Good Deeds II

When we were children, some of us were taught that a good deed was doing something good for someone else.

So, what makes a good deed good?

Once, long ago, when I was a boy living at a school for boys, It was the custom to have a movie shown for all the boys on Sunday evenings in the campus chapel. In the house where I was living there were some 35 or so of us. It came to pass on one Sunday evening, that someone had stolen a watch that belonged to one of the boys. We were all called together in the front library of our house, a large kind of living room that had lots of chairs and tables for us to do our home work and so forth.

We were all standing in a circle when we were informed that until the person who had taken the watch confessed, we would all stand there and no one would be allowed to go to the movie. We all stood there for 15 or 20 minutes. The time to go to the movie was rapidly approaching, and it appeared to me that no one was going to confess, so we would all miss the movie.

Very recently we had all been to Sunday school and heard about how Jesus sacrificed himself so we could all be saved. This had made a huge impression on my 8 year old mind, and I had been thinking about it for days.

Suddenly, I stepped forward and said, “I took the watch.” There was no long internal discussion of pros and cons here, just a kind of knee jerk reaction.

“Fine”, said the house Mother. “You stay right there and the rest of you can go to the movie.” All the other boys were marched off to the movie.

Was this a good deed?

The next few hours were a disaster. As soon as we were alone in the library, Mrs. Jenkins, now long dead, I am sure, demanded that I give her the watch. I said that I did not have the watch. This was not a good answer because it resulted in flurry of slaps and being violently shaken. I made a rapid change in strategy and said that I had thrown the watch away.

This led to an immediate application of a somewhat more brutal treatment that would get any one put in jail for child abuse today. After a brief period of this, I felt very much inclined to further confess, at the top of my lungs, that after all, I did not take the watch. I had said I did so the other boys could go to the movie.

The response to this bit of data was most unpleasant.

I do not today actually recall how this event was resolved; however, I do recall registering that this very early experiment in Jesus behavior and good deed doing was one of the dumbest moves of my 8 year old life. It was, as well, one of best lessons in my whole life.

I never really pondered on this lesson until much later. However, it came clear to me as life went along that motivation for action was crucial. What initiated my action in this early experiment had a lot more to do with my wanting to be like Jesus that it did with having the other boys go to the movie.

I thought that being like Jesus was, and is a wonderful thing. However, there were at least two things about being Jesus like that need to be considered.

1. If one takes the time to actually look at what we have of a historical record of this individual’s life, it is pretty clear that Jesus was not stupid. He never confessed to anything. He never did anything that needed confessing.

However, he openly and consistently accepted responsibility for everyone of his actions, including cleaning out the church that day. So, given the historical record we have, it is clear that he was crucified because he was a doer of good deeds not a criminal.

2. Being Jesus like is not running out and getting yourself crucified. It involves carefully and with vigilance doing what you can where you are to aid the expansion of consciousness, to help our brothers and sisters to see who they are and what is going on. If your good enough at this and gain a sufficient amount of recognition, being Jesus like will often, as the historical record shows, lead to being murdered in one way or another.

This possibility, of course, has very little to do with whether one does good deeds or not. I would recommend Martin L. Kings Mountain Top Speech.

So, my early venture into Jesus being turned out to be one of the early lessons of life. There were more to come; however, I relate this particular event to help discriminate between what is and what is not a good deed. The point being that “Good can only come from Good.”

That Good can only come from Good is a seemingly simple statement. It is simple just like the statement E=MC2. Good can only come from Good is a formula, minus the usual math symbols, that gives the essence of what doing good deeds is all about. Think of It this way, good can only come from good, and only good will come from good.

A good deed is an embodiment of the energy of Good, the Primary energy of universe. Actions initiated for the purpose of receiving some personal benefit may actually do somebody some good. For example, if the good deed doer escorts a blind person across a busy street, the blind person receives some good i.e. he or she does not get run over by the garbage truck. However if the motive for the action is that one wants to be noticed as a good deed doer to enhance ones standing within his group or even within his own sense of self, one is short circuiting the energy flow of the Good.

This is a crucial understanding of good deed doing that often is not included in the teaching of our children to do good deeds. The doing of a good, good deed must spring from a point of selfless service. Children are able to understand this discrimination often much better than adults because they are relatively free of the programming that causes identification with one’s forms and thus relatively more closely aligned with their soul intent.

Good is the energy of Universe, the Primary Energy. Good deeds are actions that infuse a field with the Good, and reveal the concordance or harmony in Universe. Such an action will serve the Common Good and General Welfare, in either a tiny or huge way, and in some practical useful and inclusive manner reveal the true nature of the brotherhood of Life.

Explaining to our children what constitutes a good deed and encouraging them to do good deeds will create in them a habit for the good. It will help to expand and develop the consciousness and humanity within the child. Eventually The notion of everyone on the planet doing a truly good deed a day is not a pipe dream. It is an achievable goal.