RICHNESS AND POVERTY

I have been told that money (i.e. a coin) was first used as a "temple money": When people came to temple to sacrifice from afar, they couldn't bring along the sacrificial animals, so they exchanged animals for this temple money in their home town and with this money they were able to buy animals at the temple. And let's not forget that the first bankers were the spiritual order of the Knights Templars!
According to Pekka Ervast, just as the candidates of the ancient Mysteries had to pass the trials of the four elements, today life itself is a Mystery School and the trial of earth for each of us is how we deal with money. Rudolf Steiner in turn pointed out that in fact in this world "stones are made bread" - we must use money to purchase a living. The less developed a man is, the more selfish he is and only wants to satisfy his own needs; But the more developed he is, the more is he tempted to pursue the riches for the benefit of the others. An old friend used to say, "Money is energy": it's meant to keep moving in order to stay healthy.

Mr.12:13-17. "Render to Ceasar the things that are Ceasar's, and to God the things that are God's." Ceasar's image on a penny and superscription: "Augustus, the Son of God" made money as it was, an idol. When it was found from the adversaries of Jesus, they were exposed as co-operators of the Roman Empire. Jesus is saying that give the image of an idol, instrument of oppression and exploitation, back to its owner. Instead, give yourselves- as you are made unto image of God - entirely to God. We may remember here, that English word "talent" is due to "Talent" in the Bible - in Greek "talanton" - which was a sum of money in ancient Rome.
Mt.26:6-13: A woman celebrates a sacramental act by pouring a precious ointment on Jesus' head, and his disciples said: "This ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor." But Jesus replied: "She hath wrought a good work upon me." In this context we may also think of three wise men who worshiped baby-Jesus and presented him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Indeed; Worshiping Christ, loving God, goes before love for neighbors, and even it is for grace that we are able to love Him back as He has loved us first - and keeps loving whether we love Him back or not!
We are merely housekeepers of the Lord in His creation: Everything we have is only for a loan. In the beginning man was also God's possession but the fall was followed by independence as well as growing selfishness. We have separated ourselves from God. Salvation is not ours unless we freely accept it and willingly give ourselves to the Lord. We are tenants in the Vineyard of life, we own nothing, and we must pay the rent to the landlord; bring fruit of experiences to the Giver of Life that will sustain our eternal entity - treasures in heaven - or else we have wasted our life!
Mr. 12:41-44: Poor widow and her two mites. Thomas Keating interprets the story as follows: Many people are rich with the gifts of the Holy Spirit which they cast much into the treasury of the church. These are the gifts of their abundance. What God really wants from you...is YOU: "She of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."
Poor widow also shows us that when money is given for spiritual purpose, Christ beholds the giver with blessing. Everything I do for my church - not so much financially, but through work - never feels enough, because I always receive so much more! My congregation is where I have worked voluntarily for longer and more than in any other place - AND it's the only place where I've not once felt tired!

In Sermon on the Mount Jesus says "Take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed?"..."But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" (Mt.6:31, 33).
When short with the money, I have found this comforting. Orthodox theology calls this attitude "holy carelessness". However, I have found this Chinese proverb which seems to complete what Jesus must have meant: "God will surely feed the birds, but He will not throw food into their nest." ("Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they?" Mt.6:26.)
We are asking our Father to give us this day our daily bread: Not abundantly but just enough for one day at a time. Like Manna in the wilderness not for store but fresh for each day! When Jesus fed 5000 men, some suggest that people actually followed His example: Share what you got with your neighbors and all shall have enough!
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God...and all these things shall be added unto you": Jesus simply means we must do our worldly duties and yet constantly keep the ideal before our inner eyes. We all have within us Martha who is worried and upset about many things, and Mary who knows that only one thing is needed: to sit at the Lord's feet and listen to what He says.
"If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions...Then come, follow me" (Mt.19:21).
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Luke 9:24).
"He must become greater, I must become less" (John 3:30).
- All these passages mean the same.
"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you" (Luke 17:6): Mulberry tree is human being, earth is a sensory world and sea is the world of life forces. Man must "plant" himself in the life forces.
We have to become aware that we are poor in spirit and start to seek the kingdom of God. As a model we see the blind man (Mark 10) begging for the light by the roadside of life - when Jesus is passing by, he starts shouting more and more without bothering about those who try to silence him: "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" And we will find out that the kingdom is within (Luke 17:21) - "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?" (1. Cr. 6:19).

