Moses' Moral Courage, Lakewood, New Jersey, May 3, 2001

[Laughs] Ah yes, dear ones, it is our great happiness and pleasure to speak to you this evening. And we must tell you first of all, we could not possibly be here this evening without the child. Absolutely impossible to speak to this gathering without the beautiful, beautiful baby. We are so happy that you brought this little one here. Yes!

It is our thrill to be with you all tonight, because this evening is not only glorious, but every day and every evening in this life is glorious. Not that the glory is not filled sometimes with sharp tongues of fire, which are too bright to handle, too hot for comfort. This can often happen, but even though that may happen, the life itself, the days, the nights, the love, the friendship, and all the adventures of this world are glorious, and are meant to be savored and enjoyed by each individual as much as they possibly can.

Many people believe that this life is not meant to be a life of enjoyment and of happiness and of pleasure. This is not true. You would not be here in this place, with this body, which is so capable of enjoying all the glories of this life, if you were not meant to. You do not have tastebuds to avoid all the foods you love. You have them to enjoy all the foods you love.

Everything about your physical bodies is designed and is intended to help you perceive and appreciate the world in which you have been placed. And it is actually a kind of a sin we would say, although we don’t like to use the word sin much because people don’t understand it very well, but actually it’s almost a kind of a sin to deny oneself the enjoyments of the normal sensory experiences of simply being alive.

What a beautiful bird is singing. What a beautiful child is humming and laughing and crying. What beautiful sounds are made by automobiles. What a beautiful air current flows through. What beautiful light comes from the candle. What beautiful smells come from the sage burning in the kitchen. All these sensations are perfect and are precious, and each one of them should be savored.

All through life one has so many excuses and reasons to put aside one’s own needs and take care of others. But, one must put oneself first. Not put oneself only, for that would be selfish indeed. But to put oneself first and then put others next is not selfish. It is self-sufficing. It is self-preserving. It is self-respecting. One must care for oneself first, care for others next. Otherwise, one’s care for others is of little value.

So many people care for others who are not prepared to do so. They care for others, either because they feel they must, or as an excuse not to care for themselves, because that would invove treating some very deep hurts. But everybody must care for themselves first, and care for the others next. When this is done, the care you give to the others is more precious and more valuable than anything anyone could ever give to another individual.

Beloved ones, there is something that unites all of you here tonight. Many things unite you actually, but there is one theme which unites you very powerfully, and we want to discuss it with you tonight. It is the theme of courage. Courage. Courage.

You see, beloved ones, it is very, very important in this life to realize that every single individual has courage, whether they use it or not, or even whether they realize it or not. From the moment of their birth as a small child they are filled with courage. And courage is a divine and holy gift for each one to use because, beloved dear ones, every single human heart knows very clearly within its own center of holiness what is right and what is wrong.

Every heart knows deep down within, and sometimes very close to the surface one knows, what is right and what is wrong. What one wants for the best for oneself and others, and what one sees is not good for others. The heart knows.The mind may make all kinds of complicated judgments about things, but the heart knows.

The mind is very prominent in all the lives. Oh, yes it is. The mind is very powerful, but the heart, quiet though it is, is the wise one. The heart is where courage lives, and courage’ purpose is to cause oneself to put the heart forward, ahead of the mind, especially at moments of crisis, or moments of great need, or moments of panic, or emergency, we would say.

We want to tell you the story of one who used his courage in a very powerful way, and a very good story it is, and to many here it may have great resonance. It is the tale, the life story, the legend, the myth, but more of it is true than not, of Moses.

Beloved ones, Moses was an innocent and extremely vulnerable child, appearing washed up on the banks of the river. How many children have appeared that way? How many little brave ones have just washed up, in need of someone to pull them up, out of the water, out of the reeds, and take them into their home? There are so many like that, and anyone who appears in life in that way is a child who is marked for great courage, for great expressions of phenomenal courage. Yes, yes, yes.

And, beloved ones, the home into which such a child is brought is deeply blessed by the power of that child’s courageous heart. Everyone around such a child becomes aware of their own courage even more.

