The Futility of Laws
Memories, Dreams and Reflections, by Carl Jung
"As a rule the individual is so unconscious that he altogether fails to see his own potentials for decision. Instead he is constantly and anxiously looking around for external rules and regulations which can guide him in his perplexity. Aside from general human inadequacy, a good deal of the blame for this rests with education, which promulgates the old generalisations and says nothing about the secrets of private experience. Thus, every effort is made to teach idealistic beliefs or conduct which people know in their hearts they can never live up to, and such ideals are preached by officials who know that they themselves have never lived up to these high standards and never will. What is more, nobody ever questions the value of this kind of teaching." – Carl Jung
“Why do you not judge also for yourselves what is righteous?” - Jesus - Luke 12:57
“For whenever people of the nations that do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts, while their conscience is bearing witness with them and, between their own thoughts, they are being accused or even excused.” - Romans 2:12
“For why is my freedom being judged by another’s conscience?” - 1 Corinthians 10:29
“For the thing we boast of is this, to which our conscience bears witness, that with holiness and Godly sincerity, not with fleshy wisdom but with God's undeserved kindness, we have conducted ourselves in the world, but more especially toward you. For we are not writing you things except those which you well know or also recognize; and I hope you will continue to recognize to the end, just as you have also recognized, to an extent, that we are a cause for you to boast, just as you will also be on the day of our Lord Jesus. He has also put his seal upon us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit in our hearts.” - 2Corinthians 1.12
“For this is the covernant that I shall covenant with the land after those days,' says God. I will put my Laws in their mind, and in their hearts I shall write them. And I will become their God, and they themselves will become my people. And they will by no means teach each one his fellow citizen and each one his brother, saying: "Know God!" For they will all know me, from the least one to the greatest one of them.” - Hebrews 8.10
“Concerning him we have much to say and hard to be explained, since you have become dull in your hearing. For, indeed, although you ought to be teachers in view of the time, you again need someone to teach you from the beginning the elementary things of the sacred pronouncements of God; and you such as need milk, not solid food. For everyone that partakes of milk is unaquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to mature people, to those who through use have their perceptive powers trained to distinguish both right and wrong.” - Hebrews 5.11
I do rejoice greatly in the Lord that now at last you have revived your thinking on my behalf, to which you were really giving thought, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I am speaking in regard to being in want, for I have learned, in whatever circumstances I am, to be self-sufficient.”
Philippians 4.10
“Counsel in the heart of a man is as deep waters, but the man of discernment is one that will draw it up.” - Proverbs 20.5
“Felix sent for Paul and listened to him on the belief in Jesus Christ. But as he talked about righteousness and self control and the judgment to come.” - Acts 24.24
“Do you not know that if you keep on presenting yourselves to anyone as slaves to obey him, you are slaves of him because you obey him, either of sin with death in view or of obedience with righteousness in view? But thanks to God that you were the slaves of sin but you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were handed over. Yes, since you were free from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.” - Romans 6.15
‘Go to the ant, you lazy one; see its ways and become wise. Although it has no commander, officer or ruler, it prepares its food even in the summer; it has gathered its food supplies even in the harvest. How long, you lazy one, will you keep lying down? When will you rise up from your sleep? A little more sleep, a little more slumbering, a little more folding of the hands when lying down, and your poverty will certainly come.”
