Jesus vs. the Christians

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Christians not only are not like Jesus they seem to oppose Jesus’ way and truth.

Every time I talk to a Christian I come away amazed just how much they seem to fear Jesus’ way and truth. I do not think they see themselves as apposed to Jesus’ way and truth, but in practice they sure seem to be. The opposition to Jesus’ way and truth seems to come from the writers of the New Testament. Their faithlessness is reflected in the Christian doctrine and theology.

When Jesus started his ministry the first thing he said was, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Of course, Jesus did not say this, for he did not speak English. The oldest version of what he DID say is in Greek and the Greek word that is translated into ‘repent’ is metanoia. Metanoia means a radical change of mind or a complete reversal of our ways of thinking.

Jesus wanted people to change their ways of thinking. Christians seem to have rejected Jesus’ more profound or fundamental changes in thinking. The radical changes in their ways of thinking would enable them to find the Kingdom of Heaven that is AT HAND and let go of their unhealthy and contradictory beliefs. Following Jesus’ example means thinking like he thought and doing what he did. The false and faithless Christian doctrine discourages people from following Jesus’ example. Christianity teaches that we cannot be perfect or godly like Jesus was. I call this the teachings of the antichrist, or what we call today Christ-anti, Christianity. Jesus, who Christians call Christ, said that if you have faith…nothing will be impossible to you.

What are the fundamental differences between Jesus’ and the Christian ways of thinking? Here are just a few of them:

Jesus’ Heaven is Now

When Jesus first started teaching he said that the Kingdom of Heaven is AT HAND and all you had to do to experience it was to change your ways of thinking. For Jesus the power to find heaven was in each person’s hands, NOT HIS. Jesus’ job was only to wake people up to this or to inspire them to seek a heavenly existence. In Jesus’ world you are the one with all the power to create a heavenly experience for yourself.

Some would say that Jesus was teaching that we should focus on our behaviors (works) and DO good for one another. This is not what Jesus taught.

“How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but on the inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that its outside may also be clean.” (Matthew 23:25)
Of course, Jesus was talking about first changing our attitude and ways of thinking first, then our behaviors will change naturally.

Christians talk about heaven as if it was some place you go when you die. Heaven is a reward for being a good slave here on earth. In the Christian’s world heavenly power is outside of you.

Jesus had Dual Identities

Jesus suggested that we be ‘born again’ (John 3:3) or have dual identities as he did. One identity is that of the person, the ‘flesh’, who is ‘born of water’, who lives and dies, and who suffers, fears, loves and experiences the drama of life. The other identity is of one who is ‘born of spirit’, a god, part of the infinite and eternal being we call God, not separate from this being. This being ‘born again’ as Spirit is adding a new identity, a way of thinking like Jesus, being a god (John 10:34), part of God (John 14:28), and one with God (John 10:30).

Yet, sometimes Jesus identified not with God but as a separate being, one that had the privilege of suffering all the drama and richness that life can offer. Jesus got into this drama when he imagined himself from God in order to become a martyr. When he said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me. Yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42) He then went even further into the illusion of separation when he said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) This illusion of being separate from God allowed Jesus to create the great drama that he is most remembered for today.

These are just two ways of thinking, one that allows us the richness and drama that life can offer and the other allows us to rest from the rollercoaster of the drama.

Yet when it is time to rest we can identify as Spirit or one with God, infinite and eternal. “Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). As Spirit we find peace and rest. Using Jesus’ ways of thinking allows one to think of him or her self as an infinite and eternal being, allowing them to relax and rest without worry of the temporal events of life.

To follow Jesus’ example would be sometimes to think of ourselves as separate beings and other times to see ourselves as Spirit and one with all beings including God. This gives us the freedom to enjoy the drama and richness of life and the peace that comes from not identifying with the changing world.

Christian doctrine rejects this dual identity way of thinking. Christians are diabolically apposed to anyone thinking of themselves as a god, one with God and one with all people. It is their doctrine that Jesus is the only one who can be one with God, that he is special and that his way was good for him ONLY but not for us.

