In our series Seekers of the Lost Ark we have discovered a mystical meaning to the list of covenants held within the innermost part of the Ark of the Covenant.  In addition to sound rules for living they are also the profound spiritual blessing of the Mother-Father Everything God that Jesus called Father.

The words “Thou shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor” are more than a command to not lie when explored through a metaphysical lens. Although honesty is certainly a virtue and this is a great rule to live by, the nature of an indwelling God urges us to look deeper and ask the questions, “What does it mean to bear something?”; “What is false?” and “Who is thy neighbor?”

To bear something is to carry something. And of course what is false is not true. Your neighbor is every living being including yourself. And if the only absolute Truth is that God is the One Power, One Presence, One Activity in our lives, then anything that is not God is false.

Think about that. Your neighbor, every living thing is an expression of the One Power, One Presence, One Activity, God the Good. Carrying anything about your neighbor that is not grounded in this Truth is a great weight to bear. It is a burden. It is a false judgment. It is witnessing or seeing something other than Truth in another.

The blessing is you will not carry anything that is false about your or your neighbor. You will see only Truth. And to experience this Truth we must rest on the previous blessings. There is only One God and we will not have any false gods in our life. Nothing false will have power over us. We will remember the Sabbath, the quiet place within where we are one with God and we can see the Truth in all things.

And when we find ourselves carrying a heavy burden we might ask ourselves, “Is it True?” Is the burden I carry the Truth of me? Is it the Truth of the other person or situation? If it is a burden, it is not Truth.

One of the tools we can use to turn our thoughts from what is false to what is Truth is “The Work” as described by Byron Katie in her book “Loving What Is.”  When a thought, feeling or experience is causing us to feel less burdened we can ask these questions proposed by Katie;

1. Is it true?
2. Can I be absolutely certain it is true?
3. How do I feel when I think the thought?
4. How would I be without the thought?

If a thought or feeling is a burden, it is not true. Or at least it is not the absolute Truth. Most often the second question will reveal a glimpse of a greater truth waiting to be explored. Without the thought we would of course be more peaceful, more centered, more aware of our wholeness.

To truly really release a troubling thought we must fill the space with a thought that IS true, something we can affirm that brings us to a new level of thinking. Here Katie tells us to turn the thought around, to try it on in different forms. Perhaps the opposite is true. Perhaps there is something in us that is being mirrored to provide a greater understanding of Truth. Turning the thought around may be a revelation that transforms our lives. The new thought may allow us to let go of judgments of ourselves and others forever.

© 2015 Rev. Eileen Patra, CSE, LUT