Category: Old Testament

The Fool Who Thinks He Is Wise Is Called a Fool Indeed

The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

Luke 24

44 Jesus said to them, “While I was still with you, I told you that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Books of the Prophets, and in the Psalms[d] had to happen.”

Proverbs 30

30 These are the sayings
    and the message
    of Agur son of Jakeh.
Someone cries out to God,
    “I am completely worn out!
    How can I last?[a]
2 I am far too stupid
    to be considered human.
3 I never was wise,
    and I don’t understand
    what God is like.”

4 Has anyone gone up to heaven
    and come back down?
    Has anyone grabbed hold
    of the wind?
Has anyone wrapped up the sea
    or marked out boundaries
    for the earth?
If you know of any
    who have done such things,
    then tell me their names
    and their children’s names.

5 Everything God says is true—
    and it’s a shield for all
    who come to him for safety.
6 Don’t change what God has said!
    He will correct you and show
    that you are a liar.

Egoism and Pride

Egoism, the inordinate preoccupation with one’s own self, makes people blind to the reality of God. the problem is compounded by pride—pride in oneself, pride in one’s wealth, knowledge or power. ego-ism and pride close us off from God. thinking ourselves to be independent, we cannot recognize that our very existence is dependent upon ultimate reality. pride makes us blind to the needs of others and too stubborn to accept help from others. pride makes us unable even to take an accurate measure of ourselves.  
   
    In Christianity, pride is regarded as the first step to the fall and rebellion against God. in Buddhism, grasping after the self and the sense of ego is the chief of all cravings and the deepest root of ignorance. in the Indic religions egoism is a fetter that binds people to the wheel of rebirth.
    Father Moon reiterates these universal teachings, but with particular emphasis on the social manifestations of pride and egoism among the affluent people of today’s wealthy and powerful nations. he warns America in particular that it had better repent for its arrogance, which is seeping into every cranny of the social fabric, or inevitably it will decline. he also links egoism and pride to the human Fall, which implanted that wicked propensity deep in the human mind. 
 
Verily man is rebellious
For he thinks himself independent.
Lo! unto thy Lord is the return.
    Qur’an 96.6-8
 
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
    Proverbs 16.18

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
    Isaiah 5.21
 
 
Selfishness may be sweet for oneself, but no har-mony of the whole can come from it.
    Osashizu (Tenrikyo)
 
We maintain that all pain and suffering are results of want of Harmony, and that the one terrible and only cause of the disturbance of Harmony is selfishness in some form or another.
    Helena Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy
 
In thinking, “This is I” and “That is mine,” he binds himself with his self, as does a bird with a snare.
    Maitri Upanishad 3.2 (Hinduism)
 
“Sons have I; wealth have I”: Thus is the fool worried. Verily, he himself is not his own. Whence sons? Whence wealth?
    Dhammapada 62 (Buddhism)
 
Where egoism exists, Thou are not experienced,Where Thou art, is not egoism.
    Adi Granth, Maru-ki-Var, M.1, p. 1092 (Sikhism)

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked;
you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek;
then he forsook God who made him,
and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
     Deuteronomy 32.15

Nzame [God] is on high, man is on the earth.
Yeye O, Yalele, God is God, man is man.
Everyone in his house, everyone for himself. 
    Fang Tradition (African Traditional Religions)

For the Lord of hosts has a day
against all that is proud and lofty,
against all that is lifted up and high;
against all the cedars of Lebanon
lofty and lifted up;
and against all the oaks of Bashan;
against all the high mountains
and against all the lofty hills;
against every high tower,
and against every fortified wall;
against all the ships of Tarshish,
and against all the beautiful craft.
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
and the pride of men shall be brought low;
and the l ord alone will be exalted in that day.
    Isaiah 2.12-17

The fool who thinks he is wise is called a fool indeed.
    Dhammapada 63 (Buddhism)
 
Whoever proclaims himself good,
know, goodness approaches him not.
    Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 12, M.5, p. 278 (Sikhism)
 
Confucius said, A faultless man I cannot hope ever to meet; the most I can hope for is to meet a man of fixed principles. Yet where all around I see Nothing pretending to be Something, Emptiness pretending to be Fullness, Penury pretending to be Affluence, even a man of fixed principles will be none too easy to find.
    Analects 7.25 (Confucianism)
 
He who tiptoes cannot stand;
He who strides cannot walk.
He who shows himself is not conspicuous;
He who considers himself right is not illustrious;
He who brags will have no merit;
He who boasts will not endure.
From the point of view of the Way, these are like “excessive food and useless excrescences” which all creatures detest.
He who has the Way does not abide in them.
    Tao Te Ching 24 (Taoism)

