Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up!
"Follow not what wise men say, follow instead in their footsteps.
" (Old Zen Saying).
Meaning that in order to reach the levels of elevated consciousness that these wise men achieved, you must live the life that they did, or, "Follow in their footsteps" in order to reach those lofty plateaus.
Only reading and following their words doesn't work.
If you look, not necessarily at what Christ said but the life that he led as depicted in the Bible - He was not a family man.
Nor was He a businessman, or a politician, or nationalistic.
All of that Old Testament stuff; procreation, obedience, commandments is for a different audience, an audience that was not capable of understanding for themselves and had to be told what to do by an authority figure.
The New Testament, which according to the Gnostic Gospels (conveniently excluded in the few hand-picked Gospels of the Catholic Church that originated Christianity) portrays Christ as leading a simple life and trying to show us how to find peace within.
And that we are all Sons of God.
But contemporary Christians do not follow in Christ's footsteps.
Instead, they take selective, self-serving quotes out of the Old Testament that supports their thirst for accumulations of material and psychological things, and open the floodgates to acquisition, ambition, wealth and accumulation.
Old Testament views proclaim the accumulation of stuff as a spiritual pursuit, where just the opposite is true.
Accumulations, whether they be large screen TVs, large families, large beliefs, stock portfolios, or large egos, are a burden on the human mind.
Accumulation does nothing but induce fear into a mind that is naturally fear free.
I believe that Christ knew and understood this perfectly and tried to indicate by His life how to live, which is simply.
But when one conveniently uses the Old Testament (old consciousness without personal insight) to justify their desires, and only uses the New Testament (new consciousness with personal insight), to justify their belief that whatever they do is excused by their faith in Christ, then you have a situation where they are not following in the footsteps of their teacher.
The old argument is that Christ was not here to teach, but simply here to save us.
Therefore, we can do pretty much as we please.
That's very convenient, and that's fine if that is what you want to believe, but I posit that if you look at a life filled with accumulations, including the accumulation of material things, strong opinions, unyielding spiritual views and the super egos that result, you will find a deep level of stress and unhappiness cloaked in a deluded, trance-like belief that all is happiness.
This is Old Testament consciousness with no insight.
This is delusion compared to the enlightening ideas of the New testament, according to the Gnostic Gospels.
I think that Christ knew that desires and attachments to things that we accumulate eventually cause disappointment and unhappiness, and tried to show us another avenue by the way he lived His life.
The religious wars that have resulted from tight, unyielding views have been anything other than happiness.
And the current atmosphere of hatred between Christians, Moslems and Jews, openly expounded upon in the media, will only lead to a nuclear war.
Then we all lose.
And I'll just bet that the religious chicken hawks that are now squawking behind their safe computers that this conflict is our destiny as prophesized in the Bible will be the first to pee their pants when the mushroom clouds rise above their neighborhoods! There is a concept and a reality about proclaiming the desire to join God in heaven! For Christ's sake! Christ was trying to teach peace! Don't you get it? In absence of material things, of strong opinions, of unyielding spiritual views and super egos...
is love! Yes! Love cannot happen until those other things go away! You cannot love your neighbor as long as you have strong opinions and unyielding views, because you will try to persuade the poor chap to believe your way.
Only then will you love your neighbors; when they give in and you can control them.
You know, Christian monks and nuns (not priests and preachers) understand this; they live a life of poverty A Buddhist monk or nun, when they take on the robes, give away their families, careers, relationships and possessions in trade of three simple robes and a begging bowl.
Why? Because they understand, at a very deep level, what it's all about, and it's all about letting go.
This was what Christ was trying to teach us - letting go! Letting go of everything is the true happiness.
This is the basis of true generosity and loving you neighbor - which is a complete happiness that we, as human beings, can achieve because when we hold onto our material things, strong opinions, unyielding spiritual views and the super egos, we are always afraid that things will change.
And in fact; everything does change.
Material things come and go, our opinions will be challenged endlessly, our spiritual views will change as we mature, and our super egos will diminish as we age and experience the realities of life.
When we hold tight to these things, even such things as nationalism, politics, and religion, we become tight inside; our hearts become cramped, fearful of someone challenging us, another country, another religion, another political view or party.
And we become fearful, which leads to hatred and anger.
We become uncertain because deep inside, beyond a conscious level, we really are uncertain about whether or not our opinions are true.
It's easy for us to give away things that we have no use for anymore, old clothes or old appliances, but not as easy with things that we still treasure.
Only when we no longer treasure the values of the Old Testament which bring us conflict, and discover the real meaning of the New testament, which brings peace, can we throw away those old values without a second thought.
If we can live a simple life, just enough to get by on, we will naturally begin to see the needs of others, and we will help them.
And after we have enough money to live modestly, we begin to take care of the needs of others.
And as we relinquish all the stuff that we once thought made us happy but instead made us fearful, angry and hateful, we find ourselves slowly becoming really Christ-like in our actions and lifestyle.
We become loving and generous instead of confrontational, striving and ambitious.
This is true generosity, where we follow our hearts and not our heads.
