This Very Moment

This is now.  Not then, not to come.  What we have done affects our present but does not dictate who we are in this moment.  This moment may affect the next or it may not, who can tell what it holds.  We cannot control the past of others which we might have affected or been affected by, but we can try to heal and relieve suffering through what we do now.
70 times 7 equals 490 but ironically it is a number not intended to be taken literally unless someone has developed a pharisaical nature which analyzes every nook and inconsequential cranny of what it means to be righteous.  Forgiveness is very much a now principle I think.  Forgiveness is about letting go ultimately.
Letting go of the irritation at friends who sleep while you weather your darkest hour.  Letting go of leading and demanding well deserved worship.  Letting go of vindictiveness but instead excersizing compassion.  Letting go of controlling the lives of those who you know are about to betray you.  Letting go of the hatred for the soldiers lifting you up on the cross.  Forgiving the debtor and feeling our own release thereby..
To love without price.  How do we show love without price?  This is probably one of life's greatest challenges.  When others pluck the strings of our out of tune soul, shove us out of balance, commit untold tortures up on us wittingly or not.  To love with equanimity.  Not always an easy step,  perhaps like a graceful ballerina we often appreciate the beauty of the finished product and forget the toil and constant training it took to arrive there.  Love with equanimity is such a practice.  Far more beautiful than roses yet destroyed just as easily and slower to grow.
I need to live Now.  Love now.  Love the people surrounding me in the now.  The past does not define who they are now.  The past must not poison the present.  The past is old news, I must let it go to understand the present with equanimity.  To love with equanimity,   and stop shooting myself in the foot.

Right Action, Right Effort?

      Well, the topic this week was missionary work again and I think I've already gone into that.  They DID however talk about justserve.org in Sunday School.  It's a website dedicated to hooking volunteers and service opportunities up.  Hmmm.  The church is only mentioned in small letters on the bottom of the page without yellow name-tags or self promotion.  This might be something good.         Jesus was big on doing good deeds not to be known of man for them, but just because they were good in God's eyes.  I'm pretty much on board with this except I would add one should do good because we are all in this together no matter who's religion is really the right one or if they are all wrong.  I believe this is the ultimate definition of morality.
      Love and Fear are two motivator's for doing good.  Love and fear of God,  love and fear of our fellow man,  love and fear of nature, love and fear of ourselves?  What is the right motivation?  The end result of good actions are of course good but I suppose the motivation will determine if we grow or change as an individual.  Fear as a motivator I think would only help us become more deeply entrenched in our ways.  Love, depending on who it was directed at, I think is a net positive effect.  We grow personally because we see the benefit of our actions on other people because of positive feelings and not for the sole reason we were told to do it or we would burn in hell.  Karma, Hell, Buddhists and Christians both lean on the concept.  Secular Buddhists on the other hand, try to make this life as good as possible and the motivations are to seek to make the most good by means of loving kindness and a practice of helping others with hands on methods devoid of supernatural interference.
      In essence, our actions and efforts define what we physically are.  In many ways we each find our own way to the target.  There are lots of good people in the world and I would argue, done with loving kindness,   good actions and good effort are pretty universal.  One can see in most religions the pharisee type believer who only does good to be seen and not for true benefit to others and ultimately self.  This would not be right action or right effort.  They would accomplish little for the person or others, doing such practices other than to give them their own fleeting moment of fame perhaps.  Right action and right effort would be the path that would not necessarily puff one up but would develop their world around them for the benefit of all,  not just the self,  which of course,  from the Buddhist perspective,  does not exist.  :)