“The truth will set you free” so lies will limit, enslave or trap you. Christians reject the liberating power of truth and embrace the limiting power of lies. Whenever I hear the Christians say that no one can be like Jesus I cringe at the dishonesty they are trapped living with.

Jesus was Optimistic/Faithful

I can hear the Christians now as they read the above topic; they would say that we can not be one with God the way that Jesus was one with God.

That does not reflect Jesus’ way of thinking. Jesus said, “If you have faith … nothing will be impossible for YOU,” (Matthew 17:20) and, “Seek and you will find.” (Matthew 7:7) Does that sound like a powerless being or an all powerful god to you?

Jesus pointed out several times the faithlessness of his followers (Matthew 6:30, 8:26, 14:31, 16:8, 17:20). Because of their faithlessness they did not seek so they did not find. These followers created Christianity. They became the blind leading the blind and all have falling into the pit of faithlessness. Their theologies, philosophies and dogmas justify their faithlessness. Because of this faithless dogma they think that what Jesus taught was ok for him, he was God, but we are not, so we can ignore his way and his truth.

This does not mean that Christianity did not serve some need. The NEED that I see that it served was to get people at least to pay lip service to Jesus’ higher moral standards. That makes my job a lot easier. I come to continue on where Jesus left off and go beyond him. My ‘audience’ is the Christian world. Jews, Muslims and the Leftist do not have Jesus’ higher moral standards to live up to.

Jesus was Not a Sinner

Jesus did not think of himself as a sinner, unworthy of grace or God’s love. This is quite the opposite of the Christian way of thinking.

The Christians doctrine teaches that all humanity is inherently flawed, sinful or evil. But, Jesus encouraged us to think of ourselves as perfect, without flaw (“So be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:48) Perfect means finish, whole, complete, without flaw. The Apostle Paul admitted that he did not get this when he wrote, “It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it.” (Philippians 3:12) Jesus did not say to BECOME perfect, as Paul writes. Jesus said to BE perfect; which means to accept that you already are perfect, that you have always been perfect and that you will always be perfect. BUT, and this is a BIG but, you can still THINK of yourself as not perfect. The Apostle Paul should have listened to Jesus when he said, “First remove the log from your own eye then you can see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5)

Sin is a relative term and constantly changing. We are the ones who choose to see something as sinful or as perfect. To motivate one’s “person” we can see ourselves as lacking or not good, just as Jesus did. Or, other times we can see ourselves as perfect and without flaw. BOTH, ways of thinking have the values. Being free allows us to use whichever way of thinking that works for us at this moment.

Jesus Questioned Authority

How can we progress if we do not question the status quo? How can we improve ourselves and the world is we do not examine what is and how it got here? Questioning authority is the way to bring about our New Testament of change and a new reality.

Jesus questioned the beliefs of his time and even the authority of the scriptures. If he had not questioned them then there would have been no need for a ‘new’ testament. Jesus saw that they needed improving, that they were not complete. Jesus questioned the religious teachings of his time ‘love your neighbor but hate your enemy’ and saw that loving your enemy was a healthier way and greater truth. Jesus “improved” Moses’ teaching that a person who works on the Sabbath should be killed. Jesus taught that the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. Thus, in essence, he was saying that the scriptures are made for people, not people for the scriptures. We all can choose to interpret the scriptures to liberal us or enslave us. If we are to ‘continue in his way’ then we would continue to question the authority of the religious teachers and the scriptures they way that Jesus did.

This is not the doctrine or desire of the Christianity. The faithless followers taught a doctrine of non-dissension to protect their faithlessness from being exposed.

Jesus was the Prince of Peace?

Christians often call Jesus the “Prince of Peace” ignoring what Jesus said, “Do you think that I came to bring peace on earth? Not at all, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51) Division is vital and alive. Jesus said he came to set people at odds with one another. When Jesus questioned authorities and doctrine he created controversy and discussion. This controversy was divisive and the ‘fire on earth’ that would light the way for people.