Pride has seven forms:
Boasting that one is lower than the lowly,
Or equal with the equal, or greater than
Or equal to the lowly
Is called the pride of selfhood.
Boasting that one is equal to those
Who by some quality are better than oneself
Is the pride of being superior. Thinking
That one is higher than the extremely high,
Who fancy themselves to be superior,
Is pride greater than pride;
Like an abscess in a tumor
It is very vicious.
Conceiving an “I” through ignorance
In the five empty [aggregates]
Which are called the appropriation
Is said to be the pride of thinking “I.”
Thinking one has won fruits not yet
Attained is pride of conceit.
Praising oneself for faulty deeds
Is known by the wise as wrongful pride.
Deriding oneself, thinking
“I am senseless,” is called
The pride of lowliness.
Such briefly are the seven prides.
    Nagarjuna, Precious Garland 406-12 (Buddhism)
 
 

I Do No Understand My Own Actions

The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

Numbers 10

On the twentieth day of the second month[a] of that same year, the cloud over the sacred tent moved on. 12 So the Israelites broke camp and left the Sinai Desert. And some time later, the cloud stopped in the Paran Desert.[b]13 This was the first time the Lord had told Moses to command the people of Israel to move on.

Psalm 80

17 But help the one who sits
    at your right side,
    the one you raised
    to be your own.
18 Then we will never turn away.
    Put new life into us,
    and we will worship you.

19 Lord God All-Powerful,
make us strong again!
    Smile on us and save us.

The War Within

The human condition is beset by inner conflict between two opposing inclinations, one good and the other evil. as long as people are plagued by this inner contradiction, they can neither realize their divine self nor achieve a state of wholeness. paradoxically, people immersed in worldly life may not always recognize the war within themselves—except in the glimmerings of a guilty conscience. on the other hand, those who strive to lead a conscientious or religious life are directly confronted by this problem. 
    Father Moon teaches that this inner contradiction is a direct result of the human Fall. it cannot be that God created human beings with such a contradiction, he maintains, or God would not be a God of goodness and humans would have no hope to reach perfection. no, this inner contradiction is evidence of a distortion in human nature, caused by the human Fall. the war between mind and body will never end until the problem of the Fall is solved.

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.
    So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
    Romans 7.15-24
 
I know what is good
but I am not inclined to do it;
I know also what is bad,
but I do not refrain from doing it;
I just do as I am prompted to do
by some divine spirit
standing in my heart. 21
    Mahabharata (Hinduism)
 
Rabbi Isaac said, “Man’s evil inclination renews itself daily against him, as it is said, imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil every day.’ [Genesis 6.5].” And Rabbi Simeon ben Levi said, “Man’s evil inclination gathers strength against him daily and seeks to slay him… and were not the Holy One, blessed be He, to help him, he could not prevail against it.”
    Talmud, Kiddushin 30b (Judaism)
 
By the fetters of envy and selfishness are all bound—gods, men, demons… so that although they wish, “Would that we might live in friendship, without hatred, injury, enmity or malignity,” they still live in enmity, hating, injur-ing, hostile, malign.
    Digha Nikaya 2.276 (Buddhism)
 
All vices are like chains thrown around the neck.
    Adi Granth, Sorath, M.1 p. 595 (Sikhism)
 
Whatever harm a foe may do to a foe, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind can do one far greater harm.
    Dhammapada 42 (Buddhism)
 
Surely God wrongs not men anything, but men wrong themselves.
    Qur’an 10.44
 
The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.
    Matthew 26.41
 
Man should discover his own reality
and not thwart himself.
For he has the self as his only friend,
or as his only enemy.
A person has the self as a friend
when he has conquered himself,
But if he rejects his own reality,
the self will war against him.
    Bhagavad-Gita 6.5-6 (Hinduism)
 
The Prophet declared, “We have returned from the lesser holy war (al jihad al-asghar) to the greater holy war (al jihad al-akbar).” They asked, “O Prophet of God, which is the greater war?” He replied, “Struggle against the lower self.”
    Hadith (Islam)
 
What is the life of virtue save one unending war with evil inclinations, and not with solicitations of other people alone, but with evil inclinations that arise within ourselves and are our very own… And when we seek final rest in the supreme good, what do we seek save an end to this conflict between flesh and spirit, freedom from this propensity to evil against which the spirit is at war? Yet, will as we may, such liberty cannot be had in mortal life.
    Saint Augustine, City of God 19.4 (Christianity)
 
 

Delusion Is a Sort of Demonic Force

A very happy Christmas to you and your family!
The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Contact your Senator and Representative

John 19

38 Joseph from Arimathea was one of Jesus’ disciples. He had kept it secret though, because he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. But now he asked Pilate to let him have Jesus’ body. Pilate gave him permission, and Joseph took it down from the cross.