Sufi mystics taught that both richness and poverty are divine gifts: Richness is corrupted by ungratefulness and poverty is corrupted by greed. Poverty is detachment of the heart from everything else but God, and richness is focusing the heart on the undefined. All belongs to God. When a seeker says farewell to possession, there are no more opposites and he's above both concepts, richness and poverty.
Poverty is lack for that which is necessary; lack for that which is unnecessary is not poverty. Everyone but God is poor, because we all need God to exist. If there is someone who doesn't need anyone to exist, he is absolutely rich. There is only one like this: God. Others are absolutely poor since they need Him to exist.
Man is under obligation to use his reason and will. God has not left his servants without work in his kingdom. Man ought to do what he can and leave the rest for God. It is told that someone said to Sahl, a persian mystic: "A thief broke into my house and stole my things", and Sahl answered: "Thank God that Satan did not break into your heart to steal your faith."

HELL

(Unless it is said otherwise, these ideas have been mostly gathered from Pekka Ervast!)

The least that can be said of hell by Kallistos Ware, English-born Orthodox Bishop: Hell exists as a possibility because free will exists. But because we trust in attraction of God's inexhaustible love, we dare to hope, no more than that, that in the end we'll discover there is nobody in hell. - "Love can't stand it. We must pray for all."

However, we understand that free choise between God's mercy and eternal damnation is logically impossible. It's not a question of freedom if there was no freedom from the very beginning. Man was not born voluntarily, he did not create the world and himself, nor this faith and this choice. So speaking of mercy from this point of view is mockery. If there was eternal damnation, every considering human being sees that everything is pointless. Because then such a horrible Satan would rule this humanity, that it would be shameful to adapt to demands of such an evil spirit in any way. Human dignity would say: "I'm rather in eternal damnation with those millions than in eternal bliss with those few people who can in their hearts and reason accept God who has made eternal damnation."
Man should let his conscience, reason and heart say: "Living God cannot be worse than man. Then it woudn't deserve God's name and it would be worthless to believe in."

God has always felt more pity and been more gentle than we ever have thought and been ourselves. All are equal after death; there is no difference between various religions and sects. In all old religions we find living faith, firstly, that man's life won't end in death. Secondly, this life after death is in many cases even great suffering and pain because of men's selfishness and evil. In early Christian times there was conception of seven heavens, seven different states of consciousness, that all belong to heavens; Three lowest ones were "unholy", also called hells. Origen was the most famous questioner of doctrine of hell. It was impossible for him to think that hell would be eternal, because then the will of Allmighty God to save all people would not come true. Besides, if anyone should go to eternal hell, Devil would partly win! He ended up thinking hell as a process to cure man to fit for heaven.

It is said there is eternal fire, but that's wrong translation. Greek word aionios doesn't mean never ending, but something lasting for some time, for an aeon, as long as our earth or our solar system will last.
When we say fire, we don't mean visible flame but some kind of so called chemical process which transforms objects and life forces. We know there are all kinds of chemical processes constantly going on. We must eat to survive, as if we put woods to fire. Our body is burning all the time. When we die, this chemical process is still going on and since it's not fed anymore, small particles will be transformed. Particles of the physical body vanish and we are united with the forces of nature. Therefore our body is already in aionic fire.

If I go to hell, the burning fire is in my soul. Fire in the spiritual world is a cleansing force. Only the pure gold is left - That which was good in man, no matter how small it might have been - and it becomes a cornerstone. A small seed will grow to huge tree.
After while souls move on, but fire stays: It burns for an aeon. Hell is first of all a state of soul. Hell, you see, is not eternal damnation, but rather the same as purgatory for Catholics. All people go to hell - either already here on earth or after death. Everyone has selfishness and evil, so how could a man go right up to heaven? Heaven would lose much of its attraction if all the faithfull forced their way up there with all their weaknesses and limitations. If John and Mary suddenly became angels, how much is there left of themselves?

