Kilahl Gibran was a Sufi  writer from Lebanon.

 He wrote a story that I want to share with you.

It points out just how we have created stories

that have no basis in truth and

subjected people to our rules which

are based on nonsense.

JESUS REQUIRED OBEDIENCE

 We have reviewed the fact that Jesus

was very clear that in order for him

to be your Lord

you have to obey his teachings

RELIGION SAYS THAT IS NOT NECESSARY

Yet the religious teachings are that

you have to be a member of

a particular church or

you have to simply confess Jesus is Lord

without any concern to obedience of his teachings.

 Kilahl Gibran in this story points to

just how religion has taken minds

captive by making up

their own rules and stories.

The story about a religious leader

            in a town that everyone in  the town

             looked up to for spiritual guidance.

         We will call the leader Pastor.

Basically it can be almost any denomination.

The pastor was an authority on sin,

heaven, hell and all the rest

and he taught the people

all of these things and preached salvation.

 The pastor waged a consistent war against Satan.

               THE STORY AS WRITTEN BY KILAHL GIBRAN               

            One evening the pastor was out walking

             and he heard an anguished cry.

He looked and saw a battered man

lying in the gutter.

His clothes were ripped and

he was covered in blood.

 The pastor did not want to get involved.

He thought that the man

was probably drunk, or on drugs,

or maybe he was a criminal

 and was in a fight with other criminals.

His first reaction was to keep going

and not get involved.

 He kept walking but then the man called out,

 please come close to me.

You and I have been friends for a long time.

            Don’t you recognize me ?.                

             You pastor are the Good Shepherd,

            I am not a criminal,

I am not insane.

Please you know me,

come over to me and I will tell you who I am.

The pastor leaned down and said,

what do you mean, who I am.

I don’t know you.

Who are you. ?

And the man struggled to talk

through a bloody mouth.

Oh you know me.

You’ve seen me a thousand times and

you talk about me every day.

 I'm dearer to you then your own life.

The pastor said, your also a liar.

Your dying.

You better start telling the truth.

I don’t know you.

I've never seen your lying face before.

The wounded man moved slowly,

looked squarely into the pastors eyes and

suddenly a small smile appeared on his bloody lips. 

In a deep smooth voice he then said.

I am Satan.

               The pastor recoiled  and screamed

                  at the distorted face in the gutter,

God has shown me your hellish image

and justly caused me to hate you.

Cursed be you forevermore,

the mangled lamb must be destroyed by the

shepherd lest he will infect the other lambs.

 Satan answered.

Be not in haste pastor.

Come and close my wounds quickly

before life departs from my body.

The pastor responded.

These hands which offer a

daily sacrifice to God.

Shall not touch a body made

 from the secretions of hell.

You must die accursed by the ages,

for you are the enemy of all humanity

and it is your purpose to destroy all virtue.

Satan painfully raised himself on one elbow.

You don’t know what your saying,

You don’t know what crime you are

committing against yourself.

 Today I was walking alone,

bothering no one

when a band of angels

descended to attack me,

and severely injured me.

 I would have been able

to drive them off if

 it had not been for one who had

   a blazing sword with two sharp edges.

I simply had no power against

the brilliant sword.

The armed angel ,

I believe his name was Michael

was an expert gladiator.

Had I not fallen to the ground

and pretended to be dead

he would have torn me to pieces.

 Satan painfully looked up at the pastor and said.

You are blessing Michael who never

has come to your rescue.

You are cursing me in my hour of defeat,

even though I was and still am

the source of your tranquility and happiness.

          You deny me your blessing

             and extend not your kindness

but you live and prosper

in the shadow of my being.

You have adopted for my existence

an excuse and weapon for your career, and

you employ my name

in justification for your deeds.

Why is it pastor that you wish my death?

Have you reached your goal in amassing wealth.?

Have you found it impossible

to extract more gold and silver from your

followers using my kingdom as a threat ?

Pastor, do you realize that

you will starve to death if I die.?

What would you do tomorrow

if you allowed me to die today ?

What vocation would you pursue

if my name disappeared.

For decades you have been roaming

these villages and warning people

against falling into my hands .

They have paid for your advice with

their dollars and the products of their land.

What would they buy from you

tomorrow if they discovered

that their wicked enemy no longer exists.

Your occupation would die with me,

for the people would be safe  from sin.

How can you permit me to die here

when you know it will surely cause you to lose

your prestige, your church,

your home and your livelihood.