In fact this is true for anyone who is around courageous children, moreso than around courageous older folks, because children show their courage more blatantly, more openly and without reservation. Older folks tend to be a little timid about their courage, a little embarassed by it at times, a little uncertain of it sometimes, because as you grow older, many times when you’ve expressed yourselves courageously, others in fear have fought back and told you to be quiet, "you’re wrong, don’t talk like that," and so forth. In this way, older folks tend to become a little timid about their courage, and tend to doubt it a little bit. But the young ones, beautifully and gloriously as they are, do not doubt their courage for one minute. And that is why they are so inspirational.

Moses was such a one. Moses was found in the rushes in a little raft by a princess. Some say the queen, but it was a princess who found him. She pulled him out, and it was apparent to her that this child was not a child of her family, or a child of the privileges-- privileged class of people in Egypt.

But, this one was shining with courage. She did not think more than a moment, fleeting moment about the birth and the status of this child, but instead pulled this one instantly to her bosom and nourished this one, because she, herself, was filled with milk, having been also with child very recently. So, she nursed Moses instantly at the banks of the Nile. And that child received the first nourishment in several days.

The child was near death at that time, but she saved the life of Moses and brought this little baby into the palace where this one was adopted by the royalty, and was destined to become as a son. And we mean that with all of the importance. There in that royal family was no distinction between the found son and the born sons. No distinction between adoption and birth, no distinction.

This is one of the first moral lessons of the story of Moses: that there was absolutely no importance attached to the question of whether Moses was naturally born to this family, or whether Moses arrived by destiny and by the will of the Divine and Holy One, the Being, to be there. And they had that faith.

These families were deeply faithful and religious, although their religion was quite different than the religion of those whom they had enslaved, the Israelites. Nonetheless, the family was pious and believed very much in Gods, and in the powers of divine destiny and in divine intervention. So Moses was considered a divine gift unto this family, and was accepted by the family thusly.

The child grew, and grew strong, for in the royal family all the best exercise, learning, feeding, everything was only the best, as you can well imagine. In fact, the child was sheltered from the outer world, much as the Buddha was also sheltered by his father from the outer world, for fear that his beauty might become tainted by contact with this frail and fragile and failing world around.

All too human, the reaction to preserve and protect an innocent little child. But it’s never necessary, because it is when the child discovers the world that the child discovers themselves.

This has always been the case throughout all time and space. Whenever a child discovers the world, they discover themselves. As long as a child is kept secured and sequestered away from the world, by great panic or fear that they may become tainted by it, they will not know themselves. Children must see the world and meet the world in order to greet and meet and see their own spirit.

And so Moses was sheltered from the world, and grew to be a very brilliant, very athletic, very handsome, very strong, very charismatic person. But Moses was not a leader. This is the important point to realize: that because Moses was sequestered from the world and sheltered from reality, Moses had not found himself. And so he was not a leader-- yet. But it was destined and intended by the Divine One that Moses would rise to leadership, and would find himself in the process.

Moses became exposed to the outer world when he took on many of the chores of the royal household, which included managing fantastic palaces and tremendous plantations, all of them built on the labor and the blood and the sweat of slaves.

This is one of this planet Earth’s, and this human races’, oldest shames. Slavery began moments after humanity began, and to this moment, dear ones, it has not ended. It is a shame and a stain upon you, and those who are concerned about it are actively working to erase that stain. But it is a fact to this day, that the human being is enslaved by the other human being, and its life is literally stolen.

This will end, and it must end, but we want to say here now, that although the story of Moses comes thousands of years ago, the fact of Moses’ life, and the meaning of it, is still prominent in your world today. All the elements remain now. That is why this story is important for all of you now. It is the story of courage and of finding oneself.

As Moses worked among the plantations and palaces of his family, and began to become an administrator, he came into frequent contact with the slaves. There were many kinds of slaves. There were slaves who had some authority over other slaves. This has always also been one of the elements of slavery: turning these who are enslaved against each other, by giving some positions over others. It is, throughout history, one of the most inhumane ways humans have treated one another.

Moses had contact with these who had some power over other slaves, therefore, and in this contact, therefore, he began to realize many things about himself.