Isaiah 51

13 I spread out the heavens
and laid foundations
    for the earth.
But you have forgotten me,
    your Lord and Creator.
All day long you were afraid
of those who were angry
    and hoped to abuse you.
Where are they now?

Richard: Speak the truth. Do not be afraid.

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

2. Degraded and Fallen Nature

Human nature is analogous to water: originally, it is pure. If we fill a clear vessel then the water will be clear, but if we fill a dirty vessel then the water will be sullied. Its original purity is always there, but once it becomes dirty or turbid it is very difficult to regain its purity.
    Chu Hsi (Confucianism)

God made man upright, but they have sought out many devices.
    Ecclesiastes 7.29

Delusion is a sort of demonic force. People’s original mind is pure but it becomes perverted due to delusion and other karmas.
    Kundakunda, Pancastikaya 38 (Jainism)

I enquired what iniquity was, and found it to be not a substance, but the perversion of the will, turned aside from Thee, O God, the Supreme, toward these lower things, and casting out its bowels and puffed up outwardly.
    Saint Augustine, Confessions 7.16 (Christianity)

Satan said, “I will take of Thy servants a portion marked off; I will mislead them, and I will create in them false desires; I will order them… to deface the fair nature created by God.” Whoever, forsaking God, takes Satan for a friend, has of a surety suffered a loss that is manifest. Satan makes them promises, and creates in them false desires; but Satan’s promises are nothing but deception.
    Qur’an 4.118-20

Your mind, having become diseased and bewildered because of the false sense-conceptions accumulated since beginningless time, has developed many desires, attachments and habits. From these there have arisen, incident to the ever-changing processes of life, arbitrary conceptions concerning self and no-self and as to what is true and what is not true. These arbitrary conceptions have not developed in a normal way from your pure Mind Essence, but in an abnormal way because of the prior false conceptions that had their origin in the sense organs, like the sight of blossoms in the air that come to diseased minds. They falsely appear to have had their origin in the enlightening and Essential Mind but, in truth, they have arisen because of diseased conditions.
    Surangama Sutra (Buddhism)

Slight is the difference between man and the brutes. The common man loses this distinguishing feature, while the gentleman retains it.
    Mencius IV.B.19 (Confucianism)

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?
    Jeremiah 17.9

And recite to them the tiding of him to whom We gave Our signs, but he cast them off, and Satan followed after him, and he became one of the perverts. And had we willed, We would have raised him up, but he inclined towards the earth and followed his lust. So the likeness of him is as the likeness of a dog; if you attack it it lolls its tongue out, or if you leave it it lolls its tongue out. That is that people’s likeness who cried lies to Our signs…
    They have hearts, but understand not with them; they have eyes, but perceive not with them; they have ears, but they hear not with them. They are like cattle; nay, rather they are further astray. Those—they are the heedless.
    Qur’an 7.175-179

That man in whom there never kindles
One spark of the love of God,
Know, Nanak, that his earthly vesture
Is no better than that of a swine or dog!
    Adi Granth, Slok, M.9, p. 1428 (Sikhism)

Most men, and men of the most vulgar type, seem (not without some ground) to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure; which is the reason why they love the life of enjoyment. For there are, we may say, three prominent types of life—that just mentioned, the political, and thirdly the contemplative life. Now the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts.
    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 1.5 (Hellenism)

Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth,
for the Lord has spoken:
“Sons I have reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
The ox knows its owner,
and the ass its master’s crib;
but Israel does not know,
my people does not understand.”
Isaiah 1.2-3

Selfish Desire Is Found in the Senses, Mind and Intellect

Must listen! Fireside chat with Lin Wood about the current situation: Lin Wood Drops Some HUGE News | Breaking News (thrivetimeshow.com)

The Richard Urban Show:
#79-Foundation Day Is Now
What is behind the current crisis in our country? Why is Christianity disintegrating? What can be done?
#78-Is Mob Rule Taking Over the United States?
Threats of violence or death are playing a major role in the dynamics of the coverage of election fraud. Many Republican elected officials are complicit or silent. At the same time, there is a mainstream media blackout of factual information. None the less, we the people, and President Trump, will prevail.