Annie Besant points out how St. Gregory of Nyssa explained the parable of weeds (Mt.13:24-30) so that field is human heart in which good and bad are all mixed up during life, but in death a separation takes place: Bad is burnt and good is gathered in store, but both sides we must experience in life in order to grow internally.
Finnish Theosophist Väinö Valvanne wrote: "Everyone will be salted with fire" (Mk.9:49 NIV). Either he must purify himself by remorse or meditation, or the nature will do it against his will. Real love is fire which will burn out all worthless, but to him who denyes love and continues selfish life, it is a fire of devastation. Fire concerns all material, external; it won't effect on man's eternal essence, because it is as if a fire in itself. Fires of desires burn in the world, and as their counterbalance the fire of holiness - without them there would be no life.
"If salt loses its saltiness" (Mk.9:50 NIV), if soul has been like lifeless, when it lacks all independent activity - when it's neither hot nor cold - there is nothing in it that could resist death.

Hell is a disharmony of our spiritual essence with God. When we relate to all beautiful and good, spiritually healthy and pure, light and life, with disharmony, it will weigh us down to spiritual pain and misfortune. If man is committed to reality of senses so that he won't think of anything else, he may get stuck on physicality and be spiritually in hell. If there is love in your mind it will bring love to you life as well. That's the meaning of heaven. If there is fear in your mind it will bring fear to your life as well. That's the meaning of hell.

It may take rather long before the deceased will move away from that spiritual sphere which is connected to physical world. There comes a moment when they feel everything is indescribably dull and they'd like to work and be useful and good in some way. Then they will discover ahead something attractive and imperious. For some it may seem and feel like a fire and they know there is better life waiting behind that fire curtain. Purgatory attracts the deceased and heaven is behind it. Just because we don't really want to go to school, and we wish to enjoy our vices, just because of that it is hard after life, therefore there are so called hells or purgatories, whatever we wish to call them.

What I have come to learn about Karma & Grace

When it is said that the Christ suffers " for men", that His strength replaces their weakness, His purity their sin, His wisdom their ignorance, a truth is spoken; for the Christ so becomes one with men that they share with Him and He with them. There is no substitution of Him for them, but the taking of their lives into His, and the pouring of His life into theirs. For, having risen to the plane of unity, He is able to share all He has gained, to give all He has won. Standing above the plane of separateness and looking down at the souls immersed in separateness, He can reach each while they cannot reach each other. Water can flow from above into many pipes, open to the reservoir though closed as regards each other, and so He can send His life into each soul. Only one condition is needed in order that a Christ may share His strength with a younger brother: that in the separated life the human consciousness will open itself to the divine, will show itself receptive of the offered life, and take the freely outpoured gift. For so reverent is God to that Spirit which is Himself in man, that He will not even pour into the human soul a flood of strength and life unless that soul is willing to receive it. There must be an opening from below as well as an outpouring from above, the receptiveness of the lower nature as well as the willingness of the higher to give. That is the link between the Christ and the man; that is what the churches have called the outpouring of "divine grace"; that is what is meant by the "faith" necessary to make the grace effective. (Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries by Annie Besant.)