First, and most important among them, is that he looked like these people. Moses realized from what others told him (for mirrors were an infrequent object and not completely effectual at that time), Moses realized from what others told him, that he looked like the slaves. He did not look like the privileged, nor even the underprivileged of Egypt. He looked like a slave in the clothes of a prince.

This was something which shook him to his very core, for he knew nothing at that time of his being found. He had believed until this moment that he was the natural child of this family, and they had engaged in tremendous deception in order to prevent him from learning the truth. So, he had a terrifying experience at the age of sixteen when he was told these things, when he had these powers over others.

And he went through a wrenching self-analysis, including in the second part, besides his own self appearance. The second element was that he realized the humanity of those whom he had considered to be nothing different than oxen, and animals, like camels. He had considered the slaves to be beasts of labor, as all the royal family had considered them. When he had frequent contact with some of them, he saw that that was not true. He saw that they were human beings, like himself, and like his loved ones.

And so his mind was split in two parts. He was attached to his family with loyalty to all that he had been taught, and he also realized with his intellect and the freedom of will he had been given at birth, that much of what he had been taught was wrong.

This is a formula for disaster in most minds: to have intense loyalty, and at the same time see how intensely wrong those to one whom is loyal can be, can be quite a horrible experience.

But Moses was up to the task, because he was so superior in moral, mental, intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual strength. He was, indeed, a chosen one, an annointed one: one who was particularly picked for a purpose. He did not realize his purpose himself, until the end of his life. But he realized parts of it himself along the way, as he fufilled it.

Now you know many of the facts of the story of Moses: how he became allied with those who were enslaved, and identified with them; how he rejected his privilege; and how he ascended to a role that he had not previously had, no matter how much authority he had previously enjoyed. And that role was the role of leader.

When Moses threw off his finery and adopted the tattered cloaks of those whom he had enslaved, and realized that he was enslaved, he discovered his freedom. He discovered that his freedom lay in his heart’s will, and in his moral sensibilities.

There were others among the Israelites who had rejected slavery, and had fought against it. They had always been brutally killed quickly, as will often happen in such situations and cases. But Moses had a charisma, and he also was clever and cunning. And he knew how far to go without endangering not only himself, but larger, his purpose.

He knew how far to go without endangering his purpose, and that is wisdom. It is not compromise. It is not cowardice. If you cling to your purpose, and you preserve your purpose, you are wise.

So Moses, it is said in your holy texts, went into the palace to demand freedom, and they did not know him. This is not quite correct. They recognized him and they did not mock him. They recognized Moses and they missed him, and they loved him, and they were confused by his decision to leave him and go.

It was approximately two and a half years-- two years and eight months-- after he had left them that he returned as an emissary of the slaves, to demand that they be freed. This appeared in the royal family as an outrageous and absolutely impossible demand. Coming from someone they loved, they humored him, they fed him. But he ate little, for he knew that slaves did not eat as well, and he did not want to do anything to affect his status as a leader of slaves.

He realized that he could be corrupted by temptations now. Even though he had already enjoyed the privilege, and it was painful to release it, he was capable of doing so with the power of his moral will. And everybody who has the courage to display their moral will has real power. So they treated him with respect, at first.

He came to the palace many times. His mission was not to demand, but to educate, to illustrate. He would bring some of these slaves who had knowledge, had higher educational experiences, had particular skills, and he brought them in to demonstrate their humanity and the indignities under which they suffered. These displays, however, were not effective, because those to whom he showed his family and friends, whom he had now adopted himself, were unmoved by the presentation. They were incapable of imagining that they had been so wrong themselves.

And so, although he tried mightily and many times brought peoples to the court to try to turn the hearts of those in power, he did not succeed. This does not diminish his moral courage and his leadership in the least. Failure to succeed when displaying truth to those in power does not in the least diminish one’s authority as a moral leader.

He had the wisdom to realize that further efforts were futile in this regard. And so began the stories of which you are well aware: the stories of challenges between Moses and the magicians of the court; the stories of God’s instructions to Moses to tell the Pharoah that curses would plague his land if he did not free the Israelites.

All of this you know in your stories, and all of it is deeply profound, but all of it is told in your legends and in your history as more of a cartoon, or as a movie. In truth, these were horrifying plagues which descended upon that land. There was not anything about it that was pleasant.