Now you may do as you please.

You may carry me to your home

and treat my wounds or

leave me in this place to die.

        The pastor quivered and

           rubbed his hands and replied.

 I know now what I had not known an hour ago.

Forgive my ignorance.

I know that your existence in this world

creates temptation and temptation

is a measurement by which

God adjudges the value of human souls.

 The pastor continued.

Satan laughed and replied.

What an intelligent person you are pastor.

And what wonderful knowledge

you posses in theological facts.

You have found through the power

of your knowledge a purpose for my existence

which I had never understood

and now we realize our need for each other.

Come close to me my brother,

darkness is submerging the plains,

and half of my

blood has escaped upon the

sand of this valley,

and nothing remains of me but

the remnants of a broken body,

which death shall soon buy

unless you render aid.

The pastor then lifted Satan

upon his back and

walked toward his home

In the midst of those valleys,

engulfed with silence and

embellished with the veil of darkness,

 the pastor walked toward

the village with his back bent

under his heavy burden.

His black raiment and long beard

were spattered with blood

streaming from above him

but he struggled forward,

his lips moving in fervent prayer

for the life of the dying Satan.

So there is the deep truth.

WE HAVE CREATED A PROFITABLE EVIL

OUT OF NATURE

The very normal aspect of

positive and negative

we have turned into a mythological Satan.

 A power that does not exist

we have made into existence,

and the church and the pastors,

must pray that Satan continues.

For if Satan was to disappear,

they too would disappear,

at least until they came up with

another creation to cause

guilt and fear and bring them  money.

This as I said earlier is from the treasure of

Khalil Gibran.

And what is all of this that we have created as Satan.

A COLLISION OF NATURAL POWER

 It is the collision of natural powers of magnetism .

 Powers of hot and cold, of light and darkness which when they collide cause turbulence.

That natural phenomena we have turned into devils, and demons, created by

superstitious minds of the dark ages.

 And just what can be accomplished when speaking the name of Satan.

All of their equipment and gates and technology will not prevent nor harm except by gods will.

The believers do not fear such things.

The only ones that fear it are the allies of Satan who are the brothers of the devil.

They have become their allies.

God save us, for fear is a great form of worship and the only one worth of it is God.

So fear them not and fear me if you are believers.

God will weaken the schemes of the non believers.

So many believe that the non existent Satan actually played a part in the destruction

of the World Trade Center and the killing of so many.

 So many  religions carry the name of Satan as the perceived enemy, and as Gibran

has shown us, without that name, their very existence would vanish.

They are so dependent on what they have created to frighten.

From National Geographic

Light reveals the world to us. Body and soul crave it.

Light sets our biological clocks.

It triggers in our brains the sensations of color.

Light feeds us, supplying the energy for plants to grow. It inspires us with special effects like rainbows and sunsets. Light gives us life changing tools from incandescent bulbs to lasers and fiber optics.

Scientists don’t fully understand what light is or what it can do.

 They just know that it will illuminate our future.

 Light which lights every human that comes into the world.

That light which is neutral is turned into God, and Satan, and Demons, and Angels, by our superstitions and our ignorance.

Turning from darkness to light.

 From ignorance and superstition to understanding and enlightenment is turning

from Satan unto God.

For Satan is simply a symbol of ignorance and stupidity.

I mean we can look at Afghanistan and see the things that the Taliban do as evil , Satanic.

 We looked at Viet Nam and considered it a patriotic act to drop napalm and set those people on fire.

 Satan  has nothing to do with either situation.

 People and their greed and their need to control others is the cause.

 But it’s a lot easier to blame things on Satan.

People are photons and the effects of light inside and outside of human bodies is what causes changes in attitude, temperament, and mood.

The more you look at the topic the more you realize that our lives are built around light, that our daily existence is continuously shaped and made vivid by that ambiguous stuff that dates from the beginning of time.

 From our technology to our spirituality we are creatures of light.

 Light permeates our reality at every scale of existence. Its an amazing tool, a carrier of beauty , a giver of life.

 Here is how we get interconnected with celestial activity via light.

But the mid 1800’s scientists realized that light and electricity were both waves of electromagnetic energy.

 So you see when the Bible says God is light and you are light it is not talking about light as you see from a bulb.

 It is talking about electro magnetic energy, which is wave and particle, and flows throughout the universe and through each one of us.

That is where meditation, and receiving this energy from above comes in.