“There are four things that are the smallest of the earth, but they are instinctively wise: the ants are a people not strong, and yet in summer they prepare their food; the rock badgers are a people not mighty, and yet upon a crag is where they put their house; the locusts have no king, and yet they go forth all of them divided into groups; the gecko lizard takes hold with its hands and it is in the grand palace of a king.” - Proverbs 6.6 & Proverbs 30.24
“Train up a boy according to the way for him; even when he grows old he will not turn aside from it.” - Proverbs 22.6
“You, however, continue in the things that you learned and were persuaded to believe, knowing from what persons you learned them and that from infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through the faith in connection with Jesus Christ. All scripture is inspired from God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, completely equipped for every good work.” - 2Timothy 3:14
Some Bible Quotes Concerning Heart Felt Knowledge - Self Regulation & Common Sense
Look! This is what we have investigated. So is it. Hear it, and you know it for yourself." - Job5:27
“Everything that is in your heart do, for the true God is with you.” - 1Chronicles 17:2
“And as for me, it is not through any wisdom that exists in me more than in any others alive that this secret is revealed to me, except to the intent that the interpretation may be made known to the king himself and that the thoughts of your heart you may know.” - Daniel 2:30
“Drink water out of your own cistern, and tricklings out of the midst of your own well. Should your springs be scattered out of doors, your streams of water in the public squares themselves? Let them prove to be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.” - Proverbs 5.15
“To you, O men, I am calling, and my voice is to the sons of men. O inexperienced ones, understand shrewdness; and you stupid ones, understand heart. Listen, for it is about the foremost things that I speak, and the opening of my lips is about uprightness. For my palate in low tones utters truth itself; and wickedness is something detestable to my lips. All the sayings of my mouth are righteousness. Among them there is nothing twisted or crooked. All of them are straight to the discerning one, and upright to the ones finding knowledge.” - Proverbs 8.4
“Moreover, the multitude of those who had believed had one heart and soul, and not even one would say that any of the things he possessed was his own; but they had all things in common.” - Acts 4.32
“Peter said to them: "Men, brothers, you well know that from early days God made the choice among you that through my mouth people of the nations should hear the word of the good news and believe; and God, who knows the heart, bore witness by giving them the holy spirit, just as he did to us also. And he made no distinction at all between us and them, but purified their hearts by faith.” - Acts 15 27
“Let a man so appraise us as being subordinates of Christ and stewards of sacred secrets of God. Besides, in this case, what is looked for in stewards is for a man to be found faithful. Now to me it is a very trivial thing matter that I should be examined by you or by a human tribunal. Even I do not examine myself. For I am not conscious of any thing against myself. Yet by this I am not proved righteous, but he that examines me is God. Hence do not judge anything before the due time, until the Lord comes, who will bring both the secret things of darkness to light and make the councils of the heart manifest.” - 1Corinthians 4:1
“For the thing we boast of is this, to which our conscience bears witness, that with holiness and Godly sincerity, not with fleshy wisdom but with God's undeserved kindness, we have conducted ourselves in the world, but more especially toward you. For we are not writing you things except those which you well know or also recognize; and I hope you will continue to recognize to the end, just as you have also recognized, to an extent, that we are a cause for you to boast, just as you will also be on the day of our Lord Jesus. He has also put his seal upon us and has given us the token of what is to come, that is, the spirit in our hearts.” - 2Corinthians 1:12
“For the exhortation we give does not arise from error or from uncleaness or with deceit, but, just as we have been proved by God as fit to be entrusted with the good news, so we speak, as pleasing not men, but God, who makes proof of our hearts.” - 1Thessalonians 2:3
Kahlil Gibran from - The Prophet
“You delight in laying down laws, yet you delight more in breaking them. Like children playing by the ocean who build sand-castles with constancy and then destroy them with laughter. But while you build your sand-castles the ocean brings more sand to the shore, and when you destroy them the ocean laughs with you.
Verily the ocean laughs always with the innocent. But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand-castles, but to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would `carve it in their own likeness?
What of the cripple who hates dancers? What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant things? What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless? And of him who comes early to the wedding-feast, and when overfed and tired goes his way saying that all feasts are violation and all the feasters lawbreakers?
What shall I say of these save that they too stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun? They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws. And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth?
But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you? But you who travel with the wind, what weather-vane shall direct your course?
What man's law bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man's prison door? What laws shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man's iron chains? And who is he that shall bring you to judgement if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man's path? You can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the sky lark to sing?”