Why then, did the Pharoah refuse time and again to yield to what was right? It was because his heart, no matter how terrified he was of the powers of Moses, he had his own Gods and did not believe that Moses’ God was more powerful than his. But he was terrified of Moses’ power as a leader.

In spite of his fear, his own heart had not yet turned toward the slaved Israelites and recognized them as human beings. If it had done so, everything would have gone easily and smoothly. In fact, dear ones, the Israelites might not have been tempted to leave that land if their Pharoah had viewed them as human citizens of his realm. But he never did. In the end, after terrifying plagues of which you all know well, he let the Israelites leave, but not with an open heart. That is why he sent his army to destroy them as they left.

Now here is another important lesson for you, beloved ones, from the story of this courageous and remarkable man: Moses was not the natural leader of the Israelites. Moses was actually viewed, naturally, with tremendous suspicion by Israelite leaders, because he was a member of the royal household, just discovering his heritage, you might say.

And he was also resented for his charisma and his authority, because there were leaders among the Israelites who had worked all their life on these problems: some of them working to accomodate those who enslaved them, trying to keep the peace so that at least people would not be killed; some of them pleading for better conditions thinking one could negotiate these things; some of them advocating outright rebellion; others who were simply sunk in despair. But the three main schools of leadership were the leadership of keeping the peace, negotiation and rebellion.

These are the three schools of leadership whenever an oppressive situation is encountered. Keep the peace; don’t make waves. Negotiate for better conditions and hope you get it without losing too much. Or rebel against what is wrong and reject it. Each one of them has risks inherent; each one of them has some possibility of success. The risks and the success are higher with rebellion, and lowest with keeping the peace-- in apparent terms.

Moses saw the unapparent risks inherent in these things, beloved ones. He saw that the safest option, keeping the peace, was the riskiest option, because it meant losing one’s soul. He saw that the riskiest option, rebellion, was the safest option, because it meant reclaiming one’s identity and asserting one’s humanity, and that was the safest option. And so Moses fought hard to win converts to his views.

There were so many who tried to stop and silence him, or even kill him-- arrange for his kidnapping and assasination-- among the Israelites, because he threatened their leadership and their power. But he had the courage and the charisma to attract enough followers that all the plots failed, although he sometimes came dangerously near to being harmed.

He was also at risk at these meetings he would hold because the Egyptian royalty and all their armies would break up any gathering, of course, so that there could be no plotting by the slaves. So all the meetings had to be held, as they always do, with tremendous caution, with codes, and in nighttime, and in secret, in hidden places. All the planning, all the strategizing took years, dear ones, not months-- years.

From the time Moses appeared, two years and eight months after he had thrown off his royal garments-- first appeared in the court of the Pharoah to demand freedom for the Israelites, including himself-- until the time he had formulated all of his strategies and successfully forced the Pharoah to concede, ten years and three months passed. In addition to the two years, eight months. So the entire thing, twelve years and eleven months of continuous effort against the Pharoah, and also against those among the Israelites who did not share his vision.

So you must have the courage to dominate the conversation if your moral conscience commands you to do so. You may not succeed. He might have been killed. But he knew there was no other way to have his voice rise above the others. And you cannot deny, beloved ones, that he was the one who succeeded. For the goal, the liberation of the people, was achieved.

Now there is much more to this story than this. But the important part we want to tell you is, after they were freed you know well that they did not reach paradise quickly. The Bibles of the holy spiritual traditions, the ancient texts and scrolls, tell you that they wandered forty years in deserts.

This wandering was intended by the Holy Lord, because the peoples were not yet purified from slavery. Slavery kills the spirit, and the people needed a time to regain their spirit, before they entered into paradise. Otherwise, they would have made of their paradise a new desert, a new oppressive state all its own. Coming out of those who had just been harmed, they would have made something which would harm themselves again.

It was, therefore, a necessary purification process, which was painful for everyone-- very painful. Wandering in deserts is not a pleasant experience, we can tell you. We have done it ourselves, and it is terrible. Wandering in deserts is almost like a punishment, but it is just short of punishment. It is the most intense purification process you could imagine.