Jesus’ only ‘crime’ was that he upset people with his words, because these people make words so important. Today, those who ‘talk’ and question the words of the religious are viewed as heretics, evil or divisive, at least in the minds of the religious. Christians follow after the faithless followers like Paul’s who wrote, “Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and sinful enticements in opposition to the teaching you have learned. Stay away from them!” (Romans 16:17)

Jesus was not a Follower of Anybody

Jesus had at least one teacher in John the Baptist, but then he graduated from that teacher and went beyond him; way beyond him.

To continue in Jesus’ way would be to recognize that we all have many teachers but that our job is to become his or her equal and then go beyond them; to improve upon their way and truth and to become a greater incarnation of God/Love then they were.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who keeps saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven, but only the person who keeps doing the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) Calling Jesus your Lord is not what he wanted. It is doing the will of the Father in Heaven, God being within you (Luke 17:21: “the kingdom of God within you.”), and not following those or that which is outside of you.

Jesus Meditated

Faithlessness is a product of fear of change or the lack of blessedness to be at peace with change.

Jesus seemed so different from others because he had developed the skills of blessedness. He developed these skills via the practice that he called ‘watching’ but today is called meditation. Jesus’ last three parables were about ‘watching’. He even tried to teach some of his disciples (Peter, John and James) to meditate when he took them up on the mountain and asked them to ‘watch’ with him. He said to ‘watch’ that they not fall into temptation; the temptation to fear, reject and hate. But all the followers could do was fall asleep so they never learned the value of or developed the same skills that Jesus had. Without these skills they could not see that they, too, could be as blessed and liberal with love as Jesus was. Today, Christians do not have faith that they can live up to Jesus’ standard, because they do not have the same skills that Jesus had developed.

These are just some of the ways that Christians distance themselves from Jesus, his way and his truth.

These are just some of the ways that Christians distance themselves from Jesus, his way and his truth. For these reasons I see why they would call their religion Christianity. They call Jesus the Christ and their religion Christ-anti, Christianity the way of the Anti-Christ. They appose the manifestation of the spirit of Christ in this world. As Jesus said, nothing is hidden that will not later be revealed. It is time to call Christianity what it is, anti Jesus’ way and truth.

Jesus had so much to offer humanity. The Christians seem to have grasped most of Jesus’ unhealthy attitudes and behaviors and rejected his healthier one. It is one thing to not have the faith that you can be as holy as Jesus but it is another to oppose those who do strive for that goal.

Some have actually done what Jesus did and said to do. Some have sought to find the perfect truth that would set them perfectly free to enjoy and love all that life offered and they have found that kingdom of heaven that is now, here today. They have changed their ways of thinking.

Season of the White Crow

Rob Brezney writes in his astrology column (www.freewillastrology.com) for Sagittarius last week:

“If you want to upset the law that all crows are black,” wrote William James, “you mustn’t show that no crows are, it is enough if you prove one single crow to be white.”  Philosopher Jonathan Zap applies this idea to his ruminations about telepathy.  He says that if there is even one irrefutable case in which two minds have communicated with each other at a distance and without the aid of technology, then telepathy must be a fundamental human capacity.  I believe this is an important line of thought for you to consider, Sagittarius.  Why? Because you’ve entered the Season of the White Crow.

The Season of the White Crow means to me that it is time to question some fundamental laws or beliefs of humanity.  For me, that means it is time for me to question the fundamental belief that words hurt people, that words are powerful. 

            I do not need to prove that all people are not hurt by words; I only need to prove that I can not be hurt by words.  Better yet, if I show that there are many people who have overcome the power of words to hurt them then I have made my case better.

            I have found that words can not hurt me, only my reactions to words can cause me injury.  If I take responsibility for my reactions and my behaviors and work to develop the blessedness to not take offense at works, then I can be free from the fear of words.

            Blessedness is a result of letting go, of relaxing and not reacting to the stimuli that is constantly coming at us.  Blessedness is the practice of just watching what happens and not reacting.  Blessedness comes with the practice of meditation.  Meditation is the practice of blessedness.