Open Letter to President Trump

Mark 12

12 The leaders knew that Jesus was really talking about them, and they wanted to arrest him. But because they were afraid of the crowd, they let him alone and left.

Richard: We should all rally on January 6th (and there is also a prayer rally on January 5th) to support President Trump. StopTheSteal.US

Nehemiah 6

5 Finally, Sanballat sent an official to me with an unsealed letter, 6 which said:

A rumor is going around among the nations that you and the other Jews are rebuilding the wall and planning to rebel, because you want to be their king. And Geshem[a] says it’s true! 7 You even have prophets in Jerusalem, claiming you are now the king of Judah. You know the Persian king will hear about this, so let’s get together and talk it over.

8 I sent a message back to Sanballat, saying, “None of this is true! You are making it all up.”

Richard: Be careful of those who instigate rumors to sow fear and discord.

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

Passion, greed, covetousness, hatred, lust: these emotions dominate the soul, causing blindness and leading to destruction. every major religion recognizes that suffering and evil are caused by excessive desires or desires directed toward a selfish purpose. Buddhism has summed up this principle in the second of the Four noble truths and denotes these desires by the term “craving.” craving is a fetter: poisoning the heart, deluding the mind, and binding us to evil courses of action.
    While all religions view selfish desire as baneful and the cause of much suffering, they differ in explaining these selfish desires in relation to human psychology. Buddhism and Jainism reject desire of all kinds, even the grasping for existence itself, as harmful and a source of bondage. in the monotheistic religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and in some texts from Sikhism and Hinduism, the passions of the flesh—which are evil—are distinguished from the healthy ambition for goodness and the passion for God. Chinese religion condemns only excessive desire and selfish desire: Desires themselves may be good if they are in harmony with the Tao. this is also Father Moon’s teaching: God created desire that people might aspire for goodness, but it was perverted into self-centered grasping as a result of the human Fall.
    Father Moon teaches that selfish desires are manifestations of ‘fallen nature,’ satanic qualities and attitudes that were implanted into Adam and eve at their fall. various scriptures testify to the fact that humans have corrupted their original nature and deviated from their true calling. instead, we have sunk to the level of beasts, or even lower. beset with inner contradiction, we allow arrogance, violence, greed, and lust to dominate our lives.

1. Selfish Desires and Passions

The Noble Truth of the Origin of suffering is this: It is craving that leads back to birth, bound up with passionate greed. It finds fresh delight now here and now there, namely, craving for sense pleasures, craving for existence and becoming, and craving for non-existence.
Samyutta Nikaya 56.11 (Buddhism)

Lust, hatred, and delusion
ruin the man of wicked heart.
They are begotten in himself
like the lush growth of pith in the stem.
Itivuttaka 45 (Buddhism)

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one; but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin; and sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.
James 1.13-15

What causes wars, and what causes fighting among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4.1-3

No more deadly curse than sensual pleasure has been inflicted on mankind by nature, to gratify which our wanton appetites are roused beyond all prudence or restraint. It is a fruitful source of treasons, revolutions, secret communications with the enemy. In fact, there is no crime, no evil deed, to which the appetite for sensual plea-sures does not impel us.
Cicero, De Senectute 12 (Hellenism)

Arjuna: What is the force that binds us to self-ish deeds, O Krishna? What power moves us, even against our will, as if forcing us?

Krishna: It is selfish desire and anger, arising from the state of being known as passion; these are the appetites and evils which threaten a person in this life.

Just as a fire is covered by smoke and a mirror is obscured by dust, just as an embryo is enveloped deep within the womb, knowledge is hidden by selfish desire—hidden, Arjuna, by this unquenchable fire for self-satisfaction, the inveterate enemy of the wise.

Selfish desire is found in the senses, mind, and intellect, misleading them and burying wisdom in delusion.
Bhagavad-Gita 3.36-40 (Hinduism)

Confucius said, “I have never seen anyone whose desire to build up his moral power was as strong as sexual desire.”
Analects 9.17

They say that woman is an enticement.
No, No, she is not so.
They say that money is an enticement.
No, No, it is not so.
They say that landed property is an enticement.
No, No, it is not so.
The real enticement is the insatiable appetite
of the mind,
O Lord Guheswara!
Allama Prabhu, Vacana 91 (Hinduism)

Five are the robbers lodged in this body—Lust, wrath, avarice, attachment, and egoism.
Adi Granth, Sorath, M.3, p. 600 (Sikhism)

Blinded are beings by their sense desires
spread over them like a net;
covered are they by cloak of craving;
by their heedless ways caught
as a fish in the mouth of a funnel-net.
Decrepitude and death they journey to,
just as a sucking calf goes to its mother.
Udana 75-76 (Buddhism)

We Are Burdened with Sins Inherited from Our Ancestors

The Richard Urban Show:
#79-Foundation Day Is Now
#78-Is Mob Rule Taking Over the United States?