I consider quote above quite useful, as the whole book by Besant, no matter what one might think of her twisted Christology - a reason that caused Rudolf Steiner to leave the Theosophical Society for good and found his own Anthroposophical movement.
In his Lecture in Münich, 3rd May 1911, titled: The Concepts of Original Sin and Grace, which I have found very enlightening, Rudolf Steiner explains how Luciferic influence came when a man was on the point of receiving his ego, so at that time still a child-like man could not discern between right and wrong: "This temptation was a deed to which man yielded before the period of ego-development but which has cast its shadows into the whole of this development."A man sinned with his astral body, for he had not his ego yet: "That is the radical difference between the sin we now incur as men and the sin which at that time crept into our human nature." [...]
"What the astral body has become as the result of the temptation of Lucifer is a perpetual cause of degeneration and deterioration of the human race."
This has continued through the course of the incarnations, since Luciferic impulse was implanted in heredity causing increasing deterioration in that process, says Steiner, and that is the true meaning of the "Original Sin", Inherited Sin in some languages like Finnish."This sin which, in its consequences, is inherited, which represents sin in man of which he is not guilty in the real sense, must be counterbalanced by the possibility of re-ascent, also without merit of his own. Just as without guilt of his own, man was obliged to fall, so he must be able to re-ascend without merit of his own — that is to say, without full merit of his own. We fell without being ourselves guilty and we must therefore be able to ascend without merit of our own." [...]
"Just as man has worsened his astral body through incurring Original Sin, so he heals it again through the Christ Impulse. An inflowing power repairs the astral body to the same extent to which it has deteriorated. That is the Atonement, that is what in the true sense is called ‘Grace’. Grace is the concept that is complementary to that of Original Sin. So the Christ Impulse has made it possible for man to become one with Christ, to say with St. Paul: ‘Not I, but Christ in me’, thus giving expression to everything that is designated by the concept of Grace."
Dr. Friedrich Rittelmeyer (1872-1938), a well-known Protestant Minister in Germany, who became a first leader of The Christian Community in 1922... "Tells us of his experiences with Rudolf Steiner over a period of ten years of apprehension, critical investigation and cautious scrutiny of the new body of thought, and his final conviction of the unparalleled greatness of Rudolf Steiner's spirit" (note by D.S. Osmond, translator of his book, Rudolf Steiner Enters My Life). Friedrich Rittelmeyer writes among other things about karma and grace:

But - Sin and Grace? This was, after all, the most fundamental experience in Luther! "Rudolf Steiner has not understood that at all," - so say the theologians. - He understood it so little that he spoke more profoundly and poignantly than all his contemporaries of the actuality and influence of Evil. He investigated the history of the Fall into Sin and perceived its consequences on the one hand in nature itself and on the other in thought, which has become abstract, vapid, dead, wherever one looks in theology. A later epoch will be faced with the remarkable phenomenon in history that the man who spoke as none other before him - not subjectively but objectively - of the terrible havoc wrought by Evil, should have had to put up with being reproached by theologians that he did not know the meaning of Sin.

And Grace? He understood it so little that, as none other before him, he taught the Christ-Deed - that act of Grace unmerited by us and far transcending all our thinking - as the all decisive event in human history without which the whole of mankind would have been lost, but which they could not have brought to pass of themselves - an event so decisive that upon it rested the whole future of humanity and of each individual. He understood "so little" that he said: "The higher one rises, the more does everything become Grace." But he said little about it, and he did not speak in the language of the theologians.

Karma and reincarnation - the laws of destiny and rebirth. They are exactly contrary to the Christian experience of Grace and the biblical Gospel of salvation - so it is said. Over against this let it be stated with all emphasis that in our time both these truths, although they are not found in the Bible, can be recognised as Christian truths. For me they are not so much scientific results of spiritual research with which Christianity has to come to terms - although they are that too - but far rather actual demands of Christianity when it is rightly understood.
Think of it for a moment: a man passes into the higher world. How will it be with him? For a time he may rejoice to find himself free of the earth and all her misery. But then, if he is allowed a prayer - what will it be? He will surely wish again to meet all those human beings whom he wronged in earthly life, and he will crave for the opportunity to do good to those whom he wronged on earth. "Grace" will lie precisely in this, that he asks if this may be granted him. The law of Karma may have appeared in the East as irrevocable world-necessity - in the light of Christ it becomes an act of Grace, our own free wish. But that act of Grace - the only one of which we usually hear mention - namely that a man has been seized by the reality of Christ, that act of Grace must have gone before in order to make such a wish possible at all.
And now suppose the man in the other world is allowed a second request - what will he wish? He will wish that he may help the Christ where His task is heaviest and most menaced, where Christ Himself suffers and has to fight most bitterly. This wish, if it were fullfilled, would lead the man back again to the earth.
It is not Christian to long for the rest and blessedness far from the miseries of earth. It is Christian to bear within one the consciousness which once brought Christ from Heaven to earth, to find one's joy in being like unto Him and to work with Him wherever He may need us.

