world eager to tell others the delightful discoveries you have made. Do not be dismayed when you find that many people are not at all interested. Some will even be threatened or hate what you have to say. They do not want to be awakened from their sleep.

   A few will respond. A few will hear the message and respond later, perhaps many years later. But the truth is: that most will not respond. Do not become resentful and do not chase after them. It is probably not in them to respond. Leave them alone. “Let the dead bury their dead,” said the Messiah.

   For those who do respond to the truth, it enters them and leaves something of its spiritual nature in them. Every time we respond to the Presence of Truth, something of it enters and changes us. A little piece of us that was of the world is replaced with a little piece of something heavenly. Part of us, which had been transmogrified, is changed back and rehumanized. Part of us that had become petrified comes back to life.

   It takes a special love of truth that makes some of us to cry out of our gloom for Truth. Perhaps this love of truth is already implanted in us from the Creator. Like a little “chip off the old block,” as the saying goes.

  Yet, we are all born in sin; and as we respond to the teases of the world, we begin to add our own personal sins to those we were born into.

   In fact, we have a propensity to sin called “concupiscence.” We have a latent pride, which itself is of the devil who originally tempted the human race. This inherited pride we all have (we love to be praised and resent being criticized) responds to the temptation in the world. And here is where our troubles really begin.

   If you can understand the analogy I gave about how it is the response of the living plant to the sun that permits the light to enter and be combined with matter to produce good, then you will be able to see how a similar process works in a negative way.

   When we respond and react to tease on the outside, something of it enters and combines to produce a hell nature within us. If we did not respond to the tease, taunt, or challenge to our ego, then nothing of it would get inside. But when we respond, a little piece of the spirit behind the tease enters and then begins to work out its purpose of growing in sin, producing an environment it is comfortable in, and the teasing for life for itself.

   The life of the plant depends on the sun and its light. The life of the soul depends on its “sun.” When Light from the Creator enters with its purpose and love, it is a creative and healing force. And the soul, content to live under the Creator’s influence, will receive all that it needs to live a happy, healthy and productive life. Perhaps even to live forever.

   But the soul that defects from the Creator’s light must get its life from the dark light of the imagination, powered by the hellish spiritual influence. And this influence, or dark light, is a destructive force bringing harm to the person under its influence and it will try to harm others too. It thrives on the energies of intrigue and destruction. It steals life from the host, causing the host to have to recoup its losses from others. 

   Its purpose is destruction, and so it will lead the soul and bend it toward everything wrong and harmful. Having no life of its own, it will drain the soul. And then the person will be forced to go out and shock others and rob them of their soul life.

   Every time you respond to temptation, a little bit of its nature and purpose enters and changes you for the worse.

    When we do not have God’s will and understanding in our heart, then we have another will and another intelligence operating through us. It is a devilish intelligence that coaches and challenges you to reach for your egotistical desires. It is cunning and knows the hearts of men. It may even lead you into worldly “success,” but at the price of your soul and eventual destruction. It has its own “love.” It is sympathetic toward your ego’s needs, and it comforts your ego with consoling sensuality and permissiveness. It understands and condones your hatreds and judgments. It provides pleasures to take away the pain and dull contact with reality. But it will torment you when you try to do right and break loose from it.

   Though evil is invisible and cannot be tasted, touched or felt, you will know that it exists when you see its nature—the nature of infernal eternal pride—take shape within you. 

   Fortunately, though we have all been led astray and infected with pride, the sincere soul begins to live anew when it responds to the spirit behind words of truth (such as these). Responding with joy to the Truth (instead of fleeing from it) the soul vivifies in the Light. Welcoming the Truth (even though it is at times painful), good enters and seals out the bad.

   Seeing its wrongs in the Light of Truth, the soul is sorry. And this process of repentance restores the soul to fellowship with the Creator, and permits it to live life properly.

   The good that takes place is like magic, not of the person’s efforts, but by the grace of God and the soul’s willingness to have Truth enter its life.

   Each day, we meditate to renew our commitment to letting God do His will through us. And as we meditate, we download enough ethereal data, contained in the Light, to lead us to more realizations and discoveries throughout the day.

   In photosynthesis, sunlight is made into chemical energy, such as glucose, to fuel life. It is well known that light has both wave and particle properties. Can you see the analogy with the Light we receive from our Creator within? Waves are capable of carrying information, as we know from cell phone and radio waves. Could it be that the inner Light carries information, which then blossoms as insights, understanding and realization? Visible light has particle properties, such as when light shines on a zinc plate and causes it to become positively charged.