At the end of that time, Moses had continuously led his people, continuously, for forty years. Even when he, himself, was apart from them for meditation, for communion with God, for reaching to a higher source than himself, he was still their leader. They may have been tempted to abandon him at many times, and they were tempted. But no one had the courage to do so, because all of their hearts knew that he was right.

So here is something else that all should know, beloved ones: when other people’s hearts know that your moral leadership is correct, they will not be tempted to try very hard to overthrow it. If they are trying, it is because their hearts are not convinced, and one may either try to convince their hearts, or not work at that area, not worry about what their hearts may say, but continue with one’s own efforts.

Dear ones, the efforts Moses made all those years, the energy involved, is unbelievable. What a powerful man he was, but he died before he entered into the Promised Land. His body was used up through all those years and years of liberation struggle, and then trying to hold the group together, and get a common vision, a common purpose, a common dream that everyone could be happy with. Those two things absolutely used him up. [Baby cries]

Moses was sixteen when he had his first awakening. He was about seventeen and a half to eighteen years of age when he abandoned his royalty and entered into slavery voluntarily. For two years and eight months he lived among the people before he went to the Pharoah. Then for another ten years and three months he negotiated to win their freedom. Then for forty years, give or take a few here and there, he led them through the most horrible experiences.

So he was a fairly robust person, and to pass from life at that age, relatively young age actually of approximately sixty-nine years, was...at that time if one made it past fifty or so one was assured usually of going on to maybe seventy or so-- seventy, eighty. He was so strong that to pass at sixty-nine or so was a very difficult thing, but it is evidence of how much this took from him.

So the last lesson we want to tell you about Moses is this: If you’re going to be a leader, it is going to take everything you have. Everything. It will take every fiber of your being to know when to speak and when to be silent, when to lead and when to watch, when to assert oneself and when to cooperate with others, when to fight against those who say no and when to just listen to them and say, "Perhaps there’s something in what they say." All of that energy has to be dedicated to that. But everybody in this room is a moral leader.

Everybody in this room has a profound mission, has a profound purpose. And so we hold to you the vision of Moses.

If you are curious of what Moses looked like, God gave a divine vision to Michaelangelo, who sculpted Moses as part of one of his famous tombs. And if you look upon that picture of Moses sculpted in marble upon a tomb by Michaelangelo, you will see Moses as he was when he was leading them in the desert. The image is correct, and the perfection of the likeness is absolute.

Why would we talk to you about moral courage at a time like this? Well, dear ones, everyone’s life comes to points where there are complicated decisions that need to be made. And everybody also feels a little badly if they don’t give the extra mile, and instead they collapse in exhaustion and give themselves a few day’s rest.

We want to tell you that Moses never would have made it out of Egypt, never would have led his people, and they would never have found their promised land, ever, if he had not allowed himself the proper rest and proper care. He was diligent about it. He kept his sabbath day holy and rested firmly.

But beyond that he was very energetic. He purified his body with continuous strong exercise and frugal eating habits, and he drank plenty of water, because in that hot desert climate everybody had to drink a lot of water.

Now, water was not always good, but people learned earlier than many believe to boil water, because it was discovered that boiled water did not make people ill. And so many people were capable of purifying water and drinking it, and Moses sought out lots and lots of water from those who were continuously engaged in boiling a pot of it here and there.

Dear ones, Moses’ life has so many lessons for those who are leaders, and all of you are leaders. So we highly recommend the study of the life of Moses, a man who lived: not a myth, not a story, not a fable, not a legend. A man who lived and was courageous, and succeeded, although he suffered. He fulfilled his mission and his purpose in absolutely astonishing perfection.

There are few who are capable of doing such a thing, but there are few who are called to do such a difficult thing. Others are called to do smaller things, and are given all the power, and the strength, and the inspiration, and the communion with the Maker that they need to do this. And that is all of you. You all have that power, that strength and that communion. You are all blessed especially for your purposes.

So the question naturally arises, what is this purpose? Dear ones, as we told you, Moses himself, this great one, this powerful one [baby cries out] ... She’s always upset when we reach the end of his life story, because she loves him. She loves him. It’s alright. It’s a painful thing for all of them when he left them.

