Seventeen Important Words

By James Perry

In his 11/19/06 syndicated column, “The Right Thing,” Jeffery Seglin, who teaches ethics at Emerson College in Boston, wrote a column about a woman who accepted $184,000 from the military to pay for her medical school. In return, she agreed to serve in the military a total of eight years active and reserve duty. However, upon completing her residency, she asked the military to reclassify her as a conscientious objector and discharge her from service. She offered to repay the $184,000 with interest instead.

The doctor’s case is a good example of how our religious beliefs influence our choices and direct the course of our lives. She claimed that her religious beliefs about war had changed since accepting the money and entering medical school. However, after an extensive and conflicting hearing involving clergy of her faith, a psychiatrist and military personnel, a military review board denied her request. At issue was the sincerity of her beliefs.

Maybury’s Laws
While reading Seglin’s column, I reflected on Maybury’s two laws about agreements and encroachments, which I learned through the teachings of Eckankar. In Whatever Happened to Justice? Richard Maybury examines two laws he discovered that are universal to all the great religions, philosophies and spiritual teachings. Maybury distills these two laws into seventeen easy-to-remember words: Do all you have agreed to do, and do not encroach on other persons or their property.

These two laws make civilization possible. Maybury explains that America’s legal system originally grew out of the old British common law. “Do all you have agreed to do” was the basis of contract law (“Let your word be your bond”). “Do not encroach on other persons or their property” was the basis of tort and criminal law (“Thou shall not steal, kill, etc.”).

Maybury found that whatever else the world’s religions might teach, they agree upon these two laws. All teach that we live in a moral universe governed by Higher Law. To gain the most from life, we must live in harmony with this Higher Law. When we do, life gets better. When we do not, life gets worse, which is the Law of Cause and Effect, or karma, working out in our lives. In terms of society, these two laws are the best expression and application of Higher Law. Society should expect all its citizens to keep their agreements and not encroach on each other.

Maybury for the Military?
Under military regulations, conscientious objectors can request discharge or reassignment in non-combat roles if they sincerely oppose war. The doctor’s military review board judged her insincere in her beliefs. Upon appeal, a federal court determined otherwise, overruled the military and ordered the doctor discharged from service.

If all parties involved could have used Maybury’s two laws as a guideline in resolving the dispute, might they have determined that the doctor could honor both laws by serving as a medical non-combatant, which would have provided a valuable service as well? I also wondered if the doctor had known and understood the ramifications of Maybury’s laws years ago before signing on the dotted line, would she have chosen a different route in obtaining her medical degree or even a different career?

Life is a Spiritual Contract
Probably the best-known parable about a broken contract is the story of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve’s original relationship with God was an understood agreement. “You may eat of any tree in the garden except one.” We know what happened. They ate the forbidden fruit – those experiences, both good and evil, that entrapped their egos and threw them out of harmony with the spiritual laws and the rhythm of life.

Karma followed and paradise or civilization fell. Adam and Eve were out of harmony with the rhythm of life and lost sight of their spiritual relationship with God. Consequently, civilization went backwards and life got worse. God sent them to this earth school to journey through life until they were able to rediscover and put back into harmony their proper relationship with Divine Spirit – and so must we.

As Soul, each of us can view our life as our own spiritual contract to fulfill, which means viewing everything we do in life as spiritual. We came into this world to learn and accomplish certain things. Otherwise, why are we here? For each of us, our agreements define the spiritual mission and purpose of our lives.

Relationships are Agreements
Almost all of our relationships and interactions are agreements on some level, which bind us with the rest of life. As an employee, I have an agreement and work mission with my employer. As a student, I agree to study and learn from my teachers, who in return agree to teach. As a spouse, I agree to a marriage contract with negotiated roles, responsibilities and expectations. As a volunteer, I agree to give freely of myself to a purpose greater than myself.

These agreements may be stated or unstated; conscious or unconscious; formal or informal; written or verbal. They define or imply how we will relate and behave towards each other; what we will or will not say or do; and what each party expects. When agreements are vague, assumed, or misstated, they inevitably create problems. In all our interactions and relationships, we should ask ourselves, “Do we do what we say we are going to do? Do we keep our agreements or renegotiate them if we cannot?”
Our agreements create new karma as well as resolve old. Like Adam and Eve, in fulfilling or failing to fulfill our agreements, we learn or fail important spiritual lessons and tests from our many experiences in life. People who keep their agreements are reliable, responsible and dependable individuals of strong moral and spiritual character. Their word is their bond.

How We Encroach
At thirteen, my minister let me climb the ladder up to the top of our church steeple. When I told my cousin how much fun it was, he couldn’t wait to do the same. One Sunday morning, we decided to cut Church School to pull off our little “crime.” 
The shaft leading up to the steeple was inside a closet with a battery of electrical switches. The shaft was pitch-black, and I knew one of those switches turned on the lights leading up the shaft. Naturally, I threw all the switches – big mistake. 
Immediately, the church bells at the top of the steeple began to gong, which was the signal that Church School was over – 30 minutes ahead of schedule. In less than 60 seconds, five adults surrounded us in the vestibule – busted! To date, this incident stands out as the most people I have managed to encroach on at one time. (I have long since concluded that there are certain people in life who cannot get away with anything. I am one of them).

We normally think of encroachments as acts like identity theft, breaking and entering, robbery, assault and battery, trespassing, etc. However, most of our encroachments are far less serious. When we smoke in public places, play our music at concert volume levels, talk on cell phones in theaters or cut people off in traffic, we encroach. Many of our encroachments seem so innocent or normal on the surface that we do not see them as encroachments. However, modern life requires us to be more aware of how our actions affect others.

Maybury’s second law, “do not encroach on other persons or their property,” teaches us that our rights, freedoms and privileges start and stop where the next person’s begin and end. It affirms the sanctity of every person’s physical, emotional and mental space. We do not have a right to interfere in someone else’s life or meddle in their affairs without permission, no matter our intentions. Maybury’s second law affirms our right to feel safe and secure in our homes, relationships and person.

Practicing Love
The highest spiritual law is the Law of Love – from which Maybury’s laws derive. Maybury’s laws are a first step in practicing Divine Love towards others. Ideally, we should strive to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. When we fall short of this ideal, we can at least agree not to encroach on each other. In today’s world, Maybury’s two laws are imperative and can have their greatest impact at the individual level – starting with you and me.

In The Spiritual Laws of Life, Harold Klemp, the spiritual leader of Eckankar writes, “Working with these two laws will help you understand how to live the Law of Cause and Effect in your daily life... Learn each word by heart, because knowing and using these two laws as a guiding principle will avoid a lot of extra, unnecessary karma…In terms of society, these two laws highlight the best of all religious and moral laws. Upon their return, society enters into a new level of enlightenment. Justice comes forth to unseat many of the misguided laws.”

In our hierarchy of values, personal liberty has to be near the top of everyone’s list. However, we cannot allow our exercise of freedom to degenerate into license or abandonment of personal responsibility. Maybury’s laws remind us that we are personally accountable for our choices and actions as they affect others. By applying Maybury’s seventeen important words in our interactions and relationships, we can successfully navigate through the rocks and shoals of daily life as we travel back home to God on our spiritual journey.

© 2007, James Perry. James Perry is a member of the Eckankar Clergy. To learn more about Eckankar, visit www.eckankar.org or call 800-Love-God. To learn more about Eckankar events in N.C., visit www.eckankar-nc.org. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and not necessarily those of Eckankar or Harold Klemp, the spiritual leader of Eckankar.

Appeared in the April/May 2007 issue of Innerchange.