Buddha’s Teachings of the Futility of Laws
The Buddha once rebuked his most devoted disciple for wanting to introduce rules to govern the order.. saying: “`Ah! Kassapa, you are ever fond of the making of rules. But the mind of man is ever facile to evade rules unless the heart be willing to keep them, and then no rules need to be imposed, for a man will make them for himself.
`In the early days there were fewer precepts and a greater proportion of the Brothers and Sisters attained to sainthood. As people cease to live the true teaching, rules and precepts are made. But no rules or precepts can shape the lives of men and women. They are counterfeit teaching. It is only when men and women are reverent towards the Dhamma, and seek to mould their lives in accordance with it, that the true teaching can live and flourish.'”
The Judging of Others
“The Master said: `It is a dangerous thing to measure the measure of a man. Only an All-Enlightened-One can do that. It is not by outward actions that a man can be judged, but only by the inward heart, and only an All-Enlightened-One can know that. Two godly people, both restrained in their living, listen to the Dhamma word. One of them understands and applies it. The other is not affected by it. The first is carried forward by the stream of Dhamma; the other is not. But who save an All-Enlightened-One can know this? In outward actions they are the same. Or there may be two others in both of whom wrath and pride are conquered, but in both of whom greed sometimes surges up. The one who understands the Dhamma with his inner being, is carried forward; the other is not. People judge from outer actions; they cannot know the inner heart. He who measures the measure of a man, digs a pit for himself, and it shall be to his hurt for many a long day. One might even acquire the virtues of the other, but his way is not that of the other. It is in his own way that a man must tread and he may not be measured against another man.'”
A Teaching Not Rules
“When I hear various Brothers striving to put the Master's teaching into rules and lists and categories, I think back to what he said: `What is Dhamma you alone can judge. Of whatsoever teachings you shall be conscious that they conduce to peace and not to passion, to detachment and not to bondage, to wishing for little and not wishing for much, to solitude and not to love of society, to exercise of earnest striving and not to slothe, to contentment and not to complaining, truly, you may then bear in mind that this is the Dhamma, this is the teaching of Truth-Finders of all ages.'”
Requirements For A Good Government
“The Master told them the basis of wise and stable government.
`As long as you hold full and frequent meetings and meet together in concord, just as long as yoy may be expected to prosper and not decline. As long as you do not seek to overturn what has been beforetime appointed, but conform to the Holy Laws and customs, and have respect and reverence for the sages, so long may you be expected to prosper and not decline.”
THE FOOLISHNESS OF WAR
As the Master approached the two warring armies, he could see the flashing of their weapons, and with his inward eye he had already perceived the cause of their quarrel. Having compassion upon them because of their blindness and their folly, he hastened that he might arrive before they commenced to slaughter one another.
The opposing armies likewise saw the Master approaching, or perhaps they felt the aura of peace he cast before him. They delayed their hostilities until he came up, and standing on the banks of the river, he spoke thus to their leaders: `Rulers and warriors! Which is of more value, a small quantity of land, or the lives of many people the lives of rulers and great ones?'
`The lives of people,' they replied, `especially the lives of rulers and great ones!'
`Therefore,' replied the Master, `lay aside your passions; throw away your weapons of destruction; conquer your anger instead of your foe, bear loving kindness one to another. Then you will find the means to divide the land fairly between you, and so live in peace.'
Always hatred and anger died down in the Master's presence, and his words seemed to them good. Indeed they marvelled that they had not before thought of the matter thus. They laid aside their weapons, and their leaders met one another and agreed how the land might be shared among them.”
The Trial of Socrates
Text established from manuscripts written by the monks.
"Let's look again at their sworn deposition. It goes something like this, they say that Socrates is guilty of corrupting the young and of not acknowledging the gods which the city acknowledges, but different, new divinities."
Plato wrote down what Socrates had said concerning his trial:
"I don't know what affect my accusers have had on you. I, for my part, almost forgot who I was they were so persuasive, yet, scarcely a word of what they said was true. I was especially astonished at one of their many lies.