Open Letter to President Trump

1 Corinthians 16

Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church that meets in their house, send greetings in the name of the Lord.

Lamentations 2

8 The Lord had decided
to tear down the walls of Zion
    stone by stone.
So he started destroying
    and did not stop
until walls and fortresses
    mourned and trembled.

Inherited Sin and Karma

2. Breaking the Chain of Demerit

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

For thousands of years our ancestors have been building up walls of sorrows, and as the days go by these walls are not getting lower; rather, through his many deceptions Satan has been raising the walls higher.
    Today all the people of the world have the responsibility to take down the walls of grudges and resentments their ancestors built up; we take this on as our responsibility. (1:305, December 23, 1956)
 
Original sin, personal sin, collective sin, and hereditary sin inherited from our ancestral line—we should cleanse all sin before we pass on to the spirit world. It doesn’t matter that you have become a follower of the Lord; an indemnity course remains for each individual. None of you has the same course. Some suffer a great deal; some even die on the way; while others have an easier time. Why? Everyone’s indemnity course differs. Although we may practice the same standard of faith, our paths are not the same because the amount of indemnity to be paid varies. (251:131, October 17, 1993)
 
We are burdened with sins inherited from our ancestors even though we personally did not commit them, and we are also responsible for collective sins that were committed by the nation or people we belong to. In a word, being a fallen person means being the result of six thousand years of fallen human history—a mixture of good and evil. We inherit good and evil characteristics from our ancestors, but since they lived in the world where there was more evil than good, we mostly inherit evil. It is no surprise that we end up adding to that evil, trapped in a vicious cycle.
    There is a story behind every sin, and someone was its cause. Maybe an ancestor of yours, while living on earth, gave much difficulty and pain to someone, and that person died carrying resentment. Now this resentful spirit comes down to you, a descendant of that ancestor, to get revenge. He could have gone to any of a number of descendants, but he alights on you. He influences you, driving you to the edge, until you commit the sin.
    Resentful spirits can also afflict you with sickness and pain. All modern diseases have spiritual causes connected to the sins of ancestors. By looking at the sicknesses and difficulties of descendants, we can infer about the life of their ancestors. If the ancestors stole from others or misused public things or money, their descendants may suffer from stomach problems. If they committed sins of lust and fornication, their descendants may suffer from genital diseases, or be unable to bear children, or  have difficulty being faithful, or get divorced. Ancestors who did not see things about others correctly and hurt them, or who misjudged others based on bad rumors and violated their hearts, will have descendants born blind, mute or deaf. In other words, according to the way the pain was given—to a certain part of the body—the descendants suffer with the same kind of troubles. The heavier the ancestors’ sins, the more difficult it is to heal the resulting sickness; it may even be incurable.
    If people on the earth do not clear up these sins through paying the required indemnity, the suffering is passed down to their children. Later, when those people come to the spirit world and watch their children suffer they regret that they did not clear things up for them. They lament, “If only I had borne my suffering on earth, my children would not need to suffer now.” Therefore, unless you clear up all the sins passed down from your ancestors, as well as your personal sins, your children cannot escape from sickness and pain. (Heung Jin Moon, Message from the Spirit World, January 1, 2002)
 
Your ancestors committed a great many sins. On top of it, how much more sin did you commit? If you truly knew the weight of it all, you would despair. Surely you should do your best to indemnify those sins [and leave a clean slate] for your descendants. If you cannot cleanse them completely, you should be willing to devote your life as a sacrificial offering. For example, you might marry an ugly woman and determine to make your life together with her better than the most handsome couple in the world. (116:150, December 27, 1981)
 
The altars of sorrow continuing for six thousand years or more are due to the mistakes of our ancestors,
but we fear we might leave that sorrow to our descendants by once again not fulfilling our responsibility today.
Today we learned that we are responsible to stop the history of misfortune in this generation and to dissolve the grief in Heaven’s heart unto joy. (8:262-63, February 7, 1960)