            People are constantly telling me that what is said has power and that we can hurt people with our words.  I notice that these people are afraid of other people, they are afraid of talking to people, or should I say, they are afraid of their reactions to what people say.  In essence, they are afraid of themselves.  If we fear ourselves we can not love ourselves.  If we can not love ourselves then we will not be able to love others.

 

Spiritual Issues in the Immigration Debate

From an article by Rabbi Marc Gellman:
What are our moral obligations to illegal immigrants_and to the laws of the U.S.?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12875442/site/newsweek/from/ET/

For me, the ‘obligations’ to obey the government is not as strong as the obligation to obey the God that lives within my heart. I see the “problem’ of immigration not as a problem of immigration but as a problem of fear and greed. WE, Americans, are afraid to share out WISDOM and knowledge with people of other countries. We are afraid to reach out to them and show them how to be free and as wealthy as we are. And, we are afraid to see that we have gone beyond wealthy here, we are outright decadent and gluttonous, we are obsessed with materiality.

If we were open to the Spirit we would not be building walls (or fences) but would be breaking them down. Truth liberates, it does not builds walls. Do we really want our own version of the Berlin Wall?

It is time to attack the problem, not hide behind walls. The problem is people feel more opportunity here than in their own countries. It is time for us to confront those countries and their beliefs that keep them financially and spiritually handicapped. AND, it is time to confront our decadent and gluttonous ways.

Jim Freedom.

Beyond the Democrat Party of the Bible Belt

"No great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought."
JOHN STUART MILL (English philosopher), Autobiography, 1873

No great change is going to happen in our political reality until people start to think beyond their current fundamental constitutions or modes of thought. It is time to think beyond the thoughts of “us against them”. It is time for the Democrats to start looking at how they can SERVE the Republicans and conservatives of America and the world, not be opposed to them.

The Democrat’s have historically been a party that serves the labor and working classes of America. How about that we (Democrats) being here to serve PEOPLE as opposed to serving institutions like unions, corporations, churches and governments. We have thought that we created these institutions to help us serve people but they always end up becoming the master over people. As long as an organization has hierarchical decision making power they will always revert to corruption. As long as we keep thinking that centralized decision making is going to solve our problems we are only CREATING more problems. The Democrat’s can change this primitive way of thinking and look to decentralizing the power and authority of the federal government so that the power is taken BACK toward the people in our local governments. A grass roots effort is the only real government that we need. That is a government of people, not institutions.

Is this not totally opposite the Theology of the Bible-Belt? The belief of the bible-belt is that humans are inherently flawed, sinful or evil so they need to be controlled and dominated. This attitude basically comes from the demented (unloving and faithless) teachings of the apostle Paul. The assumptions is that because we need to be controlled humanity needs a hierarchical structure and those who raise to the top are there because God has chosen them to be there.

The Democrats have believed that the best way to create this hierarchical structure is through unions and government where the Republicans have believed that the best way to create this structure is through church and corporations. BOTH are founded on faithless and unloving belief in the flawed nature of humanity.

This new way of thinking is very much consistent with the perspective of we are all gods, part of God. Why should any one person have authority over any other person if we are all equally part of God? Jesus taught these ideas two thousand years ago and they are still good ideas, even if it is a primitive way of expressing it. Yes, there are people who do not realize they are part of God, but that is THEIR manifestation of God at this moment, so why not let them be who they are at this moment. We can still make every effort to wake them up to who they really are.

We are Gods, perfect beings JUST AS WE ARE. When we wake up we can see that we are perfect, have always been and will always be. Waking up is such a rich experience that we cherish the unconsciousness for the OPPORTUNITY that it created for us to wake up.

The Democrats can be the ‘party’ of people waking each other up to our divinity and we can use the government we have to that purpose, until we no longer need a government.

PRACTICAL

In a practical sense Democrats can be a party that supports health education, not health insurance that only gives money to the corporate interests of the doctors, pharmacy companies and hospitals. The health insurance industry is about creating dependency on doctors, pharmacies and hospitals, not about creating healthy people who have NO NEED for doctors, pharmacies and hospitals.