They said that you must be on your guard against me because I'm a clever speaker. I thought that this was particularly shameless of them, since, they must know that the facts will shortly expose them, when it becomes obvious that I am not at all skilful as a speaker, unless, of course, they mean by a clever orator one who speaks the truth."
William Blake
“God isn't up there, you know! Sitting in judgment, as it were, on a cloud with a long white beard, inventing awful rules so people feel guilty all the time, and so on and so on. That's somebody else, entirely. God is within. It's man who is without; Cosmic Man. Now if you don't understand that, don't worry, you're in good company, besides, you'll get the point eventually; I mean by the time your dead, when your spirit will become so agile that you'll find that you can leap from star to star in a single stride.
Oh there are of course people who would dispute that: mathematicians, philosophers, engineers, like Archwright, scientists, like Newton. Isaac, bloody, Newton. He's a most perfect symbol of that oppressive and ruthless spirit, which is the governing force in our society, and an embodiment of that cosmic spirit, who holds our world in duress subjugation, and who with terrible laws oppresses us all, and sticks us down, and makes us know our bloody place.
Many people worship this horrible abomination and call it God; a good god and just one. They're wrong of course, for if this good god were in fact just, as they suppose, the world he created would be just too. The world isn't just. Society isn't just. Far from it!
I'm not usually so emotional, so volatile. I mean people usually get the impression I'm a steady sort of fellow with a mystical turn of mind and an actually discernable hallow. I'm often rather sorry to disappoint them. Of course what such people don't take into account is that our identities are never constant; we're changing all the time from the cradle to the grave.
When people are young they want to overthrow what's gone before, but when they're old they want to confine everything with laws, to bind and snare and trap. Their inner conservatism creates an political conservatism, which in turn creates the iron authoritarism of our present society and the stifling, choking unfairness of it all.
I've personified this force and given it a human form, his name is Urizon. He's the old man with the long white beard I was telling you about before. Who then can destroy him? Is there anyone? Anyone at all? The question's not rhetorical, for I have also conceived another figure in everlasting opposition to the former, youthful, fiery, sparks flying from his flaming red hair. Ork, the demon of ungovernablness. The spirit of revolution.
I see it as an everlasting struggle between two contradicting spirits; a struggle between the state and those who would destroy the state, which neither side can ever really win.
Alright! look at it this way; imagine a desert, a red sun in a slate grey sky. Two figures locked in combat, their feet kicking up clouds of dust. One of the figures is old, he has a long white beard, and tearing at his throat is a boy, sparks flying from his flaming hair. Sometimes the man has the upper-hand, sometimes the boy, but neither can ever triumph over the other.”
“Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason upsurps its place & governs the unwilling. And being restrained, it by degrees becomes passive, till it is only the shadow of desire. The history of this is written in Paradise Lost, and the governor or reason is called Messiah.
The original Achangel, or possessor of the command of the heavenly host, is called the Devil or Satan, and his children are called Sin & Death. It, indeed, apeared to reason as if desire were cast out; but the Devil's account is, that the Messiah fell, and formed a heaven of what he stole from the Abyss.”
“I alone, even I, the winds merciless bound: but condensing, in torrents they fall and fall; strong I repelled the vast waves, and arose on the waters a wide world of solid obstruction.
Forgetfulness, dumbness, necessity!
In the chains of the mind locked up, Like fetters of ice shrinking together disorganized,
Rent from Eternity.. the immortal endured his chains, Though bound in a deadly sleep.
All the myriads of Eternity.
All the wisdom and joy of life, Roll like a sea around him.
Except what his little orbs Of sight by degrees unfold.
And now his eternal life Like a dream was obliterated.”
“Children of the future age.. Reading this indignant page, know that at a former time.. Love! Sweet love! Was thought a crime.”
“Prisons are built with stones of law, Brothels with bricks of religion.”
“As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, So the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.”
“One law for the oxe and the lion is oppression.”
Extracts from the writings of William Blake