This is the true happiness.
" (Old Zen Saying).
Meaning that in order to reach the levels of elevated consciousness that these wise men achieved, you must live the life that they did, or, "Follow in their footsteps" in order to reach those lofty plateaus.
Only reading and following their words doesn't work.
If you look, not necessarily at what Christ said but the life that he led as depicted in the Bible - He was not a family man.
Nor was He a businessman, or a politician, or nationalistic.
All of that Old Testament stuff; procreation, obedience, commandments is for a different audience, an audience that was not capable of understanding for themselves and had to be told what to do by an authority figure.
The New Testament, which according to the Gnostic Gospels (conveniently excluded in the few hand-picked Gospels of the Catholic Church that originated Christianity) portrays Christ as leading a simple life and trying to show us how to find peace within.
And that we are all Sons of God.
But contemporary Christians do not follow in Christ's footsteps.
Instead, they take selective, self-serving quotes out of the Old Testament that supports their thirst for accumulations of material and psychological things, and open the floodgates to acquisition, ambition, wealth and accumulation.
Old Testament views proclaim the accumulation of stuff as a spiritual pursuit, where just the opposite is true.
Accumulations, whether they be large screen TVs, large families, large beliefs, stock portfolios, or large egos, are a burden on the human mind.
Accumulation does nothing but induce fear into a mind that is naturally fear free.
I believe that Christ knew and understood this perfectly and tried to indicate by His life how to live, which is simply.
But when one conveniently uses the Old Testament (old consciousness without personal insight) to justify their desires, and only uses the New Testament (new consciousness with personal insight), to justify their belief that whatever they do is excused by their faith in Christ, then you have a situation where they are not following in the footsteps of their teacher.
The old argument is that Christ was not here to teach, but simply here to save us.
Therefore, we can do pretty much as we please.
That's very convenient, and that's fine if that is what you want to believe, but I posit that if you look at a life filled with accumulations, including the accumulation of material things, strong opinions, unyielding spiritual views and the super egos that result, you will find a deep level of stress and unhappiness cloaked in a deluded, trance-like belief that all is happiness.
This is Old Testament consciousness with no insight.
This is delusion compared to the enlightening ideas of the New testament, according to the Gnostic Gospels.
I think that Christ knew that desires and attachments to things that we accumulate eventually cause disappointment and unhappiness, and tried to show us another avenue by the way he lived His life.
The religious wars that have resulted from tight, unyielding views have been anything other than happiness.
And the current atmosphere of hatred between Christians, Moslems and Jews, openly expounded upon in the media, will only lead to a nuclear war.
Then we all lose.
And I'll just bet that the religious chicken hawks that are now squawking behind their safe computers that this conflict is our destiny as prophesized in the Bible will be the first to pee their pants when the mushroom clouds rise above their neighborhoods! There is a concept and a reality about proclaiming the desire to join God in heaven! For Christ's sake! Christ was trying to teach peace! Don't you get it? In absence of material things, of strong opinions, of unyielding spiritual views and super egos...
is love! Yes! Love cannot happen until those other things go away! You cannot love your neighbor as long as you have strong opinions and unyielding views, because you will try to persuade the poor chap to believe your way.
Only then will you love your neighbors; when they give in and you can control them.
You know, Christian monks and nuns (not priests and preachers) understand this; they live a life of poverty A Buddhist monk or nun, when they take on the robes, give away their families, careers, relationships and possessions in trade of three simple robes and a begging bowl.
Why? Because they understand, at a very deep level, what it's all about, and it's all about letting go.
This was what Christ was trying to teach us - letting go! Letting go of everything is the true happiness.
This is the basis of true generosity and loving you neighbor - which is a complete happiness that we, as human beings, can achieve because when we hold onto our material things, strong opinions, unyielding spiritual views and the super egos, we are always afraid that things will change.
And in fact; everything does change.
Material things come and go, our opinions will be challenged endlessly, our spiritual views will change as we mature, and our super egos will diminish as we age and experience the realities of life.
When we hold tight to these things, even such things as nationalism, politics, and religion, we become tight inside; our hearts become cramped, fearful of someone challenging us, another country, another religion, another political view or party.
And we become fearful, which leads to hatred and anger.
We become uncertain because deep inside, beyond a conscious level, we really are uncertain about whether or not our opinions are true.
It's easy for us to give away things that we have no use for anymore, old clothes or old appliances, but not as easy with things that we still treasure.
Only when we no longer treasure the values of the Old Testament which bring us conflict, and discover the real meaning of the New testament, which brings peace, can we throw away those old values without a second thought.
If we can live a simple life, just enough to get by on, we will naturally begin to see the needs of others, and we will help them.
And after we have enough money to live modestly, we begin to take care of the needs of others.
And as we relinquish all the stuff that we once thought made us happy but instead made us fearful, angry and hateful, we find ourselves slowly becoming really Christ-like in our actions and lifestyle.
We become loving and generous instead of confrontational, striving and ambitious.
This is true generosity, where we follow our hearts and not our heads.
This is the true happiness.