In defense Democrats can be a party that supports people learning how to defend themselves instead of be dependent on militaries and police to do it. Do you think we would be at war in Iraq today if we only had militia of citizens to defend the country? A militia can not be an aggressive force; it can only be a defensive force. We could turn the Defense Department into a training institution that teaches people how to defend themselves. We could replace the Defense Department (War Department) with the Peace Corps and ‘invest’ in other countries by sending teachers there to teach people how to take care of themselves and live free.

How about creating tax credits for people who teach others how to be financially independent? We could create all types of tax credits for people who teach others to be healthy, independent and free.

These are just a few of the ideas that WE all can come up with IF we have the faith in ourselves.

It is time for a radical change in our ways of thinking.

Truth & Righteousness

I would like to bring up the topics of righteousness and truth, which seem to be of great concern to conservatives. I will start with truth.

Truth is defined as sincerity in action, character and utterance; the state of being the case, fact. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has a definition of truth as coming from firmness, stability, consistency and FAITHFULNESS. That last one is a new one to me. Webster’s says that truth is conforming fact or reality.

The question I would have is who or what is it that defines what is reality or fact? Is it not the human instrument that we are experiencing life through? Then are we not filtering that experience through our mind with its memories and previous conditioning? How can we be sure that anything is, in fact, a fact?

Of course, the answer to these questions depending on what level of consciousness you are coming from. If you are interested in being really honest with yourself then you recognize that you can not know anything for sure and the questions are silly. Yet, we ARE here in what appears to be human bodies experiencing life. So what do these human bodies WANT from that experience of life? Now that is a question that has significance and what defines what is perceived as FACT.

For example, I can imagine my wife (I am not married) is beautiful and when I see her I have a beautiful experience. Is that more preferred then imagining her to be ugly and every time I see her I have an ugly experience? You bet. Is she in FACT beautiful or ugly? There is no FACT to that effect. If I touch this woman here next to me and think of her as my wife, is she my wife? Am I dreaming that I have a wife, that I am touching her? Am I real?

All of this was from my perspective, or the perspective of “I” or self. What is this thing called “I” or self? Who or what am “I” that has this experience of beauty or ugliness, good or evil? And who or what is it that does the choosing between beauty and ugliness, good and evil? Who or what it is that thinks that “I” have a wife that “I” am touching?

If I am born in Italy I learn that fat women are beautiful and skinny women are ugly. If I am born in California then I think skinny women are beautiful and fat women are not women. (Fat means you can not see their ribs.) J

Is it a FACT that my wife exist? If I put my hand on her body am I really putting my hand on her body or am I imagining I am putting my hand on her body and getting the shit kicked out of me because she is PMSing. J I can not ‘prove’ to even myself that my wife is real or not real because I have not proven that “I” am real yet. So facts are bullshit until I have understood the datum from which I am experiencing life. That ‘datum’ is self.

I will get to righteousness eventually; hold on to your britches.

I am told that I have a body, a mind and a soul (and a wife, which has to be proven to me). The body part is easy, it hurt right now so it must be real. The mind is a collection of memories, thoughts, desire, opinions, etc that if I go looking for I can not find it. So the mind is questionable in fact because it actually does not reside anywhere that I can see, feel or touch with my body outside of the mental activity that I have in my body. Oops, that is the mind. Ok, so I found my mind.

Now I recognize that thoughts are electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain (located in the head of the previously hurting body) so I can see that thoughts are kind of real. Then the mind is just the pattern of thoughts that go around in the brain. But what if the brain is run over by a big truck? Where does the mind go then? What happens if I stop thinking? Do “I” have a mind then? Good question. Let us stop thinking and see. (This is called meditation or watching as Jesus called it.)

This brings me to soul. I have no soul. I can not find it. The dictionary defines it as an immaterial essence, animating principle or actuating cause of an individual life. Wow, that is a mouthful! All those word reflect just thoughts that are electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain. So the soul is just like my wife, only an illusion in my brain. When the brain stops working (death or meditation) the wife and soul disappear. (Don’t you sometimes wish you could just make your wife disappear like that?) Therefore, I must ‘believe’ (to accept as FACT; another thought) that I have a soul before there is one. If I do not believe in a soul I can not lose it. That pattern of electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain has to be something that I find attractive enough to give more energy so that it can continue to travel around my brain. Since I do not choose this it does not continue and I have no soul.