   Could it be that the inner light contains a special kind of energy (love) which can then motivate us to do good?

   In the Bible, it speaks of the Word made flesh. Can you see how—just as the plant is the instrument of translation of sunlight into good—the human being is an instrument of translation of God’s understanding and love into thought, word and deed? 

   Amazingly and paradoxically, this wonderful and blessed thing only happens when we give up trying to play God. As long as we judge others, willfully try to make things happen, and try to make ourselves good, we block the penetration and action of the light. But when we humbly realize our helplessness, and when we are willing to do God’s will, then we open ourselves to receive the light which has positive effects on us, and permits us to become literally children of the light. “My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:19)

   This process leads to discoveries, realizations, understanding, as well as the energy (love, courage, and kindness) to carry through with what we realize. The resulting act, word or deed is the completed action that forms and conditions the body to do good. And the good that happens becomes the reward for wanting God’s will in our lives.

   Can you see why faith without works is dead? Can you see why Paul said that unless we have love, we are nothing?  Our love for God, love for truth, and love for our fellow humans make us aware of our weakness and helplessness. It makes us sense (without resentment) our inadequacy. It makes us realize that though we want to do what is right by others, we don’t even know what that right is. And so we cry out to God for answers. This is the inclination of the soul that permits us to yearn for and then receive love from God. And the love from God, coming to the soul in the marvelous light, is the energy (which has understanding with it) that powers the actions that exemplify love.  

   This love from God is in answer to our yearning for Him. But this love from God is not of ourselves. It does not originate with us (though it can flow through us). It is from God.

   Up until the beginning of salvation and until we are graced to move and have our being in God’s Light, our actions and words are motivated by fear, anger or desire. Our energy is animalistic and crude. It is fear, hunger or greed that moves us to act or speak with the energy of willfulness.

   Cut off from intuition, we move from emotion, then thinking, then more emotion.

   At best, our actions are well meaning but driven by animal emotion. Sometimes they are imitative, as we repeat what we have heard.

   But unfortunately, most of our actions originate in a response to temptation, or in fear or dis-ease.

   The energy to move that comes from God is totally different from anything we have experienced before. In fact, it is not a feeling. It is a nonfeeling. We see intuitively and are delicately moved to act, and when we do it is without emotion.

   If you begin meditating out of a sincere love of truth, you will be led through several stages. First you will discover how to stop reacting emotionally to everything. You will learn the secret of nonresponse, of standing back and observing without reacting to what you see. This will permit you to calm down and become more centered. It will also permit you to see your own wrongs without over-reacting to what you see.

   In the Light, you will experience the helpless sadness known as repentance, as you see your prior errors. You will be grieved by what you see, yet you will also see that you cannot make yourself better. This helplessness (but at the same time unwillingness to abandon yourself to sin) will be a cry to God, Who will answer by removing the burden of dealing with the sin from you. And in due time, He will also remove the sin.

   The Light will restore you to health. It will restore order to your life. You will become a regular natural person, shriven of your sins, but yet very mortal. You will go about your business as a mom, dad, husband, wife, worker, or boss now doing things in a naturally right way. You will make many discoveries as you go through the day. Always you will see principles more and more clearly. You will continue to see your own errors, but what you see will be increasingly subtle.

   Mostly the Presence of the Light will accompany you as a delicate presence. You will know it is there because it will restrain you from judging, deciding, reacting, and rushing into sin and error as you would have in the past. You will still have problems or issues: but now you will be able to hold them as a question, waiting without anxiety for an answer, or for the question or issue to resolve itself.

   Increasingly you will be able to quietly say “no” to what you once found irresistible. Excessive eating, sweets, alcohol, entertainment, things to buy and other unnecessary actions will gradually lose their appeal. You will find that you just naturally don’t need them anymore.

   The natural and wholesome pleasures of life you will be able to enjoy without guilt. You will know the measure of things, without needing to go overboard in indulgence, and without getting an extra ego charge out of things.

   Life will become increasingly simple. From time to time, you may find yourself acting without the old natural emotions. You will just move, and it will be almost as if someone else were doing it.

   Mostly you will experience the love from God as a chastening and restraining force, gently holding you back. You will also experience it as a stabilizing and calming Presence, giving you peace and a quiet sense of joy.