Moses never knew until the end of his life, the very end, the last breath, what his purpose had been. All along, he knew he had a purpose, and he knew he must do his best to follow his heart. And by so doing, he succeeded. But if he had known all the details, there is a risk that his ego would have taken over and would have said, "I know a short cut. I know a faster way, a quicker way, to achieve this purpose." And he would have been a failure.

And so the divine purposes are frequently hidden from those who are called to fulfill them. And only when the purpose is accomplished does one realize what it has been one has been truly doing. And so one must find patience, and one must learn to have faith and acceptance, and realize that one cannot always know everything about one’s path in this life.

Everybody alive has two purposes. One you share with each other, because you are all one family. That purpose is to love. To love and love and love unconditionally always, everyone at all times, no matter what. That’s a hard enough purpose on its own, because frequently it’s hard to remember to love unconditionally, especially when someone does something of which one disapproves, or is harmful. But still, even those who harm greatly, deserve love, because no matter what their minds, their bodies, and their emotions and their physical forms may do, there is a holy, divine being living in there who is worthy of love. So one of the purposes of life is to learn to love, and to love, all the time, everyone, at all times, regardless.

The other purpose is unique to each individual. Everyone’s is special. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for your being here. You would not have come into this form, at great personal expense, to be in this world of great difficulty, if there wasn’t a very good reason why you needed to be here. And that is that which you are living, day by day.

People think that spiritual life is something truly grand and truly difficult. Actually, the fulfillment of your purpose is accomplished by waking in the morning, by eating breakfast and going to work, by dealing with people, by coming home and dealing with more people, by going to bed and thinking about it all, and then dreaming. And then waking again, and doing it again.

By this process, one places oneself in the traffic of life’s purpose, available to go where the Holy Spirit of the Divine Creator deems that one ought to go, and available to do those things which the presence of the God within commands one or encourages one to do. So the sheltered life is not the life of self-discovery. It is the life open to others, the life of interaction with this world, which is the life of self-discovery, and of fulfillment of one’s purpose.

Everyone, therefore, should not feel badly that they live in this world. For not everyone can live in a monastery, and not everyone should live in a monastery. The work of the monasteries is important-- no more and no less important than the work of the workaday world, which can be very, very challenging and difficult. Yes!

This child [the baby in attendance] was one of those Israelites who was freed and followed Moses, and was faithful to him to the end, and was a servant of his, and cared for him, and greatly loved him, cared for him as his attendant, washed his clothing, baked and cooked for him, brought him water, rubbed his feet when they bled from the long walks, and encouraged him to go on with his efforts. She was one of a small circle of attendants who were dearly devoted to him, and loved him so. And it was they who found him when he passed from this life.

There were six attendants, but one of them had fallen ill, and did not follow them when they went seeking Moses. But when they did find Moses, the five who did go, they discovered that he had passed from life. And they were terribly, terribly shocked and grieved, naturally, and were tremendously upset. And they brought his body and bathed it, and cared for it according to the proper rituals and rites, and then Moses was buried with great reverence and sorrow, and the people were crying and screaming in agony of grief.

But then a silence fell upon them. First, a silence of despair, for they had lost their leader. But a peace descended upon the people. God sent a peace upon them, and caused them to feel that they had been in the presence of a great one who had left them with their destiny, and that they had a duty to fufill that destiny.

And so they moved on, and they entered into that which they had called the Promised Land, which none of them had ever seen or ever known, except in legends. And entering into the Promised Land, they made there their new homes, and restored their culture and their people in the land of their origin.

How many times does one lose one’s leader, almost at the moment of the fruition, almost at the moment of the fulfillment? What should one’s reaction be at a time like this? Should one turn back, and go back from where one has come so far? Should one stand helplessly by and wring one’s hands in solemn sorrow and despair? Both of these are tempting.

But when one is open to the reality that all things are destined and controlled by a higher force than oneself, then one is open as well to the peace that God always sends to those who have lost that leader that they have loved so dearly. And one’s duty will become clear, and one will be able to fulfill it, and to restore what is right in the land of one’s spiritual origin.

This is the story of Moses, as we tell it. We hope it has brought you some interesting things to think about.

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