Why would anybody want a soul anyway? Well, maybe they choose to believe (be LIE ve: be lying to ourselves) that they have a soul because that explains what happens to them (?) when they die. But they must do that because they choose to believe they are finite and limited. Being finite and limited creates fear of that which is outside of themselves so by believing in a soul they have a firm definition of who they are and firm boundaries that they can hide behind. If they were open minded and did not define themselves then they would have no need to ‘believe’ anything. So believing in soul creates fear and that fear can be used to control and manipulate them, thus making them slaves. I see no intelligent reason to believe in soul.

This brings me to self. Is not self just another thought like soul? When I go looking for it a thought is all I experience. When I die or am in deep meditative trance the thought called self disappears. OR, maybe I could say that the INDIVIDUAL self disappears. Maybe that is the soul that disappears and not the self. For in deep meditation or death I find that all individuality disappears.

Am I using the word ‘death’ correctly here? My car ‘died’ the other day. I had to restart it but it did die. I ‘die’ periodically too, but I then am restarted or I restart myself. Well, maybe, depending on what this thing called “I” is that does this.

Back to self…in deep meditation or death self or individuality and sensation ceases but “I” seems to still be there. I would call this “I” Self, with a Capital “S”. The experience of this Self is infinite and eternal, but really I can not accurately talk about it for all words are by definition limited. So the experience of Self is not communicable with words. What I can talk about is the experience of the EFFECT of the experience of Self. But that is another story…

Anyway, self that is individual is only an electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain. This ‘self’ is not lasting or real; it is just a temporary phenomenon that lasts as long as the human instrument last.

I am, therefore, the one that experiences ‘truth’ and it is the human instrument that ‘proves’ the facts that make truth. But all this is run through the mind, which is just electro-magnetic impulses traveling along the neurons of the brain.

What does this prove, that “I” can “prove” anything to myself and experience goodness by doing it. “I” am “truth”. “I” am the way, the truth and the life. No ones experiences heaven on earth except by knowing this “I” that is Self.

This brings me to righteousness, which according to my dictionary is acting in accord with divine or moral law. Moral: of or relating to principles of right and wrong. Who is it that chooses what is right or wrong. Who is it that takes of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Why, “I” do of course. But I am an illusion that bases my choices entirely on past experiences, programming or mental constructs. And why would I actually choose good or evil, right or wrong? Maybe because if produces pleasure or pain. I want to experience more pleasure than pain so I will label things as right or good so that I can have more pleasure and less pain.

The point is that “I” am the one who define what is right or wrong, good or evil. I can say to myself that some deity defines right and wrong, good and evil, and that this deity wrote it in a book, but that would be a lie because “I” am the one who CHOOSE to believe that. So it is “I” that chooses where I get my opinion of right and wrong, good and evil. “I” am the ultimate authority in my inner reality as to what I experience. I am the King of kings, God of gods in my inner kingdom/reality.

So to be righteous all I have to do is act in accordance with what I have already defined as right and I have it.

I am the one that chooses what I believe is God. But it is “I” that made this choice, so “I” am greater than the mental construct or belief that I created. “I” am the Creator of the creator called God. I choose to believe in God so I am greater than God. If I define myself as “one with God (or My Father)” then I am the divine that defines moral law. Bingo.

Was this fun? I enjoyed it. I might even post this on my website. Such fun! It is just intellectual masturbation but I got off from it. Did you? Did you choose to see it as beautiful and hence have a beautiful experience? Or were you asleep and found it as ugly and hence have an ugly experience?

Anyway, the final ‘proof’ in what I say comes when you care enough to go off and die (meditation/watch) as Jesus and I and thousands of others have done. Other than that you are just believers like the guys that drove the planes into the World Trade Centers.