Rittelmeyer adds however, that there are no dogmas in The Christian Community, so reincarnation certainly is not one either. Together in devotion to Christ one can even reject that.
James H. Hindes, a priest in the Christian Community, summarises Steiner's ideas of salvation in his excellent book, Renewing Christianity:

The weight of sin through the ages would have already destroyed the earth and with it our possibility of any future existence as human beings were it not for the intervention of God in the person of Christ Jesus. In uniting with the earth he has taken on the consequences of human misdeeds which burden the earth. He is the one who 'takes away the sin of the world.' When Christ says to the sick man in Chapter 9 of Matthew's gospel 'Your sins are forgiven' this means, according to Steiner's interpretation, 'Christ has forgiven you so completely that even the destructive spiritual consequences for the earth have been eradicated.' What we by ourselves cannot do - to undo the consequences of our sins for the earth - Christ has done for him. [...]
What is here essential is that the personal consequences of our sins be transformed into destiny. To take away this aspect of sin would be to rob us of the possibility of advancement, ultimately, of salvation. Salvation cannot be a purely passive process or we would be robbed of our freedom.

You may also want to meditate these Bible passages:
"A man reaps what he sows." - Gal.6:7
"For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." - Mt.7:2
"For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." - Mt.16:27
"It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the least stroke of pen to drop out of the Law." - Lk.16:17
"But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'" - Mt.9:13
"Love covers over a multitude of sins." - 1 Pt.4:8
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world trough him." - John 3:17
Also consider this: A Greek word generally translated as "judgement" means actually crisis; Crisis is a turning point with a possibility for something new!

Paul Brunton wisely said that Buddha was born in a country where priests had made people to believe that all sins can be redeemed and their effects on karma deleted through some payed ritual, or sacrifise, or magic. Therefore Buddha wanted to lift the morality of his people and denyed forgiveness of sins affirming the strict and unchangeable rule of the law of karma.
Jesus was born in a country where religion declared "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." Because he was as wise as Buddha, he emphasized the forgiveness of sins and God's mercy. He might have acknowledged Buddha's view but he would have added, "There is also the law of love for those who have faith to call it and will to obey it."
There is no jugdement or punishment in destiny, it is a neutral and impersonal force. God's Love is not sentimental; it is tough love seeking the ultimate Good for us, therefore it won't protect us from experiences we need in order to grow. Man is an active participant in his life, not just an unwilling observer. Life is a sum of countless opportunities and choices. Past influence only provides the frames for possibilities and probabilities. In God's "Blue print" there are only outer limits of the building, not details or materials for interior decorating: that's left for the man himself.
Same difficulties may make one man bitter and another man may see them as an opportunity. Reactions order how things evolve. Good deeds are followed by contentment and bad deeds are followed by sorrow.
"And forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are in debt to us." This is the law of balance and harmony, doctrine of cause and effect. As karma is one side of the coin, so are the compassion and grace another aspect of the same universal law: too much and too little - sin to grace - vices to virtues.
The immortal I-amness, real center and source of our consciousness, preserves all lessons that our earthly, ordinary self cannot comprehend. It is the vine and personalities on earth are the branches.
"This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouds and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head." Mark 4:26-28
Here sleeping means the sleep of death, but the seed is growing night and day. It won't result fast and suddenly but nothing goes backwards - everything goes forward.
In another parable of Jesus (Mt.21, Mk.12, Lk.20), Vineyard is earthly life and man is only a tenant not an owner. He must pay the rent, to bring some fruit to the Giver of Life, that is, to find something in his experiences of life that will nourish his eternal being, or else he's wasted his life.

See also: Karma & Grace by John Van Auken (Edgar Cayce's viewpoint),
and Grace and Mercy - Wisdom words (quotes from various authors).